WHY IS MOTIVATION IMPORTANT FOR MANY STUDENTS AFTER TBI?
Motivation is an important theme for many students after brain injury in part because (1) some brain injury related impairments may be misinterpreted to be motivation impairments and in part because (2) motivation is understandably dampened when the student is unable or not allowed to engage in activities that were motivating before the injury. Occasionally specialists in brain functioning describe a system of brain areas that underlies motivation, that is, motivation circuitry in the brain. As expected, these areas are largely in the frontal lobes. However, it is hard to distinguish between motivation circuits, on the one hand, and areas of the brain that subserve initiation, activation, task orientation, working memory, and other functions that, if damaged, result in behaviors that are easily mistaken for lack of motivation. 1. Brain Injury Related Impairment: Initiation Impairment: Students with damage to the dorsal (top) parts of the frontal lobes may have some degree of initiation
