By contrast, SS has also been shown to be associated with a unique neurocognitive profile that differs from IMP in that it is necessarily dependent on a motivational state, particularly incentive reward or reward anticipation. Sensation seekers, by definition, report being highly motivated by (or sensitive to) the presence or absence of incentive reward. Studies involving self-report, cognitive and neuroimaging measures have shown individuals high in SS to become particularly undercontrolled and reactive when anticipating incentive reward [28, 30]. However, under conditions where behaviour is motivated by avoidance of punishment, for example, they show normal or superior performance on tasks of cognitive and behavioural control [28, 31]. Sensation seekers also appear to be sensitive to incentive reward when it is provided in a pharmacological form. Numerous studies report that SS is associated with heightened reactivity, or sensitivity, to the pharmacological effects of alcohol and stimulants on indices of incentive reward, such as subjective high, cardiac acceleration [32, 33] and increased post-synaptic availability of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens [34].
