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Related Experiment Videos

Beautiful faces have variable reward value: fMRI and behavioral evidence.

I Aharon1, N Etcoff, D Ariely

  • 1Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Center, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129, USA.

Neuron
|November 16, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Motivated behavior relies on brain reward circuitry. This study found that while attractive faces of both sexes are rated similarly, only attractive female faces trigger effort and activate reward pathways like the nucleus accumbens.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Motivated behavior is driven by the brain's processing of rewarding and aversive stimuli.
  • Understanding the neural basis of motivation is crucial for various fields, including psychology and neuroscience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how the brain's reward circuitry responds to different categories of attractive faces.
  • To determine if aesthetic assessment is part of reward circuitry function.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 Tesla was used to measure brain activity.
  • Participants, young heterosexual males, rated the attractiveness of faces and exerted effort (keypress procedure) to view them.
  • Analysis focused on activation in reward circuitry, including the nucleus accumbens.

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Main Results:

  • Attractive male and female faces were rated as attractive by participants.
  • Participants exerted effort only to view attractive female faces.
  • Passive viewing of attractive female faces activated reward circuitry, specifically the nucleus accumbens.
  • Other reward regions showed patterns related to effort exertion rather than passive viewing.

Conclusions:

  • Reward circuitry activation is specific to motivated viewing of attractive female faces, not just passive aesthetic assessment.
  • The findings suggest that reward circuitry's role in motivated behavior is distinct from aesthetic judgment.