Barratt Impulsivity and Neural Regulation of Physiological Arousal

PubMed Central

Zhang, Sheng; Hu, Sien; Hu, Jianping; Wu, Po-Lun; Chao, Herta H.; Li, Chiang-shan R.

2015-01-01

Background Theories of personality have posited an increased arousal response to external stimulation in impulsive individuals. However, there is a dearth of studies addressing the neural basis of this association. Methods We recorded skin conductance in 26 individuals who were assessed with Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) and performed a stop signal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging data were processed and modeled with Statistical Parametric Mapping. We used linear regressions to examine correlations between impulsivity and skin conductance response (SCR) to salient events, identify the neural substrates of arousal regulation, and examine the relationship between the regulatory mechanism and impulsivity. Results Across subjects, higher impulsivity is associated with greater SCR to stop trials. Activity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) negatively correlated to and Granger caused skin conductance time course. Furthermore, higher impulsivity is associated with a lesser strength of Granger causality of vmPFC activity on skin conductance, consistent with diminished control of physiological arousal to external stimulation. When men (n = 14) and women (n = 12) were examined separately, however, there was evidence suggesting association between impulsivity and vmPFC regulation of arousal only in women. Conclusions Together, these findings confirmed the link between Barratt impulsivity and heightened arousal to salient stimuli in both genders and suggested the neural bases of altered regulation of arousal in impulsive women. More research is needed to explore the neural processes of arousal regulation in impulsive individuals and in clinical conditions that implicate poor impulse control. PMID:26079873

Barratt Impulsivity and Neural Regulation of Physiological Arousal.

PubMed

Zhang, Sheng; Hu, Sien; Hu, Jianping; Wu, Po-Lun; Chao, Herta H; Li, Chiang-shan R

2015-01-01

Theories of personality have posited an increased arousal response to external stimulation in impulsive individuals. However, there is a dearth of studies addressing the neural basis of this association. We recorded skin conductance in 26 individuals who were assessed with Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) and performed a stop signal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging data were processed and modeled with Statistical Parametric Mapping. We used linear regressions to examine correlations between impulsivity and skin conductance response (SCR) to salient events, identify the neural substrates of arousal regulation, and examine the relationship between the regulatory mechanism and impulsivity. Across subjects, higher impulsivity is associated with greater SCR to stop trials. Activity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) negatively correlated to and Granger caused skin conductance time course. Furthermore, higher impulsivity is associated with a lesser strength of Granger causality of vmPFC activity on skin conductance, consistent with diminished control of physiological arousal to external stimulation. When men (n = 14) and women (n = 12) were examined separately, however, there was evidence suggesting association between impulsivity and vmPFC regulation of arousal only in women. Together, these findings confirmed the link between Barratt impulsivity and heightened arousal to salient stimuli in both genders and suggested the neural bases of altered regulation of arousal in impulsive women. More research is needed to explore the neural processes of arousal regulation in impulsive individuals and in clinical conditions that implicate poor impulse control.

Paralimbic and lateral prefrontal encoding of reward value during intertemporal choice in attempted suicide.

PubMed

Vanyukov, P M; Szanto, K; Hallquist, M N; Siegle, G J; Reynolds, C F; Forman, S D; Aizenstein, H J; Dombrovski, A Y

2016-01-01

Alongside impulsive suicide attempts, clinicians encounter highly premeditated suicidal acts, particularly in older adults. We have previously found that in contrast to the more impulsive suicide attempters' inability to delay gratification, serious and highly planned suicide attempts were associated with greater willingness to wait for larger rewards. This study examined neural underpinnings of intertemporal preference in suicide attempters. We expected that impulsivity and suicide attempts, particularly poorly planned ones, would predict altered paralimbic subjective value representations. We also examined lateral prefrontal and paralimbic correlates of premeditation in suicidal behavior. A total of 48 participants aged 46-90 years underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization and completed the delay discounting task in the scanner: 26 individuals with major depression (13 with and 13 without history of suicide attempts) and 22 healthy controls. More impulsive individuals displayed greater activation in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) to value difference favoring the delayed option. Suicide attempts, particularly better-planned ones, were associated with deactivation of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) in response to value difference favoring the immediate option. Findings were robust to medication exposure, depression severity and possible brain damage from suicide attempts, among other confounders. Finally, in suicide attempters longer reward delays were associated with diminished parahippocampal responses. Impulsivity was associated with an altered paralimbic (precuneus/PCC) encoding of value difference during intertemporal choice. By contrast, better-planned suicidal acts were associated with altered lPFC representations of value difference. The study provides preliminary evidence of impaired decision processes in both impulsive and premeditated suicidal behavior.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder's Underlying Dimensions and Their Relation With Impulsivity Facets.

