Motivational determinants of the “contingent negative variation”

Electrophysiological markers of the motivational salience of delay imposition and escape

“…To test this prediction we focused on the contingent negative variation (CNV), a slow negative brain potential elicited by an informative cue which signals the impending onset of an imperative stimulus requiring the participants attention and response (Walter, et al, 1964). The CNV, which is maximal over frontocentral sites, reflects anticipatory attention and effortful processing and is comprised of two sub-components, an early wave ('orienting' O wave) related to the alerting properties of the warning stimulus and a later component ('expectancy' E wave) which is associated with anticipation and the preparation of a motor response (Brunia, et al, 2011;Van Boxtel & Bocker, 2004), as well as motivation (Cant & Bickford, 1967;Irwin, et al, 1966). Despite its role in anticipatory attention, the CNV has received relatively little attention in terms of its role in the processing of reinforcement contingencies; although an enhanced CNV in anticipation of affective or motivationally salient stimuli such as interesting or threatening stimuli has been reported (Baas, et al, 2002;Böcker, et al, 2001;Klorman & Ryan, 1980).…”

Contingent negative variation and evoked responses recorded by radio-telemetry in free-ranging subjects

“…Recent reports by Irwin et al (1966) and McAdam et al (1966) have emphasized the importance of motivational factors in the production of the CNV; both these experimenters and Low et al (1966a) have suggested that the initials be considered as an abbreviation of "Conative" Negative Variation since it is a "cerebral electric sign of a specific mental state, that of conation, which denotes a conscious drive to perform apparently volitional acts". Kornhuber and Deecke (1965), using opisthochronic averaging from tape records, described a similar slow negative variation preceding spontaneous voluntary movements, which they designated "Bereitschaftspotential" or readiness potential.…”

Event-related slow (DC) potentials in the human brain

“…All these results provide evidence that motivational states and response intentions are important for the development of contingent potentials. But it has been shown in other experiments that systematic changes in such potentials may occur without changes in the response parameters or even with no overt response (Irwin et al 1966;Gutlickson 1970).…”