Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Figure 1.
A, Schematic figure of Experiments 1 and 3. Participants saw a screen on which a vase with 20 marbles was depicted, either of which could be red or blue, and the points associated with these marbles. Participants were told that one of the marbles would be selected for them and that they would be awarded with the points associated with this marble. Next, participants indicated how curious they were about seeing the outcome of the vase (1–4). There was a 50% chance of seeing the outcome, regardless of the participants' curiosity response. Importantly, a marble was selected in every trial, and participants were awarded with the points associated with this marble, also if they would not see the outcome of a trial. For details on the timing of the experiments, see text (for Experiment 1, see Procedure: behavioral; for Experiment 3, see Procedure: fMRI). B, Schematic figure of Experiment 2. The task was similar to Experiments 1 and 3, except that participants indicated whether they wanted to see the outcome of a trial or not. If they responded “Yes,” they had to wait an additional 3–6 s before the outcome was presented to them and if they responded “No,” the outcome was not presented to them. Still, a marble was selected in every trial and participants were awarded with the points associated with this marble, also if they chose not to see the outcome. For details on the timing of Experiment 2, see Procedure: behavioral.
- Figure 2.
Behavioral results of the three experiments. x axis indicates percentile bins of the values of OU (red) and EV (blue). y axis indicates the mean curiosity rating (A,C) or the percentage willingness to wait (B) for each percentile of OU and EV. In all panels, the effects of EV on curiosity are controlled for OU, and the effects of OU on curiosity are controlled for EV. In Experiment 1 (A), curiosity monotonically increased with increasing OU, but there was no significant modulation of curiosity by EV. This was confirmed by the results of Experiment 2 (B), in which the percentage willingness to wait increased with increasing OU, but not with increasing EV. In Experiment 3 (C), curiosity increased with increasing OU, but also with increasing EV, although the magnitude of the modulation by EV was markedly smaller. For details on behavioral data visualization, see Data visualization: behavioral. Error bars indicate SEM.
- Figure 3.
Clusters showing a positive (red) or negative (blue) activity as a function of OU. The maps are dual-coded and simultaneously display the contrast estimate (x axis) and unthresholded t values for the curiosity relief contrast (y axis). Thereby, the hue indicates the size of the contrast estimate, and the opacity indicates the height of the t value. Significant clusters (cluster-level corrected, FWE, p < 0.05) are encircled in white. One cluster in the left inferior parietal lobule showed a significant increase in activity with increasing OU, whereas a large network of regions showed a significant increase in activity with decreasing OU. The z coordinates correspond to the standard MNI brain. Neuroimaging data are plotted using a procedure introduced by Allen et al. (2012) and implemented by Zandbelt (2017).
- Figure 4.
Clusters showing a positive (red) or negative (blue) activity when comparing relieved versus non-relieved curiosity, at the time of the outcome presentation. Three brain regions showed larger response when curiosity was relieved (Curiosity Relief–Yes > Curiosity Relief–No): the right insula, the right middle orbitofrontal cortex, and the right inferior parietal lobule. When the outcome was withheld (Curiosity Relief–No > Curiosity Relief–Yes), this led to larger response in the right middle occipital gyrus, the left frontal superior gyrus, and the right frontal middle gyrus. Other conventions are as in Figure 3.
Tables
Anatomical region Hemisphere t Cluster size Corrected p Coordinates x y z OU Inferior parietal lobule Left 5.07 230 0.001 −34 −50 46 OU-negative Precuneus Right 7.20 726 < 0.001 0 −46 54 Postcentral gyrus Left 6.67 288 < 0.001 −52 −20 60 Hippocampus Left 6.33 157 0.007 −32 −18 −16 Fusiform gyrus Left 6.11 587 < 0.001 −22 −42 −10 Temporal superior gyrus Right 6.09 890 < 0.001 58 −46 18 Temporal middle gyrus Left 5.83 249 < 0.001 −58 2 −20 Frontal middle gyrus Right 5.67 421 < 0.001 24 18 56 Angular gyrus Right 5.62 286 < 0.001 46 −72 36 Fusiform gyrus Right 5.44 119 0.029 28 −34 −14 Frontal middle gyrus Left 5.26 512 < 0.001 −22 24 46 Calcarine sulcus Right 5.11 255 < 0.001 16 −52 8 Temporal middle gyrus Right 5.11 211 0.001 50 −20 −14 Calcarine sulcus Left 5.03 652 < 0.001 −12 −60 18 Occipital middle gyrus Left 4.90 252 < 0.001 −38 −82 38 EV-negative Calcarine sulcus Right 5.49 130 0.012 14 −60 18 Residual curiosity-positive Pre-SMA Left 4.61 258 <0.001 −8 22 46 ↵aSpatial coordinates of local maxima for regions showing activity as a function of OU or EV at the moment of curiosity induction. Coordinates correspond to the standard MNI brain. We used a primary voxel threshold of p < 0.001 (uncorrected) and a cluster-level correction of p < 0.05 (FWE).
Anatomical region Hemisphere t Cluster size Corrected p Coordinates x y z Curiosity Relief–Yes > Curiosity Relief–No Insula Right 6.14 124 0.018 36 12 −12 Middle orbitofrontal cortex Right 5.96 118 0.023 42 56 0 Inferior parietal lobule Right 5.82 204 0.001 40 −54 48 Curiosity Relief–No > Curiosity Relief–Yes Frontal superior gyrus Left 6.14 161 0.005 −22 12 66 Middle occipital gyrus Right 6.05 1076 < 0.001 36 −74 2 Frontal middle gyrus Right 5.19 298 < 0.001 30 34 48 ↵aSpatial coordinates of local maxima for regions showing activity as a function of outcome presentation (or not) at the moment of curiosity relief. Coordinates correspond to the standard MNI brain. We used a primary voxel threshold of p < 0.001 (uncorrected) and a cluster-level correction of p < 0.05 (FWE).
