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Anatomy and Psychological needs 1
Running Head: ANATOMY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
Brain Gray Matter Correlates of General Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration:
A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study
Woogul Lee
Korea National University of Education
and
Johnmarshall Reeve
Korea University
Authors’ Note: Correspondence should be addressed to Woogul Lee, Department of Education,
Korea National University of Education, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk 28173, Korea, E-mail:
[email protected], Tel: +82-43-230-3614, Fax: +82-43-231-7193 and Johnmarshall
Reeve, Department of Education, Brain and Motivation Research Institute, Korea
University, Seoul 02841, Korea, E-mail: [email protected], Tel: +82-2-3290-2295, Fax:
+82-2-3290-2929. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic
of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015S1A5B6036594).
Anatomy and Psychological needs 2
Abstract
Basic psychological needs lie at the heart of the self-determination theory (SDT) explanatory
framework. SDT researchers have recently undertaken neuroscientific programs of research to
investigate the neural bases of psychological need satisfaction, and they have done so by using
functional neuroimaging data collection methods. According to these studies, anterior insula
activity, striatum activity, and their functional interactions represent central neural mechanisms
of psychological need satisfaction. These findings led us to now investigate the possibility that
people might possess individual differences in the capacity to experience need satisfaction and
need frustration and that these individual differences would be based on differences in their
structural brain volumes in their insula and striatum. Whole-brain regression analyses of 50
participants’ anatomic MRI scans to predict their self-reported need satisfaction and need
frustration over the last year found that striatum gray matter volume, but not insula gray matter
volume, correlated positively with extent of psychological need satisfaction. In addition, the
brain gray matter correlates of general psychological need frustration were distinct from those of
general psychological need satisfaction. These neuroanatomic findings offer unique insights to
understand the neuroanatomic bases of psychological need satisfaction and frustration.
Keywords: striatum, psychological need satisfaction, psychological need frustration, self-
determination theory, voxel-based morphometry.
Brain Gray Matter Correlates of General Psychological Need Satisfaction and
Frustration: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study
Anatomy and Psychological needs 3
Self-determination theory (SDT) is an organismic theory of motivation and personality to
explain human flourishing (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Vansteenkiste, Niemiec, & Soenens, 2010).
According to SDT, people have inherent and spontaneous propensities that, when supported by
environmental conditions, enable adaptive functioning, development, and wellness. In particular,
the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness lie at the heart of the
SDT explanatory framework. Though all people have the same set of basic psychological needs
irrespective of their age, gender, culture, and other demographics, SDT acknowledges that the
capacity to experience psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation more
generally may arise as an individual difference characteristic that stems from some people
having a developmental history of being exposed to need-satisfying and autonomy-supportive
relationships and environments while other people have a developmental history of being
exposed to need-frustrating and interpersonally-controlling relationships and environments (Deci
& Ryan, 1985; Prentice, Halusic, & Sheldon, 2014; Reeve, Jang, & Jang, 2018). If so, then
people may develop differential capacities to experience psychological need satisfaction and
frustration to different degrees even though they encounter the same environmental conditions.
Psychological need satisfaction has traditionally been investigated as a psychologically-
experienced phenomenon that reflects subjective experience that can be reported in a reliable
way on a self-report questionnaire (Chen et al., 2015). Recently, SDT researchers have
undertaken neuroscientific programs of research to discover the neural bases of the psychological
need subjective experience that can be measured objectively using neuroimaging methodologies,
such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI; Lee & Reeve, 2013, 2017; Marsden,
Ma, Deci, Ryan, & Chiu, 2015; Murayama, Matsumoto, Izuma, & Matsumoto, 2010) and
Anatomy and Psychological needs 4
electroencephalogram (EEG; Di Domenico, Le, Liu, Ayza, & Fournier, 2016; Legault & Inzlicht,
2013; Zougkou, Weinstein, & Paulmann, 2017). These researchers have conducted a number of
neuroimaging studies to identify the functional activations of the brain areas associated with the
moment-to-moment experience of psychological need satisfaction, though similar functional
neuroimaging studies of psychological need frustration are currently non-existent, at least within
the SDT literature. Primarily, the functional activations of the insula, a key brain area for self-
related processing (Craig, 2009; Modinos, Ormel, & Aleman, 2009), and those of the striatum, a
key brain area for hedonic responses to pleasurable situations (Cardinal, Parkinson, Hall, &
Everitt, 2002; Robbins & Everitt, 1996), have consistently been observed (Lee & Reeve, 2017;
Leotti & Delgado, 2011, 2014). These findings suggest that insula activity, striatum activity, and
their functional interactions appear to be central in the neural processes of basic psychological
needs (Lee, 2016; Reeve & Lee, in press).
