Motivational salience

Motivational salience is a cognitive process and a form of attention that motivates or propels an individual's behavior towards or away from a particular object, perceived event or outcome. Motivational salience regulates the intensity of behaviors that facilitate the attainment of a particular goal, the amount of desire for a goal, and the amount of satisfaction when the goal is achieved.

Overview

Motivational salience is derived from three fundamental components: novelty, reward value, and threat or punishment. It is intimately tied to dopamine function in the brain, and alterations in dopamine function are implicated in a number of psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, depression, and addiction.

Components of Motivational Salience

Novelty

Novelty refers to the quality of being new or unusual. The brain is known to respond to novelty by releasing dopamine, thus increasing the motivational salience of the situation or object.

Reward

Reward is a powerful motivator of behavior. The anticipation of a reward increases dopamine release, which in turn increases the motivational salience of the reward-predicting stimulus.

Threat or Punishment

Threat or punishment can also increase motivational salience. The anticipation of a threat or punishment increases dopamine release, which in turn increases the motivational salience of the threat-predicting stimulus.

Role in Psychiatric Disorders

Alterations in motivational salience are seen in several psychiatric disorders. In schizophrenia, there is thought to be an aberrant assignment of motivational salience to irrelevant stimuli. In depression, there may be a reduced assignment of motivational salience to rewarding stimuli. In addiction, drugs of abuse can hijack the brain's natural reward system, leading to an over-assignment of motivational salience to drug-related stimuli.

See Also

• Reward system
• Dopamine
• Attention
• Cognitive neuroscience