PubMed

Contractor, Ateka A; Armour, Cherie; Forbes, David; Elhai, Jon D

2016-01-01

Research indicates a significant relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and impulsivity (Kotler, Julian, Efront, and Amir, J Nerv Ment Dis 189:162-167, 2001; Ledgerwood and Petry, J Trauma Stress 19:411-416, 2006). The present study assessed relations between PTSD symptom clusters and impulsivity subscales in an effort to assess the specific impulsivity component most related to PTSD's alterations in arousal/reactivity and alterations in mood/cognitions symptoms. In the current study, the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, and the UPPS Impulsivity Scale were administered to a sample of 412 nonclinical subjects with a trauma history. Results indicated that PTSD's alterations in arousal/reactivity and mood/cognition factors were most related to impulsivity's sensation-seeking tendency compared with other impulsivity components. Results highlight the importance of assessing and addressing (1) sensation-seeking tendencies and (2) urges to act impulsively when experiencing negative affect in trauma treatment. Furthermore, it is possible that sensation-seeking tendencies are primarily driving the comorbidity between PTSD and certain impulsive behaviors.

Attentional impulsivity in binge eating disorder modulates response inhibition performance and frontal brain networks.

PubMed

Hege, M A; Stingl, K T; Kullmann, S; Schag, K; Giel, K E; Zipfel, S; Preissl, H

2015-02-01

A subgroup of overweight and obese people is characterized by binge eating disorder (BED). Increased impulsivity has been suggested to cause binge eating and subsequent weight gain. In the current study, neuronal correlates of increased impulsivity in binge eating disorder during behavioral response inhibition were investigated. Magnetic brain activity and behavioral responses of 37 overweight and obese individuals with and without diagnosed BED were recorded while performing a food-related visual go-nogo task. Trait impulsivity was assessed with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Specifically, increased attentional impulsiveness (a subscale of the BIS-11) in BED was related to decreased response inhibition performance and hypoactivity in the prefrontal control network, which was activated when response inhibition was required. Furthermore, participants with BED showed a trend for a food-specific inhibition performance decline. This was possibly related to the absence of a food-specific activity increase in the prefrontal control network in BED, as observed in the control group. In addition, an increase in activity related to the actual button press during prepotent responses and alterations in visual processing were observed. Our results suggest an attentional impulsiveness-related attenuation in response inhibition performance in individuals with BED. This might have been related to increased reward responsiveness and limited resources to activate the prefrontal control network involved in response inhibition. Our results substantiate the importance of neuronal markers for investigating prevention and treatment of obesity, especially in specific subgroups at risk such as BED.

Altered Intrinsic Hippocmapus Declarative Memory Network and Its Association with Impulsivity in Abstinent Heroin Dependent Subjects

PubMed Central

Zhai, Tian-Ye; Shao, Yong-Cong; Xie, Chun-Ming; Ye, En-Mao; Zou, Feng; Fu, Li-Ping; Li, Wen-Jun; Chen, Gang; Chen, Guang-Yu; Zhang, Zheng-Guo; Li, Shi-Jiang; Yang, Zheng

