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Updated: May 20, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Observing Virtual Social Interactions
Published on: July 6, 2011
Neural correlates of social motivation: an fMRI study on power versus affiliation
Markus Quirin1, Frank Meyer, Nils Heise
1University of Osnabrück, Germany. mquirin@uos.de
Abstract:
Power versus affiliation motivations refer to two different strivings relevant in the context of social relationships. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine neural structures involved in power versus affiliation motivation based on an individual differences approach. Seventeen participants provided self-reports of power and affiliation motives and were presented with love, power-related, and control movie clips. The power motive predicted activity in four clusters within the left prefrontal cortex (PFC), while participants viewed power-related film clips. The affiliation motive predicted activity in the right putamen/pallidum while participants viewed love stories. The present findings extend previous research on social motivations to the level of neural functioning and suggest differential networks for power-related versus affiliation-related social motivations.
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