SGER: Self/Brain/Behavior Systems: Cognition and Neurophysiology

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on the cognitive processes that represent personally significant goals and which provide for continuous self-evaluation. Recent theory and research suggests that such processes may be linked with underlying neurophysiological mechanisms for approach and avoidance, and that such a linkage accounts for the affective consequences of self-evaluation. However, few studies have been conducted to determine whether the cognitive and neurophysiological correlates are functionally associated. A model of self-regulation postulates two regulatory systems: the promotion (approach) and prevention (avoidance) systems. These systems are thought to operate in the pursuit of specific classes of interpersonal goals and could account for the associations observed among self-regulatory cognition, motivation, and affect. Furthermore, these systems have been characterized as self/brain/behavior systems and bi-directional functional links between self-regulatory cognition and each system's physiological substrates have been hypothesized. If the promotion and prevention systems constitute self/brain/behavior systems involving cognitive, motivational, affective, and neural processes, then activation of either system should induce: (1) a pattern of neural activation consistent with the priming task, (2) a distinguishable pattern of neural activation associated with the motivational orientation represented by the cue, and (3) a separately distinguishable pattern of neural activation, and associated behavioral and physiological responses, corresponding to the affective consequences associated with an anticipated positive or negative outcome within that motivational orientation. In addition, within the limits of the temporal resolution of available measures, these three patterns should be identifiable in sequence. The purpose of this research is to test the self/brain/behavior systems model by determining whether the promotion and prevention systems are reliably associated with specific, discriminable neural substrates. Three studies will examine whether the presentation of goals relevant to one of the two systems leads to simultaneous activation of characteristic cognitive, affective, and neurophysiological components of the two systems, both acutely (in the presence of relevant cues) and chronically (as individual differences). In Study 1, people will participate in a replication of previous priming research examining the affective consequences of exposure to self-relevant goals, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to quantify patterns of brain activation associated with four types of motivationally significant cues: promotion/success, promotion/failure, prevention/success, and prevention/failure. Study 2 will extend the fMRI priming method to the domain of autobiographical memory, again examining patterns of brain activation in response to the motivational significance of goal-relevant cues. In Study 3, college students who have already been assessed for individual differences in prefrontal cortical asymmetry via EEG will be administered a series of measures assessing motivational orientation and self-regulatory cognition, to test the hypothesis that individual differences in orientation toward promotion versus prevention will be associated with stable differences in prefrontal brain asymmetry.