2014-01-01

Converging evidence suggests that addiction can be considered a disease of aberrant learning and memory with impulsive decision-making. In the past decades, numerous studies have demonstrated that drug addiction is involved in multiple memory systems such as classical conditioned drug memory, instrumental learning memory and the habitual learning memory. However, most of these studies have focused on the contributions of non-declarative memory, and declarative memory has largely been neglected in the research of addiction. Based on a recent finding that hippocampus, as a core functioning region of declarative memory, was proved biased the decision-making process based on past experiences by spreading associated reward values throughout memory. Our present study focused on the hippocampus. By utilizing seed-based network analysis on the resting-state functional MRI datasets with the seed hippocampus we tested how the intrinsic hippocampal memory network altered towards drug addiction, and examined how the functional connectivity strength within the altered hippocampal network correlated with behavioral index ‘impulsivity’. Our results demonstrated that HD group showed enhanced coherence between hippocampus which represents declarative memory system and non-declarative rewardguided learning memory system, and also showed attenuated intrinsic functional link between hippocampus and top-down control system, compared to the CN group. This alteration was furthered found to have behavioral significance over the behavioral index ‘impulsivity’ measured with Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). These results provide insights into the mechanism of declarative memory underlying the impulsive behavior in drug addiction. PMID:25008351

Sense of control under uncertainty depends on people's childhood environment: a life history theory approach.

PubMed

Mittal, Chiraag; Griskevicius, Vladas

2014-10-01

Past research found that environmental uncertainty leads people to behave differently depending on their childhood environment. For example, economic uncertainty leads people from poor childhoods to become more impulsive while leading people from wealthy childhoods to become less impulsive. Drawing on life history theory, we examine the psychological mechanism driving such diverging responses to uncertainty. Five experiments show that uncertainty alters people's sense of control over the environment. Exposure to uncertainty led people from poorer childhoods to have a significantly lower sense of control than those from wealthier childhoods. In addition, perceptions of control statistically mediated the effect of uncertainty on impulsive behavior. These studies contribute by demonstrating that sense of control is a psychological driver of behaviors associated with fast and slow life history strategies. We discuss the implications of this for theory and future research, including that environmental uncertainty might lead people who grew up poor to quit challenging tasks sooner than people who grew up wealthy. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Altered spatial learning and delay discounting in a rat model of human third trimester binge ethanol exposure

PubMed Central

Bañuelos, Cristina; Gilbert, Ryan J.; Montgomery, Karienn S.; Fincher, Annette S.; Wang, Haiying; Frye, Gerald D.; Setlow, Barry; Bizon, Jennifer L.

2012-01-01

Ethanol exposure during perinatal development can cause cognitive abnormalities including difficulties in learning, attention, and memory, as well as heightened impulsivity. The purpose of this study was to assess performance in spatial learning and impulsive choice tasks in rats subjected to an intragastric intubation model of binge ethanol exposure during human third trimester-equivalent brain development. Male and female Sprague–Dawley rat pups were intubated with ethanol (5.25 g/kg/day) on postnatal days 4–9. At adolescence (between postnatal days 35–38), these rats and sham intubated within-litter controls were trained in both spatial and cued versions of the Morris water maze. A subset of the male rats was subsequently tested on a delay-discounting task to assess impulsive choice. Ethanol-exposed rats were spatially impaired relative to controls, but performed comparably to controls on the cued version of the water maze. Ethanol-exposed rats also showed greater preference for large delayed rewards on the delay discounting task, but no evidence for altered reward sensitivity or perseverative behavior. These data demonstrate that early postnatal intermittent binge-like ethanol exposure has prolonged, detrimental, but selective effects on cognition, suggesting that even relatively brief ethanol exposure late in human pregnancy can be deleterious for cognitive function. PMID:22129556

Lorcaserin and CP-809101 reduce motor impulsivity and reinstatement of food seeking behavior in male rats: Implications for understanding the anti-obesity property of 5-HT2C receptor agonists.

