title: Motivational incentives lead to a strong increase in lateral prefrontal activity after self-control exertion.
abstract: Self-control is key to success in life. Initial acts of self-control temporarily impair subsequent self-control performance. Why such self-control failures occur is unclear, with prominent models postulating a loss of a limited resource vs a loss of motivation, respectively. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural correlates of motivation-induced benefits on self-control. Participants initially exerted or did not exert self-control. In a subsequent Stroop task, participants performed worse after exerting self-control, but not if they were motivated to perform well by monetary incentives. On the neural level, having exerted self-control resulted in decreased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Increasing motivation resulted in a particularly strong activation of this area specifically after exerting self-control. Thus, after self-control exertion participants showed more prefrontal neural activity without improving performance beyond baseline level. These findings suggest that impaired performance after self-control exertion may not exclusively be due to a loss of motivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Luethi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany malte.friese@uni-saarland.de.
authors.forename: Malte
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Friese
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich & University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boesiger
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich & University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Luechinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rasch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D000068356:Self-Control; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: depletion; fMRI; motivation; prefrontal cortex; self-control