An arbiter model of motivational selection

Although significant progress has been made in understanding how learning controls the operation of motivational systems, much less is known about how motivational systems control behavior to achieve motivational stability and resolve motivational conflict. Here we provide an overview of the basic characteristics of motivational conflict as well as historically influential approaches to understanding motivational stability and conflict. This is followed by an outline of an arbiter model of motivational stability and conflict that shares concepts with theories of perceptual decision making and executive function. This model uses a simple architecture to arbiter bistable transitions between motivational states and resolve any conflict between these states. A physiological instantiation of this model is described in paraventricular thalamus control of neuronal ensembles in the accumbens shell and extended amygdala. Finally, we consider applications of the arbiter model to disorders such as clinical anxiety and addictions.