PubMed

Higgins, Guy A; Silenieks, Leo B; Altherr, Everett B; MacMillan, Cam; Fletcher, Paul J; Pratt, Wayne E

2016-07-01

The 5-HT2C receptor agonist lorcaserin (Belviq®) has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of obesity. Impulsivity is a contributory feature of some eating disorders. Experiments investigated the effect of lorcaserin and the highly selective 5-HT2C agonist CP-809101 on measures of impulsivity and on reinstatement of food-seeking behaviour, a model of dietary relapse. The effect of both drugs on 22-h deprivation-induced feeding was also examined, as was the effect of prefeeding in each impulsivity test. Lorcaserin (0.3-0.6 mg/kg SC) and CP-809101 (0.6-1 mg/kg SC) reduced premature responding in rats trained on the 5-CSRTT and improved accuracy in a Go-NoGo task by reducing false alarms. At equivalent doses, both drugs also reduced reinstatement for food-seeking behaviour. Neither drug altered impulsive choice measured in a delay-discounting task. Lorcaserin (1-3 mg/kg SC) and CP-809101 (3-6 mg/kg SC) reduced deprivation-induced feeding but only at higher doses. These results suggest that in addition to previously reported effects on satiety and reward, altered impulse control may represent a contributory factor to the anti-obesity property of 5-HT2C receptor agonists. Lorcaserin may promote weight loss by improving adherence to dietary regimens in individuals otherwise prone to relapse and may be beneficial in cases where obesity is associated with eating disorders tied to impulsive traits, such as binge eating disorder.

Impulse Control Disorders and Related Complications of Parkinson’s Disease Therapy

PubMed Central

Lopez, Alexander M.; Weintraub, Daniel; Claassen, Daniel O.

2017-01-01

Impulsive and compulsive behaviors in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients are most often attributed to dopamine agonist therapy; dysregulation of the mesocorticolimbic system accounts for this behavioral phenotype. The clinical presentation is commonly termed impulse control disorder (ICD): Behaviors include hypersexuality, compulsive eating, shopping, pathological gambling, and compulsive hobby participation. However, not all PD individuals taking dopamine agonists develop these behavioral changes. In this review, the authors focus on the similarities between the phenotypic presentation of ICDs with that of other reward-based behavioral disorders, including binge eating disorder, pathological gambling, and substance use disorders. With this comparison, we emphasize that the transition from an impulsive to compulsive behavior likely follows a ventral to dorsal striatal pattern, where an altered dopaminergic reward system underlies the emergence of these problematic behaviors. The authors discuss the neurobiological similarities between these latter disorders and ICDs, emphasizing similar pathophysiological processes and discussing treatment options that have potential for translation to PD patients. PMID:28511259

Alterations of Brain Functional Architecture Associated with Psychopathic Traits in Male Adolescents with Conduct Disorder.

PubMed

Pu, Weidan; Luo, Qiang; Jiang, Yali; Gao, Yidian; Ming, Qingsen; Yao, Shuqiao

2017-09-12

Psychopathic traits of conduct disorder (CD) have a core callous-unemotional (CU) component and an impulsive-antisocial component. Previous task-driven fMRI studies have suggested that psychopathic traits are associated with dysfunction of several brain areas involved in different cognitive functions (e.g., empathy, reward, and response inhibition etc.), but the relationship between psychopathic traits and intrinsic brain functional architecture has not yet been explored in CD. Using a holistic brain-wide functional connectivity analysis, this study delineated the alterations in brain functional networks in patients with conduct disorder. Compared with matched healthy controls, we found decreased anti-synchronization between the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and default mode network (DMN), and increased intra-network synchronization within the frontothalamic-basal ganglia, right frontoparietal, and temporal/limbic/visual networks in CD patients. Correlation analysis showed that the weakened FPN-DMN interaction was associated with CU traits, while the heightened intra-network functional connectivity was related to impulsivity traits in CD patients. Our findings suggest that decoupling of cognitive control (FPN) with social understanding of others (DMN) is associated with the CU traits, and hyper-functions of the reward and motor inhibition systems elevate impulsiveness in CD.

The neurobiology of impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: from neurotransmitters to neural networks.