The insula (insular cortex) is a portion of the cerebral cortex that is located at the
anatomical intersection of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. The insula is divided into two
parts—the larger anterior insular and the somewhat smaller posterior insula. The posterior insula
(which is more aligned with the subcortical brain) receives, monitors, and becomes aware of
changes in interoceptive (visceral, homeostatic) body states and relays this information to the
anterior insula (which is more aligned with the cortical brain) to construct a consciously-awared
representation of how one feels (Craig, 2002, 2009; Wicker et al., 2003). In the anterior insula,
people consolidate this “gut-felt” feeling-state information with social-contextual information
about the task they are involved in and the people around them to form a basis of the conscious
experience (subjective awareness) of “How I feel” (Craig, 2002, 2009).
Anatomy and Psychological needs 5
The striatum is the largest structure within the subcortical basal ganglia (Liljeholm &
O’Doherty, 2012). The striatum is divided into a ventral (lower) division and a dorsal (upper)
division. The ventral striatum consists mainly of the nucleus accumbens (but also the ventral
parts of the caudate nucleus and the putamen), while the dorsal striatum consists of the caudate
nucleus and the putamen. The ventral striatum, and the nucleus accumbens in particular, plays a
key role in pleasure, satisfaction, reward, and reinforcement, including “the hedonic valuation of
stimuli”. Through the information they receive from the activation of the ventral striatum
(nucleus accumbens), people learn what to like, what to prefer, and what to want (Smith, Tindell,
Aldridge, & Berridge, 2009). The dorsal striatum is a component of the brain’s reward circuitry,
and it is different from the ventral striatum in that it is heavily interconnected with the prefrontal
cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the motor cortex and therefore allows reward information to
regulate decision-making, self-control (e.g., delay of immediate gratification), and goal-directed
action, respectively.
Insula—striatum interactions also exist. The insula and striatum have both structural and
functional connections (Chikama, McFarland, Amaral, & Haber, 1997; Cho et al., 2013). This
means that the insula and striatum can work together, rather than provide independent inputs and
outputs. Specifically insula—striatum connectivity allows for the integration of bodily-based
information with reward-related information during the processing of subjective feelings (Craig,
2009), including the self-reported experience of high vs. low intrinsic motivation during task
performance (Lee & Reeve, 2017).
To date, what these neuroscientific programs of research have shown is that functional
activations in the aforementioned areas—anterior insula and striatum—occur when people are
exposed to environmental conditions such as a provision of choice (Leotti & Delgado, 2011,
Anatomy and Psychological needs 6
2014; Murayama et al., 2015) and optimal challenge (Lee & Reeve, 2017). So, environmental
conditions are important antecedents to psychological need satisfaction. For instance, when
participants were exposed for 7 seconds to competence-enabling and optimally-challenging
anagrams and given a helpful hint 3 seconds into the anagram solving (e.g., trial #1: O H T M N
= M O _ _ _; trail #2: N R I T A = T R _ _ _) vs. when they were exposed to non-competence-
enabling and challengeless anagrams and given the same helpful hints (e.g., trial #3: C L C O K
= C L _ _ _; trial #4: I F R S T = F I _ _ _), they reported subjective experiences of optimal
challenge and competence need satisfaction and their fMRI scans showed anterior insula
activations, striatum activations, and anterior insula-striatum interactions.
Some functional neuroimaging studies have examined individual differences in
participants’ perceptions of psychological need satisfaction (Di Domenico, Fournier, Ayaz, &
Ruocco, 2013; Di Domenico et al., 2016) or autonomous motivation (Legault & Inzlicht, 2013),
but these studies have not examined the neural processes directly associated with psychological
need satisfaction itself. Furthermore, there has been no study directly investigating the possibility
that differences in brain structure underlie possible differences in the capacity to experience
psychological need satisfaction or psychological need frustration in their daily lives.
