Implicit motives like the need for power (nPower) scale affective responses to need-specific rewards or punishments and thereby influence activity in motivational-brain structures. In this paper, we review evidence specifically supporting a role of the striatum in nPower. Individual differences in nPower predict (1) enhanced implicit learning accuracy, but not speed, on serial-response tasks that are reinforced by power-related incentives (e.g., winning or losing a contest; dominant or submissive emotional expressions) in behavioral studies and (2) activation of the anterior caudate in response to dominant emotional expressions in brain imaging research. We interpret these findings on the basis of Hikosaka et al.'s (2002a) model of central mechanisms of motor skill learning. The model assigns a critical role to the dorsoanterior striatum in dopamine-driven learning of spatial stimulus sequences. Based on this model, we suggest that the dorsoanterior striatum is the locus of nPower-dependent reinforcement. However, given the centrality of this structure in a wide range of motivational pursuits, we also propose that activity in the dorsoanterior striatum may not only reflect individual differences in nPower, but also in other implicit motives, like the need for achievement or the need for affiliation, provided that the proper incentives for these motives are present during reinforcement learning. We discuss evidence in support of such a general role of the dorsoanterior striatum in implicit motivation.
Implicit motives represent enduring non-conscious, affect-based preferences that drive humans' behavior toward the attainment of certain types of incentives, such as those related to power/dominance, social affiliation, attachment, achievement/mastery, food, or sex that are fundamental for survival in the social and non-social world (Schultheiss and Wirth, 2008; Schultheiss and Brunstein, 2010). The need for power (nPower) is an implicit motivational disposition to experience one's own impact on others as rewarding and others' impact on oneself as aversive (Winter, 1973; Schultheiss, 2008). Research has accumulated evidence for a critical role of this need in implicit learning of behavior that is instrumental for obtaining rewards and avoiding punishers in the power domain. Other research suggests an involvement of the dorsoanterior striatum in nPower-associated responses to power incentives. In the present paper, we first briefly review these two lines of research and then integrate them into a model of nPower-dependent individual differences in instrumental learning mediated by the dorsoanterior striatum. In closing, we will discuss the role of the striatum in the context of other motivational needs.
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Implicit motives like the need for power (nPower) scale affective responses to need-specific rewards or punishments and thereby influence activity in motivational-brain structures. In this paper, we review evidence specifically supporting a role of the striatum in nPower. Individual differences in nPower predict (1) enhanced implicit learning accuracy, but not speed, on serial-response tasks that are reinforced by power-related incentives (e.g., winning or losing a contest; dominant or submissi...
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