Most prior research characterizes information-seeking behaviors as serving utilitarian purposes, such as whether the obtained information can help solve practical problems. However, information-seeking behaviors are sensitive to different contexts (i.e., threat vs. curiosity), despite having equivalent utility. Furthermore, these search behaviors can be modulated by individuals' life history and personality traits. Yet the emphasis on utilitarian utility has precluded the development of a unified model, which explains when and how individuals actively seek information. To account for this variability and flexibility, we propose a unified information-seeking framework that examines information-seeking through the lens of motivation. This unified model accounts for integration across individuals' internal goal states and the salient features of the environment to influence information-seeking behavior. We propose that information-seeking is determined by motivation for information, invigorated either by instrumental utility or hedonic utility, wherein one's personal or environmental context moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we speculate that the final common denominator in guiding information-seeking is the engagement of different neuromodulatory circuits centered on dopaminergic and noradrenergic tone. Our framework provides a unified framework for information-seeking behaviors and generates several testable predictions for future studies.

Typically in the laboratory, cognitive and emotional processes are studied separately or as a stream of fleeting emotional stimuli embedded within a cognitive task. Yet in life, thoughts and actions often occur in more lasting emotional states of arousal. The current study examines the impact of emotions on actions using a novel behavioral paradigm and functional neuroimaging to assess cognitive control under sustained states of threat (anticipation of an aversive noise) and excitement (anticipation of winning money). Thirty-eight healthy adult participants were scanned while performing an emotional go/no-go task with positive (happy faces), negative (fearful faces), and neutral (calm faces) emotional cues, under threat or excitement. Cognitive control performance was enhanced during the excited state relative to a nonarousing control condition. This enhanced performance was paralleled by heightened activity of frontoparietal and frontostriatal circuitry. In contrast, under persistent threat, cognitive control was diminished when the valence of the emotional cue conflicted with the emotional state. Successful task performance in this conflicting emotional condition was associated with increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a default mode network region implicated in complex processes such as processing emotions in the context of self and monitoring performance. This region showed positive coupling with frontoparietal circuitry implicated in cognitive control, providing support for a role of the posterior cingulate cortex in mobilizing cognitive resources to improve performance. These findings suggest that emotional states of arousal differentially modulate cognitive control and point to the potential utility of this paradigm for understanding effects of situational and pathological states of arousal on behavior.