By brain structure, we mean the gray matter volume of particular brain structures. The
gray matter volume of a specific brain structure is calculated from an analysis of MRI scans that
provide snapshots of both the volume of a particular brain structure and the volume of the brain
as a whole. People’s brain sizes vary, so the person’s overall brain size is treated as a covariate in
determining the gray matter volume of any one brain structure. The volume of a brain structure is
mostly a function of genetics and maturation, but it is also affected by variations in
environmental conditions. For instance, maternal sensitivity (i.e., how timely and accurate a
Anatomy and Psychological needs 7
mother’s responsiveness is to the infant’s distress signals) significantly affects limbic structure
(e.g., hippocampus, amygdala) volumes (Rifkin-Graboi et al., 2015). Given such findings, the
logic that led to the present investigation was that, because (1) we know the neural bases of
psychological need satisfaction (but not psychological need frustration), (2) chronic
environmental conditions affect the structural volumes of subcortical brain areas, and (3)
individual differences in these structural brain volumes emerged and affect experience and
behavior, we investigated the possibility that people might possess individual differences in the
capacity to experience psychological need satisfaction and psychological need frustration and
that these individual differences would be based on differences in their structural gray matter
volumes in their insula and striatum.
In the present study, we sought to identify anatomic correlates of psychological need
satisfaction and frustration. As the variations in gray matter volumes of brain areas reflect extent
of experience-dependent neuroanatomic adaptation (Zatorre, Fields, & Johansen-Berg, 2012), we
particularly examined which brain areas’ gray matter volumes were associated with extent of
general psychological need satisfaction and frustration respectively. Considering the neural
findings from the functional neuroimaging studies about psychological need satisfaction, we can
hypothesize that the brain areas related to self-related processing (i.e., insula) and related to
pleasure-related processing (i.e., striatum) show anatomic relationships with the degree of
psychological need satisfaction. That is, the anatomic differences in people’s insula and striatum
gray matter volumes would predict people’s general experiences of psychological need
satisfaction in their daily lives. Suggestive support for this hypothesis can also be seen by the
neuroanatomic findings of a positive relationship between people’s insula gray matter volumes
and their general psychological well-being (Lewis, Kanai, Rees, & Bates, 2014) and of a positive
Anatomy and Psychological needs 8
relationship between people’s striatum gray matter volumes and their hedonic strength in
response to pleasurable situations (Carlson, Foti, Harmon-Jones, & Proudfit, 2015). We could
not, however, set a priori hypotheses about the brain gray matter correlates of general
psychological need frustration because the functional neuroimaging studies about psychological
need frustration are relatively sparse and because the neural findings from these studies are
somewhat inconsistent. So, our investigation of the brain gray matter correlates of the general
perception of psychological need frustration was exploratory.
Method
Participants
Fifty Korean undergraduates (25 females and 25 males; mean age 23.1 ± 2.72 years),
recruited from a large private university in Seoul, Korea, participated in this voxel-based
morphometry study that uses a magnetic resonance imaging methodology. All participants were
right-handed and had no history of neurological illness. The participants provided informed
consent and received compensation for their participation. This study was approved by the
institutional review board of Korea University.
Measure
General Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration. To assess the degree of
generally experienced psychological need satisfaction and frustration in each participant’s life,
participants responded to 12 items assessing the satisfaction and frustration dimensions of the
psychological needs for autonomy and competence. We adopted these items from the Balanced
Measure of Psychological Needs scale (BMPN; Sheldon & Hilpert, 2012), a previously-validated
and widely-used measure in SDT literature (Sheldon & Schüler, 2011; Young, Kashdan, &
Macatee, 2015). Sample items, using the stem “During the last year...”, are “I have been free to
Anatomy and Psychological needs 9
do things my own way” and “I have been doing what really interests me” (autonomy
satisfaction), “I have been doing things against my will” and “I have had a lot of pressure on me
that I could do without” (autonomy frustration), “I have taken on and mastered hard challenges”
and “I have been successful in completing difficult tasks and projects” (competence satisfaction),
and “I have been struggling to do things I should be good at” and “I have been doing things that
made me feel incompetent” (competence frustration). The BMPN also includes scales to assess
relatedness satisfaction and relatedness frustration, but we did not include these scales in the data
collection because we focused only on the two psychological needs most directly related to
intrinsically motivated processes. To complete our measure, participants responded on a 1
(Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree) scale. To translate the validated measure originally
written in English into Korean, we followed the guidelines of Brislin (1980). Two graduate
students who were fluent in both languages first carried out separate back-translations. Then, a
consensus translation was reached after any discrepancies that emerged between the translators
were discussed and eliminated. The BMPN showed acceptable reliability in the present study (6-
item = .75 for psychological need satisfaction; 6-item = .63 for psychological need
frustration).
