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

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.

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.