PubMed

Vriend, Chris

2018-01-30

Impulse control disorders (ICD) are common neuropsychiatric disorders that can arise in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients after commencing dopamine replacement therapy. Approximately 15% of all patients develop these disorders and many more exhibit subclinical symptoms of impulsivity. ICD is thought to develop due to an interaction between the use of dopaminergic medication and an as yet unknown neurobiological vulnerability that either pre-existed before PD onset (possibly genetic) or is associated with neural alterations due to the PD pathology. This review discusses genes, neurotransmitters and neural networks that have been implicated in the pathophysiology of ICD in PD. Although dopamine and the related reward system have been the main focus of research, recently, studies have started to look beyond those systems to find new clues to the neurobiological underpinnings of ICD and come up with possible new targets for treatment. Studies on the whole-brain connectome to investigate the global alterations due to ICD development are currently lacking. In addition, there is a dire need for longitudinal studies that are able to disentangle the contributions of individual (genetic) traits and secondary effects of the PD pathology and chronic dopamine replacement therapy to the development of ICD in PD.

White matter microstructure and impulsivity in methamphetamine dependence with and without a history of psychosis.

PubMed

Uhlmann, Anne; Fouche, Jean-Paul; Lederer, Katharina; Meintjes, Ernesta M; Wilson, Don; Stein, Dan J

2016-06-01

Methamphetamine (MA) use may lead to white matter injury and to a range of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders, including psychosis. The present study sought to assess white matter microstructural impairment as well as impulsive behavior in MA dependence and MA-associated psychosis (MAP). Thirty patients with a history of MAP, 39 participants with MA dependence and 40 healthy controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Participants also completed the UPPS-P impulsive behavior questionnaire. We applied tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to investigate group differences in mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), axial (λ‖ ) and radial diffusivity (λ⊥ ), and their association with impulsivity scores and psychotic symptoms. The MAP group displayed widespread higher MD, λ‖ and λ⊥ levels compared to both controls and the MA group, and lower FA in extensive white matter areas relative to controls. MD levels correlated positively with negative psychotic symptoms in MAP. No significant DTI group differences were found between the MA group and controls. Both clinical groups showed high levels of impulsivity, and this dysfunction was associated with DTI measures in frontal white matter tracts. MAP patients show distinct patterns of impaired white matter integrity of global nature relative to controls and the MA group. Future work to investigate the precise nature and timing of alterations in MAP is needed. The results are further suggestive of frontal white matter pathology playing a role in impulsivity in MA dependence and MAP. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2055-2067, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Overlapping Neural Endophenotypes in Addiction and Obesity

PubMed Central

Michaud, Andréanne; Vainik, Uku; Garcia-Garcia, Isabel; Dagher, Alain

2017-01-01

Impulsivity refers to a tendency to act rapidly without full consideration of consequences. The trait is thought to result from the interaction between high arousal responses to potential rewards and poor self-control. Studies have suggested that impulsivity confers vulnerability to both addiction and obesity. However, results in this area are unclear, perhaps due to the high phenotypic complexity of addictions and obesity. Focusing on impulsivity, the aim of this review is to tackle the putative overlaps between addiction and obesity in four domains: (1) personality research, (2) neurocognitive tasks, (3) brain imaging, and (4) clinical evidence. We suggest that three impulsivity-related domains are particularly relevant for our understanding of similarities between addiction and obesity: lower self-control (high Disinhibition/low Conscientiousness), reward sensitivity (high Extraversion/Positive Emotionality), and negative affect (high Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality). Neurocognitive studies have shown that obesity and addiction are both associated with increased impulsive decision-making and attention bias in response to drug or food cues, respectively. Mirroring this, obesity and different forms of addiction seem to exhibit similar alterations in functional MRI brain activity in response to reward processing and during self-control tasks. Overall, our review provides an integrative approach to understand those facets of obesity that present similarities to addictive behaviors. In addition, we suggest that therapeutic interventions targeting inhibitory control may represent a promising approach for the prevention and/or treatment of obesity. PMID:28659866

Lesions to the subthalamic nucleus decrease impulsive choice but impair autoshaping in rats: the importance of the basal ganglia in Pavlovian conditioning and impulse control.

