A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study of Gray Matter Correlates of Psychological Need Satisfaction

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Brain, Neurosciences, and Education SIG Roundtable

Abstract

Basic psychological needs lie at the heart of self-determination theory (SDT). SDT researchers have recently undertaken neuroscientific research to investigate the neural bases of psychological need satisfaction. The neural findings led us to investigate the possibility that people might possess individual differences in the capacity to experience need satisfaction and that these individual differences would be based on differences in their structural brain volumes in these brain areas. Voxel-based morphometry analyses of 50 participants’ anatomic MRI scans to predict their self-reported need satisfaction over the last year found that ventral striatum gray matter volume positively correlated with extent of psychological need satisfaction. These neuroanatomic findings offer unique insights to understand the neuroanatomic bases of psychological need satisfaction.

Authors

• Woogul Lee, Korea National University of Education

• Johnmarshall Reeve, Australian Catholic University