MRI Data Acquisition
A 3T Trio MRI scanner (Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) was used for anatomic imaging.
High-resolution T1-weighted anatomic images were acquired by using a MP-RAGE sequence
with the following parameters: TR = 1900 ms, TE = 2.52 ms, flip angle = 9°, field of view = 256
x 256, in-plane resolution = 1 x 1 mm, and slice thickness = 1 mm with no gap.
Imaging Data Analysis
Anatomy and Psychological needs 10
Voxel-Based Morphometry. The imaging data were analyzed by using the
Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12; http://www.neuro.uni-jena.de/cat/) implemented in
the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 12; http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/software/spm12/)
software. Each participant’s brain volume was normalized to the Montreal Neurological Institute
(MNI) template and segmented into gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid for
separately examining the gray matter volume. After the quality of the normalization and
segmentation was checked, the gray matter volume was spatially smoothed with an 8-mm full-
width at half-maximum (FWHM) Gaussian kernel.
As a group-level analysis, a whole-brain regression analysis was conducted to identify
the brain gray matter correlates of psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy and
competence satisfaction) and of psychological need frustration (i.e., autonomy and competence
frustration). In this analysis, each participant’s total intracranial volume, gender, and age were
considered as covariates. For correcting multiple comparison inferences in this whole-brain
analysis, the cluster-wise threshold (corrected p < .05) was employed, considering both the
voxel-wise threshold (p < .001) and cluster size (n > 71, the minimum volume of 568 mm3). This
was determined based on the Monte Carlo simulation method (Forman et al., 1995) using the
Analysis of Functional NeuroImages (AFNI; Cox, 1996; http://afni.nimh.nih.gov) software.
Results
We conducted whole-brain regression analyses to identify the brain gray matter correlates
of general psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy and competence satisfaction) and
general psychological need frustration (i.e., autonomy and competence frustration) controlling
for the effects of each participant’s total intracranial volume, gender, and age. The results of the
regression analyses appear in Table 1.
Anatomy and Psychological needs 11
In the regressions to predict general psychological need satisfaction, there was a positive
and statistically significant relation between the gray matter volume of the left striatum (Figure
1) and participants’ general psychological need satisfactions (p < .001 with at least 71 contiguous
voxels; corrected p < .05). The gray matter volume of the insula did not show any significant
relations with the degree of participants’ general psychological need satisfactions.
In the regressions to predict general psychological need frustration, neither the gray
matter volume of the insula nor the striatum was associated with participants’ general
psychological need frustration scores. Instead, the gray matter volumes of the left lingual gyrus
(in the occipital lobe) and the right inferior temporal gyrus were positively correlated with the
degree of participants’ general psychological need frustrations, while the gray matter volumes of
the left postcentral gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus were negatively correlated with
the degree of participants’ general psychological need frustrations (p < .001 with at least 71
contiguous voxels; corrected p < .05).
Discussion
The developing structure of each person’s brain reflects, in part, his or her unique
personal history (Cicchetti, 2002). Depending on the person’s recurring exposures to
environmental opportunities and sources of support vs. restrictions and sources of abuse and
neglect that can affect brain development [e.g., cortisol (hormonal) episodes in response to
environmental support vs. stress; Reeve & Tseng, 2011], the brain can change its structure, such
as by forming new synapses, modifying existing synapses, growing more synapses per neuron,
extending the lengths of dendrites, and growing dendritic spine density. It is now clear that
environmental experiences of support-enrichment and of deprivation-frustration (e.g., parenting
practices) influence brain development (Belsky & de Haan, 2011; Rifkin-Graboi et al., 2015;
Anatomy and Psychological needs 12
Sethna et al., 2017). So, in the present study, we investigated the possibility that existing
differences in people’s gray matter volumes in the insula and in the striatum might affect their
capacity to experience greater or lesser psychological need satisfaction and frustration.