PubMed

Winstanley, Catharine A; Baunez, Christelle; Theobald, David E H; Robbins, Trevor W

2005-06-01

Although the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is involved in regulating motor function, and inactivation of this structure relieves the motor symptoms in Parkinsonian patients, recent data indicate that corticosubthalamic connections are involved in both the regulation of attention and the ability to withhold from responding. Considerable evidence suggests that the neural circuitry underlying such behavioural disinhibition or impulsive action can be at least partially dissociated from that implicated in impulsive decision-making and it has been suggested that the tendency to choose impulsively is related to the ability to form and use Pavlovian associations. To explore these hypotheses further, STN-lesioned rats were tested on the delay-discounting model of impulsive choice, where impulsivity is defined as the selection of a small immediate over a larger delayed reward, as well as in a rodent autoshaping paradigm. In contrast to previous reports of increased impulsive action, STN lesions decreased impulsive choice but dramatically impaired the acquisition of the autoshaping response. When the STN was lesioned after the establishment of autoshaping behaviour, lesioned subjects were more sensitive to the omission of reward, indicative of a reduction in the use of Pavlovian associations to control autoshaping performance. These results emphasize the importance of the STN in permitting conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus associations to regulate goal-seeking, a function which may relate to the alterations in impulsive choice observed in the delay-discounting task. These data bear a striking similarity to those observed after lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex and are suggestive of an important role for corticosubthalamic connections in complex cognitive behaviour.

Mindful eating reduces impulsive food choice in adolescents and adults.

PubMed

Hendrickson, Kelsie L; Rasmussen, Erin B

2017-03-01

The present study tested the extent to which age and obesity predicted impulsive choices for food and monetary outcomes and tested how a brief mindful-eating training would alter delay discounting for food and money choices compared with control groups. First, 172 adolescents (M age = 13.13 years) and 176 (M age = 23.33 years) adults completed the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) as measures of food and money delay discounting, respectively. Then, participants returned to the lab and were randomly assigned to complete a brief mindful-eating training, watch a DVD on nutrition, or serve as a control. Participants completed the FCQ and MCQ again as a postmanipulation measure. Participants with high percent body fat (PBF) were more impulsive for food than those with low PBF. Adults with high PBF were also more impulsive for money compared with adults with low PBF; no PBF-related differences were found for adolescents. Participants in the mindful-eating group exhibited more self-controlled choices for food, but not for money. The control conditions did not exhibit changes. The study suggests that individuals with high PBF make more impulsive food choices relative to those with low PBF, which could increase the risk of obesity over time. It also is the first to demonstrate shifts in choice patterns for food and money using a brief mindful-eating training with adolescents. Mindful eating is a beneficial strategy to reduce impulsive food choice, at least temporarily, that may impede weight gain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Methylphenidate alleviates manganese-induced impulsivity but not distractibility

PubMed Central

Beaudin, Stephane A.; Strupp, Barbara J.; Uribe, Walter; Ysais, Lauren; Strawderman, Myla; Smith, Donald R.

2017-01-01

Recent studies from our lab have demonstrated that postnatal manganese (Mn) exposure in a rodent model can cause lasting impairments in fine motor control and attention, and that oral methylphenidate (MPH) treatment can effectively treat the dysfunction in fine motor control. However, it is unknown whether MPH treatment can alleviate the impairments in attention produced by Mn exposure. Here we used a rodent model of postnatal Mn exposure to determine whether (1) oral MPH alleviates attention and impulse control deficits caused by postnatal Mn exposure, using attention tasks that are variants of the 5-choice serial reaction time task, and (2) whether these treatments affected neuronal dendritic spine density in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsal striatum. Male Long-Evans rats were exposed orally to 0 or 50 mg Mn/kg/d throughout life starting on PND 1, and tested as young adults (PND 107 – 115) on an attention task that specifically tapped selective attention and impulse control. Animals were treated with oral MPH (2.5 mg/kg/d) throughout testing on the attention task. Our findings show that lifelong postnatal Mn exposure impaired impulse control and selective attention in young adulthood, and that a therapeutically relevant oral MPH regimen alleviated the Mn-induced dysfunction in impulse control, but not selective attention, and actually impaired focused attention in the Mn group. In addition, the effect of MPH was qualitatively different for the Mn-exposed versus control animals across a range of behavioral measures of inhibitory control and attention, as well as dendritic spine density in the mPFC, suggesting that postnatal Mn exposure alters catecholaminergic systems modulating these behaviors. Collectively these findings suggest that MPH may hold promise for treating the behavioral dysfunction caused by developmental Mn exposure, although further research is needed with multiple MPH doses to determine whether a dose can be identified that ameliorates the dysfunction in both impulse control and selective attention, without impairing focused attention. PMID:28363668

Methylphenidate alleviates manganese-induced impulsivity but not distractibility.

