Motivation in Health and Disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Human brain mechanisms underlying motivation and apathy
IRAS ID
341156
Contact name
Masud Husain
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
7 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
Motivation is key to human survival, success, and wellbeing. It drives our daily lives, yet we understand very little about the brain systems that generate motivation in people, or why it can become pathologically diminished in brain diseases to lead to the clinical condition known as apathy. Apathy is a disabling symptom which is associated with worse outcomes and hardship for patients and caregivers. It can behavioural, cognitive, social and emotional domains of motivation. Even mild apathy in healthy people links to poorer mental health, lower education, higher unemployment, and greater dementia risk. Understanding the brain basis of human motivation and developing treatments for apathy therefore has the potential to improve many lives. But despite the importance of apathy, there is no established mechanism which could be used to inform treatment.
The overarching, long-term aim of this research program is to change this. We will do this by examining the cognitive and behavioural processes, and the brain systems that underpin motivation in healthy aging (by comparing younger and older people) and how these are altered across a range of neurological diseases: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Lewy body disorders (Parkinson’s disease, PD, and Lewy body disease, LBD), small vessel cerebrovascular disease (SVD), as well as people at higher risk of developing apathy (patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, MCI, and subjective cognitive impairment, SCI).
Through longitudinal follow-up combined with observational testing, this transdiagnostic research program will examine motivation and progression of apathy over years, and how this relates to important symptoms that can often be associated with loss of motivation – depression, fatigue and cognitive decline. In addition, in we shall examine patients’ motivational performance when they are ON compared to when they are OFF their normal medications, or in PD when their deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes are switched ON compared to when they are OFF. These observations will allow us to see if motivation can be dynamically altered over short periods of time.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EE/0173
Date of REC Opinion
3 Oct 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion