Role of the inferior frontal gyrus and impulsivity in approach motivation: A low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study.
Overview
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE USA
- Present Address: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Centre of Mental Health, University of Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
Abstract
Human actions are motivated by drives to approach positive outcomes or avoid adverse outcomes. Neurophysiological studies have associated the right-lateralized inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) with the regulation of approach motivation and individual differences in impulsivity, particularly in relation to deficits in motivational regulation. These studies suggest that the right IFG may inhibit approach-motivational tendencies. The current study investigated the causal role of the right IFG in motivational regulation and whether individual differences in impulsivity interact with the IFG to predict motivational regulation. The current study (N = 33) employed low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to transiently inhibit the functioning of the right or left IFG before a mobile approach-avoidance task. Results revealed that inhibition of the right, but not the left, IFG causes greater approach-motivated behavior in individuals high in impulsivity. These results suggest that the right IFG acts as an inhibitory mechanism that plays a causal role in approach motivation when a “motivational amplifier” is present, such as greater trait impulsivity. This study also suggests that the right IFG is especially important for regulating motivation in individuals with deficits in inhibitory control. These findings inform models of impulsivity and personality by revealing the causal role of the right IFG as a neural substrate of motivational inhibition and by demonstrating how individual differences in impulsivity can impact motivational regulation.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Code
The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.
Code availability
The code used to administer the task will be made available upon request from the 1 st author.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Tracing map
A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.
Data
No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.
Data availability
All data and materials are available upon request from the 1 st author.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.
Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 4 authors, 5 keywords, 13 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 88 references.
Cite
This paper
Moran, A. T., McCoy, T., Zech, H., & Gable, P. A. (2026). Role of the inferior frontal gyrus and impulsivity in approach motivation: A low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 26(4), 1478-1491. https://
BibTeX
@article{moran2026role,
author = {Moran, Austin T and McCoy, Timothy and Zech, Hilmar and Gable, Philip A},
title = {{Role of the inferior frontal gyrus and impulsivity in approach motivation: A low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study}},
journal = {Cognitive, affective \& behavioral neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {26},
number = {4},
pages = {1478--1491},
publisher = {Springer Science+Business Media},
issn = {1530-7026},
doi = {10.3758/
url = {https://
pmid = {41946846},
pmcid = {PMC13385091}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Moran, Austin T
AU - McCoy, Timothy
AU - Zech, Hilmar
AU - Gable, Philip A
TI - Role of the inferior frontal gyrus and impulsivity in approach motivation: A low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study
T2 - Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
J2 - Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 26
IS - 4
SP - 1478
EP - 1491
SN - 1530-7026
PB - Springer Science+Business Media
DO - 10.3758/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
{
"id": "10.3758/
"type": "article-journal",
"title": "Role of the inferior frontal gyrus and impulsivity in approach motivation: A low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study",
"container-title": "Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience",
"author": [
{
"family": "Moran",
"given": "Austin T"
},
{
"family": "McCoy",
"given": "Timothy"
},
{
"family": "Zech",
"given": "Hilmar"
},
{
"family": "Gable",
"given": "Philip A"
}
],
"container-title-short":
"volume": "26",
"issue": "4",
"page": "1478-1491",
"DOI": "10.3758/
"PMID": "41946846",
"PMCID": "PMC13385091",
"ISSN": "1530-7026",
"publisher": "Springer Science+Business Media",
"URL": "https://
"language": "en",
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2026,
4,
7
]
]
}
}
Similar papers
The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.
- [1] doi:10.1111/ejn.70528 [code]
- Dorsal Posterior Parietal Cortex Lesions Disrupt Spatial- but Not Motor-Based Inhibition.Journal: The European journal of neuroscienceIn common: 4 references
- [2] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-70287-5 [code]
- Cortical-limbic circuit dynamics of approach-avoidance conflict in humans.Journal: Nature communicationsIn common: 3 references
- [3] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1363 [code]
- Social approach-avoidance conflict: Behavioural, emotional, and neural correlates along a depression-social anxiety spectrum.Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)In common: 3 references
- [4] doi:10.3758/s13415-026-01439-9
- Stimulation success!? Improved response inhibition performance after prefrontal single-site and condition-and-perturb transcranial magnetic stimulation.Journal: Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscienceIn common: other, 3 references
- [5] doi:10.1038/s41398-026-04098-z [code]
- Neural imbalance between feedback sensitivity and motor inhibition in compulsivity and negative urgency.Journal: Translational psychiatryIn common: 3 references
- [6] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-71404-0 [code]
- Nonergodicity and Simpson's paradox in neurocognitive dynamics of cognitive control.Journal: Nature communicationsIn common: 3 references
- [7] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003635 [code]
- A cortico-subthalamic circuit rapidly engages and releases inhibition of specific movements depending on the environmental context.Journal: PLoS biologyIn common: 3 references
- [8] doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.116034
- Distinct temporal patterns of beta bursts differentiate successful and failed movement cancellation.Journal: iScienceIn common: 3 references
- [9] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-70346-x [code]
- Multimodal evidence for hippocampal engagement and modulation by functional connectivity-guided parietal TMS.Journal: Nature communicationsIn common: other, 2 references
- [10] doi:10.1159/000552942 [code]
- How Standardized Is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment for Depression? Large-Cohort Modeling Reveals Systematic Dosimetric Variability.Journal: Psychotherapy and psychosomaticsIn common: other, 2 references
Contribute
The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.
Sign in with ORCID to claim this paper as one of its authors, correct its record or validate its tracing map: when the paper's metadata lists your ORCID iD, you are recognized at once. Maintainers of its code: sign in with GitHub, then claim the repository on your account page.
Claim this paper
Correct its record
Say what each link of this record is, remove the ones that are not the paper's, add the ones that are missing. The correction becomes a new version of the record, in its Versions section.
Request its removal
To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).
Discussion, reproductions, activity
Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.
Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.
Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.