{
  "abstract": "Despite major advances in computational psychiatry, neuroimaging, and preclinical neuroscience, progress in the development of effective treatments for motivational dysfunction has remained challenging. Here, we argue that part of this challenge arises because complex real-life motivational phenomena are progressively transformed when they move across the translational research spectrum. The aim of this brief review is to highlight three related gaps that contribute to this form of “translational misalignment”. First, experimental paradigms simplify and compress ecological human motivational experiences into tractable (sub-)constructs. Second, clinical manifestations of motivational dysfunction are heterogeneous, measured and operationalized inconsistently across research fields, and only partially align with metrics from experimental paradigms. Third, preclinical animal models rely on behavioral inference, aim for mechanistic optimization, and often use extreme and/or constrained phenotypes that may incompletely correspond to motivational dysfunction in humans. We conclude with a discussion on how more iterative and human-grounded forms of back-translation could help preserve alignment between lived motivational phenomena, laboratory measures, clinical symptoms, and preclinical models. These approaches may ultimately improve translational validity in reinforcement- and motivation-focused neuropsychopharmacology research and aide the much-needed delivery of new therapeutics.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Dennis Hernaus"
    },
    {
      "name": "Geor Bakker"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gerard R. Dawson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Oliver Grimm"
    },
    {
      "name": "Catherine Harmer"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mitul Mehta"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jonathan Roiser"
    },
    {
      "name": "James Waltz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nic van der Wee"
    },
    {
      "name": "Elizabeth Tunbridge"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8vz950zstmn0j.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/n6hd7_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8vz950zstmn0j",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/n6hd7_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Psychiatry"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Behavioral Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2804|Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7211969400",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/n6hd7/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-08",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8vz950zstmn0j.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
      "native_id": "n6hd7",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/n6hd7_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "bepress:Psychiatry",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "On Translational Misalignment in Reinforcement and Motivation Research",
  "title_text": "On Translational Misalignment in Reinforcement and Motivation Research",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8vz950zstmn0j",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": []
}