Motivation to do well enhances responses to errors and self-monitoring.

Humans are unique in being able to reflect on their own performance. For example, we are more motivated to do well on a task when we are told that our abilities are being evaluated. We set out to study the effect of self-motivation on a working memory task. By telling one group of participants that we were assessing their cognitive abilities, and another group that we were simply optimizing task parameters, we managed to enhance the motivation to do well in the first group. We matched the performance between the groups. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, the motivated group showed enhanced activity when making errors. This activity was extensive, including the anterior paracingulate cortex, lateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex. These areas showed enhanced interaction with each other. The anterior paracingulate activity correlated with self-image ratings, and overlapped with activity when participants explicitly reflected upon their performance. We suggest that the motivation to do well leads to treating errors as being in conflict with one's ideals for oneself.

[1]  A. Engel,et al.  Trial-by-Trial Coupling of Concurrent Electroencephalogram and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Identifies the Dynamics of Performance Monitoring , 2005, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[2]  Jane F. Banfield,et al.  Medial prefrontal activity predicts memory for self. , 2004, Cerebral cortex.

[3]  M. Petrides,et al.  Wisconsin Card Sorting Revisited: Distinct Neural Circuits Participating in Different Stages of the Task Identified by Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging , 2001, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[4]  R. Ryan,et al.  Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. , 1982 .

[5]  R. Henson,et al.  State-related and item-related neural correlates of successful memory encoding , 2002, Nature Neuroscience.

[6]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Detecting Activations in PET and fMRI: Levels of Inference and Power , 1996, NeuroImage.

[7]  C. Frith,et al.  Meeting of minds: the medial frontal cortex and social cognition , 2006, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[8]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , 1970 .

[9]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Anterior cingulate cortex, error detection, and the online monitoring of performance. , 1998, Science.

[10]  H. E. King.  The Achievement Motive , 1977 .

[11]  C. Neil Macrae,et al.  The Link between Social Cognition and Self-referential Thought in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[12]  E. Procyk,et al.  Reward encoding in the monkey anterior cingulate cortex. , 2006, Cerebral cortex.

[13]  Kevin N. Ochsner,et al.  The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-knowledge , 2005, NeuroImage.

[14]  J. Price,et al.  Architectonic subdivision of the human orbital and medial prefrontal cortex , 2003, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[15]  G. Glover,et al.  Reflecting upon Feelings: An fMRI Study of Neural Systems Supporting the Attribution of Emotion to Self and Other , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[16]  C. N. Macrae,et al.  Finding the Self? An Event-Related fMRI Study , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[17]  Michael Richter,et al.  Ego involvement and effort: cardiovascular, electrodermal, and performance effects. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[18]  Lawrence A. Pervin,et al.  Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. , 1989 .

[19]  B. Richmond,et al.  Anterior Cingulate: Single Neuronal Signals Related to Degree of Reward Expectancy , 2002, Science.

[20]  M. Torrens.  Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268 , 1990 .

[21]  William M. Kelley,et al.  Neuroanatomical Evidence for Distinct Cognitive and Affective Components of Self , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[22]  E. Rolls,et al.  Abstract reward and punishment representations in the human orbitofrontal cortex , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[23]  Michael L. Platt,et al.  Neural correlates of decision variables in parietal cortex , 1999, Nature.

[24]  Albert Bandura,et al.  Self-regulation of motivation and action through internal standards and goal systems. , 1989 .

[25]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain , 2004, Science.

[26]  P. M. A. RABBITT,et al.  Error Correction Time without External Error Signals , 1966, Nature.

[27]  S. Spencer,et al.  Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance , 1999 .

[28]  Cheryl L. Grady,et al.  Distributed self in episodic memory: neural correlates of successful retrieval of self-encoded positive and negative personality traits , 2004, NeuroImage.

[29]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  Anterior Cingulate Conflict Monitoring and Adjustments in Control , 2004, Science.

[30]  Kristina M. Visscher,et al.  A Core System for the Implementation of Task Sets , 2006, Neuron.

[31]  M. Shadlen,et al.  Effect of Expected Reward Magnitude on the Response of Neurons in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of the Macaque , 1999, Neuron.

[32]  E. Rolls,et al.  The functional neuroanatomy of the human orbitofrontal cortex: evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology , 2004, Progress in Neurobiology.

[33]  A. Craig.  How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body , 2002, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[34]  Jason P. Mitchell,et al.  Repetition suppression of ventromedial prefrontal activity during judgments of self and others , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[35]  Jason P. Mitchell,et al.  Distinct neural systems subserve person and object knowledge , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[36]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Psychophysiological and Modulatory Interactions in Neuroimaging , 1997, NeuroImage.

[37]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Error-likelihood prediction in the medial frontal cortex: a critical evaluation. , 2007, Cerebral cortex.

[38]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  A Parametric Study of Prefrontal Cortex Involvement in Human Working Memory , 1996, NeuroImage.

[39]  N. Yeung,et al.  On the ERN and the significance of errors. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[40]  M. Csíkszentmihályi.  Beyond boredom and anxiety , 1975 .

[41]  Norbert Kathmann,et al.  Neural correlates of error awareness , 2007, NeuroImage.