Do you need motivation to be a successful student?
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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It turns out that systematic neurotransmitter oscillations keep the brain active even without any motivation or rewards.
It is believed that motivation is necessary for successful learning - for example, some kind of "reward for effort". For example, during training, an animal is given a piece of sugar or other treat as a reward for successfully obeying a command. Many parents give their children candy or gifts for excellent grades or completed homework. However, such rewards are not always justified. The fact is that in other conditions the same children memorize much more information, and without any rewards. Representatives of New York University and the University of Beijing decided to understand whether the brain can learn new knowledge without expecting a reward in return? Here it is important to note that it is the reward that brings long-awaited satisfaction, and this feeling is due to the action of a whole complex of brain centers that communicate with each other using the neurotransmitter dopamine. This system is activated not so much by the sensation of pleasure as by its expectation, the anticipation of pleasure. This gives rise to the view that the brain controls motivation and that successful learning is impossible without it.
However, this mechanism lacks another neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. The idea is that dopamine and acetylcholine behave in counterbalance to each other: the feeling of pleasant satisfaction gives a surge of dopamine and a decrease in acetylcholine levels.
The study was conducted on rodents that spun a closed wheel, periodically receiving encouragement in the form of water. At the moment of water supply, the rodents experienced a release of dopamine and a decrease in the level of acetylcholine. Specialists observed the animals not only at these moments, but throughout the entire period of the experiment. It turned out that such neurotransmitter oscillations were observed constantly, regardless of receiving a reward or its absence. The frequency of the oscillations was approximately 2 times per second. Indeed, the oscillation was more pronounced at the moment of rewarding, but even without it the brain always remained ready to receive new information, the ability to learn.
Scientists have traced neurotransmitter oscillations in the striatum, located in the most anterior part of the brain. Today, it is important for science to learn how memory processes depend on the amplitude and frequency of neurotransmitter oscillations without the use of rewards, as well as what else influences the effectiveness of learning.
In general, motivation is just an inducement to some action. Thus, a certain motive (a reward) induces a person or an animal to do something (perform a task). A candy acts as a motive for a child to learn a lesson. However, if a person initially sets a goal, the reward will be a reminder of that goal, and the motive will be the goal itself. For example, a child does his homework to get a good grade, which is the goal. And reminders about it will serve as motivation.
Source of information - journal Nature