Motivation and the Brain, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The plasticity of the brain is usually affected by training exercise or just physical activity. The plasticity is affected by enhancing the processes that are neuroadaptive, neuroprotectve and neurogenerative. When one exercises it will be affected by how the person will understand and recognize things and want to learn more things(Adams, 2002). When the exercise continues and is intense we realize that the individual involved develops a good response when it comes to stresses that may arise in the circuits of the brain which control peripheral activities regulated by the sympathetic system.

How the brain operates

We all agree that most of the human and animal way of reaction is affected by the brain, ‘the brain is life’ and when one dies; the person dies the brain. The brain is responsible of how one responds in terms of behavior, psychologically and mental. It is also a matter of fact that the brain way of operating is highly influenced by the genes; but these genes on the other side influenced by the things that surround the individual(Pickles, 1987). The genes that will decide on how somebody s going to respond to some stimuli or behave is influenced by how somebody leads his or her social life, the things that are in the environment around him or her and also growing up.

When the way the genes are expressed changes then it’s definitely the individual will give different behavior as a result; the person’s brain will work differently and person has a different behavior. Inside the brain, we find different neural circuits. These circuits have their own responsibilities for example change of mood, control intake of food, hurting happiness etc. This means that if a person lives in a certain environment then the things in the environment will in some way change the orientation of the genes in the neurons like the oligodentrites situated in the brain.

The exercise that one involves in may be voluntary or training exercise. The voluntary exercise may be a result of the environment and the person involved may do the exercise as part of day to day search for daily bread. This is common in people that do jobs that involved carrying heavy loads or handling heavy gadgets and devices.

Still in the brain, some neural circuits that have been identified as the one that influence the way somebody makes his or her own mind in effort-related decisions. In fact we may be justified that little is known on how the brain function and the structure are related to the physical activities or rather exercising(Benjamin, 2008).But as we have discussed in the previous paragraphs, the things around an individual will affect the persons decision making. This because the things in a certain environment or learnt influences what he or she decides to do later on. When one develops a desire or simply decides to do exercise then there has be a communication between the central nervous system and the peripheral neural system.

Like a jungle, the brain has varying states; it can be completely silent, active at times or at times congested with life. As it is in the jungle the brain has each part of it controlling a specific part of the body(Bamber, 2000). There is a brain just specific to producing physical or rather muscular locomotion. These parts have to be stimulated for there to be exercise. This means that for somebody to schedule him or herself to doing exercise each and every day then the person has to develop a habit first. This will be affected with environment, may be warnings by the doctor a certain disease caused from lack of exercise. If a person interacts with body builders the person may develop an urge to do exercise and be like the friends.

When the brain part with the exercise is stimulated, then impulse from the central nervous system trickles down the motor neuron and the person has to contract and relax his or her muscle as the response to the brain command.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation originates from the rewards inherent to a task or even an activity itself–that is, enjoying a puzzle of the love of play.However, this kind of motivation has been examined by educational and social psychologists from the early 1970s. Studies have also determined that it is normally related with the high educational success together with enjoyment by learners. This kind of motivation has been described by Fritz Heider’sattributivetheory, work on self-efficiency, and the cognitive evaluation theory by Ryan and Deci. Learners may probably be intrinsically motivated if they:

• Attribute their results in education to the internal features that is under their control (like the applied amount of effort),
• Believe they can be efficientagents in hitting the desired goals (like results do not depend on luck),

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation on the other hand originates from outside of the executer. The most obvious and best example is money, but forceand warningof punishment are also major extrinsic motivations.

To understand the factors that motivate the young individuals to get involved in exercise in a very significant agenda item since different age groups consist of differing exercise motivation factors. The ideas got from the study of exercise participation have significant advantages since it can motivate those in need of doing greater amounts of exercise.

The resistance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has been traditionally stressed, with the earlier related to positive and the negative results. SDT has distinguished types of motivation, in the so-called organic integration, tospecify the various kinds of extrinsic motivation together with contextual factors either promoting or hindering integration and internalization of the behavior regulation.The internalization is considered to be a process of motivation by which individuals transform the external regulation actively into the internal regulation.

The most essential and pressingdeterminant of any kind of human behaviorlike exercise is the internal factor, known as motivation. This is a psychological mechanism that controls the direction, the strength, and perseveranceof behavior(DeRuiter, 2006).As a result, motivation involves energy, determinationand direction– which are all factors of motivationand intention. Nevertheless, motivation to participation in the exercise or any physical activity is a vital are of study in the exercise and sport psychology.

References

Adams, J.,(2002). Excessive exercise as an addiction: A review. Addiction Research & Theory

Bamber, D., (2000).It’s exercise or nothing”: A qualitative analysis of exercise dependence. British Journal of Sports Medicine 34(6): 423-430

Benjamins, M.,(2008).Religion: A sociocultural predictor of health behaviors in Mexico. Journal of Aging and Health 20(3): 290-305

DeRuiter W., (2006).Tobacco harm reduction strategies: The case for physical activity. (review). Nicotine & Tobacco Research 8(2): 157-168,

Pickles, V.,(1987).Minimathsystem theory : notes for physiology students / by V.R. Pickles. – Oxford [V.R. Pickles],