2002). While our understanding of the interaction between motivation and cognitive control has grown (Small et al. 2005; Locke and Braver 2008; Mohanty et al. 2008; Engelmann et al. 2009; Pessoa 2009; Beck et al. 2010; Daniel and Pollmann 2010; Padmala and Pessoa 2010), the neurobiological mechanisms by which motivation affects the ability to control attention to task demands and influence task performance remain poorly characterized. Animal studies Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical suggest that structures involved in attention, such as the lateral intraparietal area, also process information related to Selleckchem Obeticholic Acid reward contingencies

(Platt and Glimcher 1999; Sugrue et al. 2004) and may be involved in the integration of attentional control and motivation (Bendiksby and Platt 2006). Accordingly, recent neuroimaging studies have Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical begun to probe the neural correlates of the interaction between motivation and cognitive control in humans (Small et al. 2005; Mohanty et al. 2008; Savine and Braver 2010; Padmala and Pessoa 2011). One conceptual framework speculates that motivation may enhance performance by “energizing” and “speeding-up” processing. Others have suggested that interactions between motivation and performance are more nuanced

and that reward incentives may have selective effects on cognitive processes. The latter thesis is supported Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by reports showing that motivation to obtain rewards may reduce conflict-related activation in the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Padmala and Pessoa 2011) and that it may enhance cue-related activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which, in turn, optimizes performance (Savine Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and Braver 2010). Furthermore, these types of interaction seem to be associated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with amplification (Egner and Hirsch 2005) and/or improved

filtering of task-irrelevant information (Polk et al. 2008). Conversely, potentially deleterious effects of motivation for rewards on performance have been suggested by reports of prolonged stop-signal reaction time and significant inhibition of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, the left precentral gyrus, and bilateral putamen in relation to rewards (Padmala and Pessoa 2010). A more detailed examination of the interactions between the effects of motivation and cognitive control on performance is important for not two main reasons: (i) to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms associated with the interaction between motivation and cognitive control; and (ii) to advance the understanding of the interaction between motivation and diminished behavioral control as a central feature of clinical syndromes, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and drug abuse disorders (Garavan and Stout 2005; Li et al. 2008; Chambers et al. 2009).