We found an anatomic association between the striatum and general psychological need
satisfaction. After controlling the effects of total brain volume, gender, and age, participants
showed greater general psychological need satisfaction in proportion to which they had greater
gray matter volumes of the striatum. The striatum is a well-known brain area for physiological
need satisfaction (Cardinal et al., 2002; Robbins & Everitt, 1996). In neuroscience, the hedonic
experiences based on physiological need satisfaction (e.g., a cup of water for a thirsty person)
can be explained by dopamine (a pleasure-related neurotransmitter) increases in the striatum
(Reeve & Lee, 2012). Recent neuroimaging studies have consistently found that the functional
activity of the striatum is crucial not only for physiological need satisfaction but also for
psychological need satisfaction. That is, striatum activity has been observed when participants
had personal choices and subsequently experienced autonomy need satisfaction (Leotti &
Delgado, 2011, 2014) and when participants successfully performed optimally challenging tasks
and subsequently experienced competence need satisfaction (Lee & Reeve, 2017; Murayama et
al., 2010).
The aforementioned neuroimaging findings suggest that intra-individual functional
differences in striatum activity are positively associated with extent of people’s moment-to-
moment psychological need satisfaction. That is, some social contexts (e.g., optimally
challenging tasks) support people’s psychological need satisfactions while other social contexts
(e.g., harsh interpersonal control) thwart people’s psychological need satisfactions. In the present
study, we can additionally suggest that inter-individual anatomic differences in the striatum are
Anatomy and Psychological needs 13
positively associated with extent of individuals’ general psychological need satisfaction. That is,
extent of striatum gray matter volumes can be different across individuals due to their different
developmental experiences, and these anatomic differences can influence extent of their
psychological need satisfactions in their daily lives. This is consistent with previous findings
demonstrating anatomic associations between the striatum and general hedonic strength in the
case of other human need satisfactions (Carlson et al., 2015; Janes, Park, Farmer, & Chakravarty,
2015; Zacharopoulos et al., 2016). For example, Carlson and colleagues (2015) found that
participants’ greater striatum gray matter volumes predicted greater hedonic reactions to the
same amounts of rewards.
Inconsistent with our hypothesis, we could not find any meaningful anatomic associations
between insula and general psychological need satisfaction. That is, participants’ general
perceptions of psychological need satisfactions in their daily lives were not significantly
correlated with extent of the gray matter volumes of the insula. The insula plays crucial roles for
self-related processes such as self-reflection and self-integration (Craig, 2009; Enzi, de Greck,
Prosch, Tempelmann, & Northoff, 2009; Naqvi & Bechara, 2009; Modinos et al., 2009). Insula
activity generates subjective feelings through monitoring, reflecting upon, and integrating self-
related information (e.g., bodily information, information of one’s own perceptions). Because of
this self-related nature, the insula has received attention as a key brain area for the pursuit and
satisfaction of basic psychological needs. This idea has been supported by the functional
neuroimaging results about psychological need satisfaction (Lee & Reeve, 2013, 2017; Leotti &
Delgado, 2011, 2014). As well as striatum activity, insula activity has been observed when
participants experienced autonomy and competence need satisfaction.
Anatomy and Psychological needs 14
The insula does show intra-individual functional differences depending on the degree of
psychological need satisfaction. But, in the present study, we found that the insula does not show
any inter-individual anatomic differences in terms of general psychological need satisfaction.
The insula and striatum contribute to the moment-to-moment experience of psychological need
satisfaction in different ways (Lee & Reeve, 2017; Leotti & Delgado, 2011, 2014). In a recent
neuroimaging study (Reeve & Lee, in preparation), we exposed participants to different versions
of a learning task and recorded their experience of autonomy associated with the beginning of
each new trial. Extent of early-trial autonomy was associated with anterior insula activations (but
not with striatum activations). These early-trial anterior insula activations were then associated
with late-trial striatum activations on those occasions that participants experienced late-trial
satisfactions from their task participation. This means that the neural processes of psychological
need satisfaction could be parsed into two parts: early-stage anterior insula activity reflecting the
pursuit or anticipation of basic psychological needs and late-stage striatum activity reflecting the
actual satisfaction experience of these basic psychological needs. Connecting these functional
and anatomic results, people seem to show minimal levels of individual differences in the pursuit
or anticipation of basic psychological needs, but they seem to show significant levels of
individual differences in the satisfaction of basic psychological needs.