PubMed

Beaudin, Stephane A; Strupp, Barbara J; Uribe, Walter; Ysais, Lauren; Strawderman, Myla; Smith, Donald R

2017-05-01

Recent studies from our lab have demonstrated that postnatal manganese (Mn) exposure in a rodent model can cause lasting impairments in fine motor control and attention, and that oral methylphenidate (MPH) treatment can effectively treat the dysfunction in fine motor control. However, it is unknown whether MPH treatment can alleviate the impairments in attention produced by Mn exposure. Here we used a rodent model of postnatal Mn exposure to determine whether (1) oral MPH alleviates attention and impulse control deficits caused by postnatal Mn exposure, using attention tasks that are variants of the 5-choice serial reaction time task, and (2) whether these treatments affected neuronal dendritic spine density in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsal striatum. Male Long-Evans rats were exposed orally to 0 or 50Mn/kg/d throughout life starting on PND 1, and tested as young adults (PND 107-115) on an attention task that specifically tapped selective attention and impulse control. Animals were treated with oral MPH (2.5mg/kg/d) throughout testing on the attention task. Our findings show that lifelong postnatal Mn exposure impaired impulse control and selective attention in young adulthood, and that a therapeutically relevant oral MPH regimen alleviated the Mn-induced dysfunction in impulse control, but not selective attention, and actually impaired focused attention in the Mn group. In addition, the effect of MPH was qualitatively different for the Mn-exposed versus control animals across a range of behavioral measures of inhibitory control and attention, as well as dendritic spine density in the mPFC, suggesting that postnatal Mn exposure alters catecholaminergic systems modulating these behaviors. Collectively these findings suggest that MPH may hold promise for treating the behavioral dysfunction caused by developmental Mn exposure, although further research is needed with multiple MPH doses to determine whether a dose can be identified that ameliorates the dysfunction in both impulse control and selective attention, without impairing focused attention. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Molecular imaging and neural networks in impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Aracil-Bolaños, I; Strafella, A P

2016-01-01

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) may arise in Parkinson's disease (PD) in relation to the use of dopamine agonists (DA). A dysfunction of reward circuits is considered the main underlying mechanism. Neuroimaging has been largely used in this setting to understand the structure of the reward system and its abnormalities brought by exogenous stimulation in PD. Dopaminergic changes, such as increased dopamine release, reduced dopamine transporter activity and other changes, have been shown to be a consistent feature of ICDs in PD. Beyond the striatum, alterations of prefrontal cortical function may also impact an individuals' propensity for impulsivity. Neuroimaging is advancing our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in the development of these behavioral addictions. An increased understanding of these disorders may lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets, or the identification of risk factors for the development of these disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Methamphetamine, d-amphetamine and p-chloroamphetamine induced neurotoxicity differentially effect impulsive responding on the stop-signal task in rats

