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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
Published on: March 19, 2014
A new nonlinear model of mechanisms of motivation
1Department of Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.
Abstract:
Models of motivation have been traditionally classified along the lines of homeostatic/ priming dichotomies using a diversity of definitions and names. Here, similar classification is used to describe a model of behaviour made of two well-defined mechanisms connected in series representing priming and homeostasis, and comparisons with well-known concepts in the field of animal behaviour are presented in order to show the advantages of this model in interpreting some problematical areas of animal motivation. The resulting model is analyzed as a Volterra nonlinear system and a simulation example is explained.
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