How Value and Control Shape Motivation: Dissociable Mesocorticolimbic Circuits and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex...

Motivation arises from the integration of anticipated reward value and perceived control over effort allocation, but the neural mechanisms through which these computations shape motivated behavior and how they are disrupted in depression remain poorly understood.

Here we examined how neural tracking of value and control across key nodes of the mesocorticolimbic network (ventral tegmental area [VTA], nucleus accumbens [NAc], ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC], anterior insula) predict individual differences in motivation in healthy adults (n = 36) and individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 39). Model-derived indices of external and internal motivation were estimated based on externally controlled and internally controlled effort selection for a range of monetary rewards. Combined with 7T multiecho functional magnetic resonance imaging optimized to dissociate signal across midbrain, subcortical, and cortical regions, we thus parsed the contributions of neural processing of value versus control evaluation to external and internal motivation.

Across participants, stronger NAc value tracking was associated with greater external motivation only. During control processing, VTA recruitment predicted both types of motivation, whereas anterior insula recruitment was selectively associated with greater internal motivation, and vmPFC recruitment was associated with external motivation. This vmPFC recruitment during control evaluation was disrupted in MDD and associated with heightened depression symptom severity and negative affect.

Together, these findings identify dissociable neural pathways through which value and control computations shape motivated behavior and reveal a specific vmPFC-centered disruption in MDD.