Abstract
Human behaviour can be externally driven, e.g. catching a falling glass, or self-initiated and goaldirected, e.g. drinking a cup of coffee when one deems it is time for a break. Apathy refers to a reduction of self-initiated goal-directed or motivated behaviour, frequently present in neurological and psychiatric disorders. The amount of undertaken goal-directed behaviour varies considerably in clinical as well as healthy populations. In the present study, we investigated behavioural and neural correlates of self-initiated action in a student sample (N=39) with minimal to high levels of apathy. We replicated activation of fronto-parieto-striatal regions during self-initiation. The neural correlates of self-initiated action did not explain varying levels of apathy in our sample, neither when mass-univariate analysis was used, nor when multivariate patterns of brain activation were considered. Other hypotheses, e.g. regarding a putative role of deficits in reward anticipation, effort expenditure or executive difficulties, deserve investigation in future studies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 3264 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 12-Jun-2017 |
Keywords
- SUBCLINICAL NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS
- ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX
- PARKINSONS-DISEASE
- PREFRONTAL CORTEX
- BASAL GANGLIA
- SCHIZOPHRENIA
- REWARD
- SCALE
- DEPRESSION
- EXPERIENCE