ReviewBrain structure & function2023
Emotion, motivation, decision-making, the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and the amygdala.
Review in Brain structure & function, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 135 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
135 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the attention training technique: a systematic review and evidence synthesis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Multisensory stimulation reduces neuropsychiatric symptoms and enhances cognitive function in older adults with dementia: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Pooled it
- GINNA, a 33 resting-state networks atlas with meta-analytic decoding-based cognitive characterization.Communications biology · 2025Pooled it
- Functional neuroimaging in patients with catatonia: A systematic review.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2024Pooled it
- fMRI-guided V1-targeted rTMS improves depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2026Trial
- Functional gradient reorganization and transcriptomic signatures underlying 1 Hz rTMS treatment in first-episode schizophrenia following right orbitofrontal cortex stimulation.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Trial
- Randomized target engagement trial of a dissonance-based transdiagnostic eating disorder treatment versus transdiagnostic interpersonal psychotherapy.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Cortical Hyperexcitability Shapes Large-Scale Brain Dynamics and Behavioral Outcome in Angelman Syndrome.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Mental Scene and Memory Construction and the Hippocampus.Hippocampus · 2026Article
- Understanding the neuroscience of communicating serious news.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Individualised Structural and Functional Frontostriatal Connectivity Mapping in Adult ADHD.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Resilience beyond diagnosis: prospective neural correlates of better-than-expected outcomes in depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Brain morphological changes in autism spectrum disorder related to multiple behavioral spectrums: a behavioral-causal structural covariance network analysis.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Frozen emotions, frozen bodies: a systematic review of limbic system alterations in catatonia.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Review
- Microstructural and functional connectivity changes of decision-related brain networks in end-stage kidney disease patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis.Kidney research and clinical practice · 2026Article
- Computational modeling of prefrontal-amygdala circuits links functional connectivity alterations to circuit-level mechanisms in major depression.Journal of computational neuroscience · 2026Article
- Whole-brain cholinergic modulation following computerized cognitive training in healthy older adults: a [18F]FEOBV PET study.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Brain-wide activity mapping reveals the somatosensory cortex as a sex-specific regulator of hedonic feeding.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Metabolic biomarkers of treatment-resistant schizophrenia and cognitive correlates: insights from a machine learning.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Targeting the KCNC3-Dependent Anterior Insular-Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Glutamatergic Circuit Attenuates Post-Traumatic Anxiety.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
75 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in emotion and in motivation, but the relationship between these functions performed by these brain structures is not clear. To address this, a unified theory of emotion and motivation is described in which motivational states are states in which instrumental goal-directed actions are performed to obtain rewards or avoid punishers, and emotional states are states that are elicited when the reward or punisher is or is not received. This greatly simplifies our understanding of emotion and motivation, for the same set of genes and associated brain systems can define the primary or unlearned rewards and punishers such as sweet taste or pain. Recent evidence on the connectivity of human brain systems involved in emotion and motivation indicates that the orbitofrontal cortex is involved in reward value and experienced emotion with outputs to cortical regions including those involved in language, and is a key brain region involved in depression and the associated changes in motivation. The amygdala has weak effective connectivity back to the cortex in humans, and is implicated in brainstem-mediated responses to stimuli such as freezing and autonomic activity, rather than in declarative emotion. The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in learning actions to obtain rewards, and with the orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in providing the goals for navigation and in reward-related effects on memory consolidation mediated partly via the cholinergic system.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.