Just as Dr. Steidl's seminar emphasized, the Ventral Tegmental Area, or VTA, of your brain plays a critical role in motivation. So, can you forcefully activate the neurons within this region and motivate yourself simply by thinking?
A recent study researched by a group of neuroscientists from Duke University believe there is potential. The researchers used fMRI analysis focusing on the VTA to test this. This experiment consisted of 73 people who were presented a neurofeedback meter measuring the activity of their VTA. Their goal: shoot that meter up. People did this by thinking about happy times, or singing their favorite songs. Reaching these positive state of minds allowed their VTA activity to increase, lighting up the meter.
After training and finding the thoughts that allowed this to happen, they were miraculously able to shoot up their activity, even without the meter in front of them. These thoughts were blossoming feelings of eagerness and intense focus, which these researchers found reached out to the areas of the brain involved with memory and learning. These findings are incredibly exciting as they show the potential for a natural, somewhat simple way to motivate yourself. If you can find something that excites you and activates your VTA, you can find motivation, which for many people, especially college students, can be difficult to find at times. Whether it be studying, getting rid of a bad habit, or addiction, any motivation found is always helpful, so this discovery has a lot of promise.
They also believe these happy thoughts activate neurons within the dopamine system, another factor of the brain and motivation. This makes sense, as the VTA is activated via the activation of dopamine receptors (D1 and D2), as Dr. Steidl mentioned during his lecture.
As we know, the more dopamine neurotransmitters we have the happier and more motivated we are, therefore, many scientists are taking this discovery and foreseeing the potential of clinical significance. While thinking happy thoughts may not have the same dopaminergic effect of a psychostimulant, it can provide short-term reliability, which can be a huge help for people with anxiety or ADHD.
The biggest impact of this study is its showing of the usefulness of MRI training and how it can help spark discoveries about regions of the brain and how they are affected by training. John Gabrieli, a neuroscientist from MIT who read about this Duke experiment praised its findings and stated his optimism for the future of these experimental methods, "If it's working, brain training in an MRI might be a way for us to tap into our mind's circuitry for willpower. That would be terrific." (Chen)
So, the next time you need a slight boost of motivation to do something, think happy thoughts, sing your favorite tune, then get to work. You may be surprised how productive you can be with an optimistic mindset.
Citations:
Cognitive Neurostimulation: Learning to Volitionally Sustain Ventral Tegmental Area Activation
MacInnes, Jeff J. et al.
Neuron , Volume 89 , Issue 6 , 1331 - 1342
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/03/469033034/could-you-hack-your-brain-to-get-more-motivated
Steidl, Stephan & O’Sullivan, Shannon & Pilat, Dustin & Bubula, Nancy & Brown, Jason & Vezina, Paul. (2017). Operant responding for optogenetic excitation of LDTg inputs to the VTA requires D1 and D2 dopamine receptor activation in the NAcc. Behavioural Brain Research. 333. . 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.06.045.
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