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How the Brain Converts Negative Evaluation into Performance Facilitation.

Charlotte Prévost1,2, Hakwan Lau3, Dean Mobbs1,4

  • 1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, NY, USA.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|January 7, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Negative evaluation can surprisingly enhance performance and motivation. Brain imaging shows this effect involves the insula and striatum, improving goal-directed behavior.

Keywords:
decision-makingneuroimagingperformancepsychological reactance

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Success narratives often focus on overcoming negative feedback.
  • Limited evidence exists on whether negative evaluation can actively improve performance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the counterintuitive hypothesis that negative evaluation can enhance task performance.
  • To explore the neural mechanisms underlying negative evaluation-induced performance facilitation.

Main Methods:

  • Participants decided on undertaking a risky challenge after receiving either positive or negative evaluations.
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to monitor brain activity during the task.

Main Results:

  • Negative evaluation led to a significant facilitation in performance.
  • Brain activity revealed the insula and striatum were involved in the motivating effect of negative evaluation.
  • Enhanced performance correlated with increased functional connectivity between the insula and brain regions for goal-directed behavior and attention.

Conclusions:

  • Negative evaluation can act as a performance enhancer, not just a motivator.
  • Neural pathways involving the insula and its connectivity with attention and goal-directed regions underpin this performance boost.