Science Quickie: Brain Lateralization and Motivation

A fascinating bit of psychological science can be found at this ScienceDaily article: Is Your Left Hand More Motivated Than Your Right Hand?

First, the background research -

Mathias Pessiglione, of the Brain & Spine Institute in Paris, and his colleagues showed that motivation could be subconscious; when people saw subliminal pictures of a reward, even if they didn’t know what they’d seen, they would try harder for a bigger reward. In the earlier study, volunteers were shown pictures of either a one-euro coin or a one-cent coin for a tiny fraction of a second. Then they were told to squeeze a pressure-sensing handgrip; the harder they squeezed it, the more of the coin they would get. The image was subliminal, so volunteers didn’t know how big a coin they were squeezing for, but they would still squeeze harder for one euro than one cent. That result showed that motivation didn’t have to be conscious. [all emphases mine]

For the newer research, Pessiglione and his team looked into whether one hemisphere of the brain can be “motivated” while the other is not. The short answer – it seems so. (The saying “off two minds” just got more interesting.)

The test started with having the subject focus on a cross in the middle of the computer screen. Then the motivational coin — one euro or one cent — was shown on one side of the visual field. People were only subliminally motivated when the coin appeared on the same side of the visual field as the squeezing hand. For example, if the coin was on the right and they were squeezing with the right hand, they would squeeze harder for a euro than for a cent. But if the subliminal coin appeared on the left and they were squeezing on the right, they wouldn’t squeeze any harder for a euro.

Cool. Darn cool even.

I wonder if that explains why every-so-often I get the urge to simultaneously pat myself on the head with one hand while slapping my cheek with another? (Kidding.)

Brace yourself now, here comes a flight of intellectual fancy. Imagine a person silently “saying” to herself about her own thoughts and feelings: Hey, who’s in charge here? An educated answer might be, A whole lot of stuff.

Well, except for the “stuff” part. The educated answer would likely be a little more specific.

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Tags: brain, the human animal