A Neuroimaging Study Protocol on the Motivational Structures of Physicians Belonging to Private and Public Health

Abstract

Health economics literature has demonstrated that physician motivation is related with three reasons—extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and prosocial motivation—and that this motivational structure is influenced by the type of organization in which they work. Yet this research proves insufficient to identify the origin of the physician's psychological motivations. To shed light on this gap, this chapter aims to outline a neuroimaging methodology which would prove useful to identify the neurocognitive motivational structures of hospital physicians with the proposes the design of several intrasubject laboratory experiments, using the functional neuroimaging technique magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Identifying the neuronal origin of doctors' motivational framework belonging to private or public health organizations would be a step forward in defining the most appropriate motivational plan for a medical profile working in different hospital environments.