One side of your brain can be more motivated than the other

A new study has found that both halves of the brain may disagree about how much they want something, and that motivation can happen in one side of the brain at a time.

As a previous study showed that motivation wasn’t necessarily conscious, and the brain could decide how much it wanted something without input from the conscious mind, the purpose of the new research was to find out if one side of the brain could be motivated at a time.

The researchers asked the participants of the test to focus on a cross in the middle of the computer screen.

Then a motivational coin (one euro or one cent) appeared on one side of the visual field.

The participants were only subliminally motivated when the coin appeared on the same side of the screen as hand holding the mouse.
For example, if the coin was on the right and they were squeezing with the right hand, they would tighten their squeeze for a euro than for a cent.

But if the coin appeared on the left and they were squeezing on the right, they wouldn’t squeeze any harder for a euro.

The conclusions of the research present a possibility for only one side of the brain, and thus one side of the body, to be motivated at a time.

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Photographer: Salvatore Vuono