Another way of understanding the process of psychological need satisfaction is to
acknowledge that it features both eudaimonic and hedonic aspects. So, individual’s pursuit of
basic psychological need satisfaction is initiated based on her or his self-determination of
whether the situations are personally meaningful and hence worth doing (i.e., eudaimonia), and
then she or he experiences pleasure (i.e., hedonia) when her or his basic psychological needs are
actually satisfied. Considering these theoretical postulates of SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2017, p. 240),
Anatomy and Psychological needs 15
the results are understandable that, among the neural system of psychological need satisfaction,
only extent of striatum gray matter volumes reflecting individual differences in hedonic reactions
was associated with extent of general psychological need satisfaction while extent of insula gray
matter volumes reflecting individual differences in self-determined eudaimonic evaluation was
not.
The null effect finding between psychological need satisfaction and insula volume seems
inconsistent with previous neuroanatomic findings investigating psychological concepts similar
to psychological need satisfaction. Lewis and colleagues (2014) found that people’s insula gray
matter volumes positively predicted the degree of psychological well-being, a well-known
consequence of psychological need satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2001). One possible explanation
about these inconsistent results is that participants’ individual differences in self-reflection and
self-integration could be more influential as Lewis and colleagues considered broader aspects of
psychological need satisfaction including more abstract and eudaimonic aspects (e.g., purpose in
life). We invite future research to explain about this issue more thoroughly.
We also found that the gray matter volumes of some temporal, parietal, and occipital
brain areas positively and negatively correlated with general psychological need frustration. As
these results were not what we had hypothesized, we could not interpret these results
conclusively. However, we can clearly see that the brain gray matter correlates of general
psychological need frustration were different from the brain gray matter correlates of general
psychological need satisfaction. This finding suggests that the neuroanatomic systems of
psychological need satisfaction and frustration do not overlap but are instead distinct in terms of
gray matter volume differences. Some SDT researchers recently proposed the “dual-process
model” suggesting that psychological need satisfaction and psychological need frustration can be
Anatomy and Psychological needs 16
independent and separable psychological experiences (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Ryan, &
Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2011). Considering that psychological need satisfaction and frustration
could be conceptualized not as singular but as independent, the neuroanatomic finding of the
present study seems to be consistent with the theoretical postulates of SDT.
The conclusions that can be drawn from the present findings are limited by two
methodological features of our research design. First, the present study included the
psychological needs for autonomy and competence but excluded the psychological need for
relatedness. We had made this decision before collecting the anatomic data. In future
investigations, we encourage researchers to examine the unique anatomic correlates not only of
autonomy and competence but of relatedness as well. Second, causal inferences are difficult to
draw. It is not clear whether striatum volume leads to a greater capacity to experience
psychological need satisfaction or whether psychological need satisfaction leads to greater
striatum volume. It is also not clear why some individuals possess greater (or lesser) striatum
volume than do others in the first place.
Even while recognizing these limitations, the present study suggests that striatum gray
matter volume, but not insula gray matter volume, shows a positive association with general
psychological need satisfaction. We also found that brain gray matter correlates of psychological
need satisfaction could be distinct from brain gray matter correlates of psychological need
frustration. These neuroanatomic findings offer unique insights to understand the neuroanatomic
bases of psychological need satisfaction and frustration.
Anatomy and Psychological needs 17
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Table 1. Results of the regression analyses identifying brain gray matter correlates of general
psychological need satisfaction and of general psychological need frustration
Brain Area BA Voxels Side MNI Coordinates Maximumt valuex y z
General Psychological Need SatisfactionPositive relationship
Striatum 81 L -8 6 3 3.97
General Psychological Need FrustrationPositive relationship
Lingual gyrus 17 206 L -29 -65 6 4.19Inferior temporal gyrus 37 106 R 63 -64 -10 3.94
Negative relationship Postcentral gyrus 1 105 L -17 -34 59 4.55
Superior temporal gyrus 42 73 R 62 -19 7 3.43
Note. The cluster-wise threshold (correct p < .05) is determined by voxel-wise threshold (p
< .001) and the minimum volume (71 contiguous voxels; 568 mm3).
Anatomy and Psychological needs 25
Figure 1. The gray matter volume of the left striatum was positively correlated with the
degree of participants’ general psychological need satisfactions (p < .001 with at least 71
contiguous voxels; corrected p < .05).