Neurophysiological activity in response to pre and post goal positive affects

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Date
2015
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

Approach motivation is the impetus to move towards a stimulus. Most frequently, approach motivation is caused by positive affect, and has been repeatedly shown to influence a number of cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The present experiments investigate approach motivation, as induced by pre and post goal positive affects, and their relationship with neural correlates of physical activity, specifically beta and mu suppression. Participants completed a monetary incentive delay task while EEG data was recorded. Further, participants completed tasks that measured cognitive narrowing throughout both experiments. Results suggest that both beta and mu are related particularly to pre-goal positive affects, which are stronger in approach motivation than post-goal positive affects. Further, this effect was stronger for beta than it was for mu. Study two provides additional support of the relationship between beta and mu suppression and approach motivation by demonstrating that cognitive narrowing - an effect associated with strong approach motivations - is correlated with both beta and mu suppression. These results suggest that approach motivations produce the neurophysiological correlates of movement and prepare one for action.

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Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Keywords
Psychology
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