ABSTRACT
The brain itself spends a lot of its cognitive resources tagging uncertainty, and probability devices are operative at various levels of the neural axis, including the basal ganglia. This chapter argues that effort or the will is integral to one's ability to maintain long-term goals over short-term satisfaction. It discusses self-regulation and the expression of effort or the will; a realistic sense of human reason which is important for an understanding of effort and the will; the important role of precommitments to the organization of action, choice, and short and longer term decisions; and, finally, the role of dopamine in the prediction of reward or evaluation of objects. Addictions and other afflictions compromise the will. Sometimes, apparent weakness gets lumped with poor reasoning and with deficient motivated systems. Dopamine expression is essential for incentive motivation—the range of associations that is generated in terms of objects to approach or avoid.
