Human brain mechanisms underlying motivation and apathy

Motivation is a crucial feature of mental health, wellbeing and success. Yet we understand very little about the brain mechanisms underpinning it. Pathological loss of motivation manifest as the syndrome of apathy is a common symptom in many brain disorders but it has no established treatment. Here we test a new conceptual framework to provide an ambitious, transformational step change in this field. By bringing together the expertise of a diverse, multidisciplinary collaboration we seek to: - Understand variability of motivation in healthy people across different domains –behavioural, cognitive, social and emotional – at the level of behavioural and brain mechanisms. - Using a transdiagnostic approach, establish mechanisms underlying pathological apathy in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), small vessel cerebrovascular disease (SVD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). - Investigate modulation of motivation in healthy people and PD using drugs that target different neurotransmitter systems, and deep brain stimulation (DBS) in PD. We will deploy a common set of behavioural measures, computational modelling and neuroimaging analyses to provide a unifying platform for data integration, across studies. This will provide a comprehensive understanding of human motivation and apathy, new behavioural tools and potential novel treatment approaches for loss of motivation and apathy in health and disease.