# Beyond Reward: Approach & Avoidance Motivation Generate Functional Contexts for Cognitive Control & Adaptive Memory

> **NIH NIH R15** · UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY) · 2020 · $74,898

## Abstract

ABSTRACT / PROJECT SUMMARY
Human adaptability is defined by the flexibility and sophistication with which we tailor our behavior in the service
of our goals. Goal pursuit is defined by controlled performance, but depends on past experience and serves to
optimize future outcomes; both cognitive control and long-term memory processes are central to supporting this
behavior. Motivation for approach vs. avoidance-oriented goals might lead to distinct processing modes leading
to different adaptive behaviors as well as differential memory representations supporting future goal pursuit.
While motivation profoundly shapes both cognitive control and long-term memory processes depending on
prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) systems, motivated control and memory have largely
been studied in isolation, despite evidence that these processes interact. The goal of this Academic Research
Enhancement Award (AREA) proposal is to support student research training in neuroimaging and
neurostimulation measures characterizing the mechanism by which approach versus avoidance motivation
adaptively influence cognitive control and subsequent episodic memory. In Aim 1, we will use fMRI to investigate
how motivational mode influences cognitive control and subsequent memory in terms of both behavioral
performance and underlying PFC-MTL interactions. In Aim 2, TMS stimulation to PFC during motivated control
task performance will test for a causal role of PFC in configuring downstream approach vs. avoidance motivation-
specific MTL systems, altering subsequent memory representations. In Aim 3, we will investigate how individual
variance in trait anxiety may determine what motivational mode is spontaneously engaged during reward pursuit,
with downstream consequences for control and memory performance. The proposed research will advance a
basic biological model of motivation-cognition interaction and its potential disruption by anxiety, laying the
foundation for translational research targeted at rescuing cognitive and motivational functioning in
psychopathology. Additionally, this proposal will generate intensive, multimethod research experiences for
students in affective and cognitive neuroscience and enhance the research training environment at the University
of Denver, consistent with the goals of the AREA funding mechanism.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10156288
- **Project number:** 3R15MH117690-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY)
- **Principal Investigator:** Kimberly Sarah Chiew
- **Activity code:** R15 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $74,898
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10156288

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10156288, Beyond Reward: Approach & Avoidance Motivation Generate Functional Contexts for Cognitive Control & Adaptive Memory (3R15MH117690-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10156288. Licensed CC0.

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