Mind Over Matter: The Neuroscience of Willpower
Bust of Hercules, one of the most famous examples of willpower. The British Museum
We want things! Sadly, not everything comes easy to us; we’re only human. If everything was easy, what’s the point? In many cases, the person who is willing to sacrifice the most and put in the hard work is usually the one who ends up on top. Nobody wants to lose and be worse at something than the next person; whether we want to admit it or not, we all love the competition. But why are some people so much tougher than others? Where does their mental fortitude come from? Were they born with it? It may seem comforting to assume so, but as a matter of fact, there is a strong neurological basis to this “grind mentality.” In this article, we will break down the cognitive appraisal of willpower more broadly, look at studies that point to the neurological basis of tenacious behavior, and highlight ways an individual can improve their drive.
We start our discussion of willpower with a story that (I hope) everyone knows; Batman. Young Bruce Wayne had everything taken away from him, left only with his butler (and an obscene amount of money, but that’s beside the point). Bruce wanted to avenge his parents’ death and rid his home city of Gotham from the kind of villainy that made him an orphan. To do this, he pledged his life to becoming the best person that he possibly could be, pushing his boundaries and conquering all of his fears in the process. From the moment that Bruce faced adversity, he committed himself to something greater.
One might ask, “Why on earth do we care about a fictional character? Aren’t college students too old to still like Batman?” Although Batman is (unfortunately) not real, we can learn a lot from his story. If we break everything down, Batman is a normal person who focused on something that was truly meaningful to him and had the willpower as well as the grit to accomplish it.
Willpower can be defined as the ability to control your own temptations, urges, and emotions, focusing on long-term goals rather than actions that result in instant gratification. Having the strength to adhere to discipline is an investment in ourselves, providing a strong foundation that allows us to pursue accomplishments that are ultimately more gratifying. Recently, the notion of willpower has entered back into the mainstream, with celebrities like David Goggins emerging as its champion. Chasing our goals is of paramount importance in so many of our lives, and having willpower as one of your traits can propel you towards your dreams. But what exactly does willpower look like in our bodies? Is it just a notion that has no real physiological application, or does it change us from within?
Willpower is an inherently hard thing to measure, mostly due to its abstract nature. One person’s degree of self-restraint is much different from the next. Regardless, there are still a handful of scientifically-backed studies that point to mechanisms of willpower in the brain.
The anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) has been shown to be a key cortical structure that is responsible for establishing tenacity or “persistent behavior.” The aMCC is located dorsal (above) the corpus callosum, which is a structure of nerve fibers that allow for the left and right hemispheres of our brain to communicate with each other. The aMCC is a functional hub that encodes information and predicts the energy requirements needed to obtain a particular goal. This cost-benefit analysis is the root of how individuals are able to determine what degree of effort a particular task is worth (Touroutoglou et al., 2019).
Many studies have looked at the role of the aMCC in human willpower. In terms of neuroimaging, researchers found that an individual’s grit (or determination) is related to the activity of this brain region. Interestingly, this magnitude of activation during judgments was shown to be a predictor of individual persistence (Wang et al., 2017).
Furthermore, the usage of deep brain stimulation has provided another lens into the neuroanatomy of willpower. This field has expanded tremendously in recent years as the use of electrodes has been demonstrated to evoke powerful changes in emotional behavior, alluding to its therapeutic potential in medical practices. Epileptic patients who have electrodes implanted in the aMCC reported a feeling of anticipation for a particular challenge along with a strong motivation to overcome it. Granted, given the nature of testing parameters these findings are with a small sample size (you can’t go around jabbing electrodes in people’s brains, patients have to have a very specific circumstance that makes them viable subjects). However, similar results have also been confirmed in rodent studies. Rats with a lesioned (removed) aMCC show a lower ability to endure hardship and tend to give up more easily when pursuing a food reward (Parvizi et al., 2013).
Moving on from the aMCC, a variety of other brain regions are associated with this topic of willpower. Researchers have identified two overlapping systems that help to explain how we make decisions; the “reactive system,” which is involved in immediate outcomes, and the “reflective system,” which is involved in longer-term scenarios. The reactive system is centered around the amygdala, which is a small structure deep in our brain that is widely correlated with emotional processing. However, the reflective system is centered around the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area of our brain that is commonly associated with decision-making. Researchers hypothesize that the notion of willpower arises from the dynamic interaction between these two systems and that hyperactivity of the reactive system (more short-term) sometimes overrides the reflective system, leading to disruptions in self-regulation. When neurotoxic substances such as drugs are added into the mix, structures that make up the reflective system can be compromised, possibly causing more issues with self-control (Noël et al., 2006).
So, what’s the deal with willpower? If we don’t have the strongest will, are we all doomed? Luckily, no. There are many instances in all of our lives that led to more determination, but how can we make sure those increases in willpower are more substantial and long-lasting? Two solutions emerge; decreasing effort costs, and increasing the value of the long-term benefit.
The costs of an action are associated with the detrimental consequences that come along with it, such as pain, the risk of not obtaining a reward, and other motor costs. One way to help reduce these costs is actually through physical activity. Even though this sounds like a cop-out answer, a variety of costs are likely to decrease with physical training. In 6 different studies, after participants engaged in a physical training program, there was a decrease in brain activity during a cognitive task compared to the start of the program. So, physical exercise can help not only to train your body but also to train your mind and can eventually lead to improvements in willpower (Audiffren et al., 2022).
In the same light, we can also work to increase the value of a goal-directed reward. The more meaningful our goals appear, the more motivated we will be to achieve them. This mindset comes from training our expectations and orienting our focus towards activities that bring the most fulfillment. While this is different for each individual, it is a practice that can actively be refined (Audiffren et al., 2022).
In everyday life, willpower can be easily forgotten. It is not something that we attend to all the time, especially when we live a comfortable lifestyle. But taking the moments to value our toughness and recognize the value of adversity is the first step to walking through life with bravery and confidence. How else will we become Batman?
Sources
Audiffren, M., André, N., & Baumeister, R. F. (2022). Training Willpower: Reducing Costs and Valuing Effort. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16, 699817. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.699817
Noël, X., Der Linden, M. V., & Bechara, A. (2006). The Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Decision-making, Impulse Control, and Loss of Willpower to Resist Drugs. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 3(5), 30-41. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990622/
Parvizi, J., Rangarajan, V., Shirer, W., Desai, N., & Greicius, M. D. (2013). The Will to Persevere Induced by Electrical Stimulation of the Human Cingulate Gyrus. Neuron, 80(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.10.057
Touroutoglou, A., Andreano, J., Dickerson, B. C., & Barrett, L. F. (2020). The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Contributes to Achieving Goals. Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, 123, 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2019.09.011
Wang, S., Zhou, M., Chen, T., Yang, X., Chen, G., Wang, M., & Gong, Q. (2017). Grit and the brain: Spontaneous activity of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex mediates the relationship between the trait grit and academic performance. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(3), 452-460. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw145
