Abstract :
Recent studies investigating the neurobiology of
reward motivation in animals have begun to deconstruct
reward into separable neural systems involving the ‘liking’
of a reward (hedonic enjoyment of consumption) versus the
‘wanting’ of a reward (incentive salience to obtain reward).
To date, however, it is unclear whether these systems are
also separable in humans. We examined this question by
manipulating the effort (clicking on a moving square)
required for participants to obtain a reward (humorous versus
non-humorous cartoon). Overall, as the required effort to
view a humorous cartoon increased, participants were less
likely to choose this reward. Moreover, individual differences
in cartoon preference predicted cartoon choice at low
levels of required effort, but not at high levels of required
effort. These findings suggest that manipulating effort may
be a valid method for dissociating the ‘liking’ from ‘wanting’
components of reward motivation in humans