PubMed Central

Furlong, Teri M.; Leavitt, Lee S.; Keefe, Kristen A.; Son, Jong-Hyun

2016-01-01

Abused amphetamines, such as d-amphetamine (AMPH) and methamphetamine (METH), are highly addictive and destructive to health and productive lifestyles. The abuse of these drugs is associated with impulsive behavior, which is likely to contribute to addiction. The amphetamines also differentially damage dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) systems, which regulate impulsive behavior; therefore, exposure to these drugs may differentially alter impulsive behavior to effect the progression of addiction. We examined the impact of neurotoxicity induced by three amphetamines on impulsive action using a stop-signal task in rats. Animals were rewarded with a food pellet after lever pressing (i.e. a go trial), unless an auditory cue was presented and withholding lever press gained reward (i.e. a stop trial). Animals were trained on the task and then exposed to a neurotoxic regimen of either AMPH, p-chloroamphetamine (PCA), or METH. These regimens preferentially reduced DA transporter levels in striatum, 5-HT transporter levels in prefrontal cortex, or both, respectively. Assessment of performance on the stop-signal task beginning one week after the treatment revealed that AMPH produced a deficit in go-trial performance, whereas PCA did not alter performance on either trial type. In contrast, METH produced a deficit in stop-trial performance (i.e. impulsive action) but not go-trial performance. These findings suggest that the different neurotoxic consequences of substituted amphetamines are associated with different effects on inhibitory control over behavior. Thus, the course of addiction and maladaptive behavior resulting from exposure to these substances is likely to differ. PMID:26846719

Extrastriatal dopaminergic abnormalities of DA homeostasis in Parkinson’s patients with medication-induced pathological gambling: A [11C] FLB-457 and PET study

PubMed Central

Ray, Nicola J.; Miyasaki, Janis M.; Zurowski, Mateusz; Ko, Ji Hyun; Cho, Sang Soo; Pellecchia, Giovanna; Antonelli, Francesca; Houle, Sylvain; Lang, Anthony E.; Strafella, Antonio P.

2012-01-01

Impulse control disorders such as pathological gambling (PG) are a serious and common adverse effect of dopamine (DA) replacement medication in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Patients with PG have increased impulsivity and abnormalities in striatal DA, in common with behavioural and substance addictions in the non-PD population. To date, no studies have investigated the role of extrastriatal dopaminergic abnormalities in PD patients with PG. We used the PET radiotracer, [11C] FLB-457, with high-affinity for extrastriatal DA D2/3 receptors. 14 PD patients on DA agonists were imaged while they performed a gambling task involving real monetary reward and a control task. Trait impulsivity was measured with the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS). Seven of the patients had a history of PG that developed subsequent to DA agonist medication. Change in [11C] FLB-457 binding potential (BP) during gambling was reduced in PD with PG patients in the midbrain, where D2/D3 receptors are dominated by autoreceptors. The degree of change in [11C] FLB-457 binding in this region correlated with impulsivity. In the cortex, [11C] FLB-457 BP was significantly greater in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in PD patients with PG during the control task, and binding in this region was also correlated with impulsivity. Our findings provide the first evidence that PD patients with PG have dysfunctional activation of DA autoreceptors in the midbrain and low DA tone in the ACC. Thus, altered striatal and cortical DA homeostasis may incur vulnerability for the development of PG in PD, linked with the impulsive personality trait. PMID:22766031

Improving control over the impulse for reward: sensitivity of harmful alcohol drinkers to delayed reward but not immediate punishment.

PubMed

Rossiter, Sarah; Thompson, Julian; Hester, Robert

2012-09-01

Cognitive control dysfunction has been identified in dependent alcohol users and implicated in the transition from abuse to dependence, although evidence of dyscontrol in chronic but non-dependent 'harmful' alcohol abusers is mixed. The current study examined harmful alcohol users response inhibition over rewarding stimuli in the presence of monetary reward and punishment, to determine whether changes in sensitivity to these factors, noted in imaging studies of dependent users, influences impulse control. Harmful (n=30) and non-hazardous (n=55) alcohol users were administered a Monetary Incentive Go/No-go task that required participants to inhibit a prepotent motor response associated with reward. Harmful alcohol users showed a significantly poorer ability to withhold their impulse for a rewarding stimulus in the presence of immediate monetary punishment for failure, while retaining equivalent response inhibition performance under neutral conditions (associated with neither monetary loss or gain), and significantly better performance under delayed reward conditions. The results of the present study suggest that non-dependent alcohol abusers have altered sensitivity to reward and punishment that influences their impulse control for reward, in the absence of gross dyscontrol that is consistent with past findings in which such performance contingencies were not used. The ability of delayed monetary reward, but not punishment, to increase sustained impulse control in this sample has implications for the mechanism that might underlie the transition from alcohol abuse to dependence, as well as intervention strategies aimed at preventing this transition. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulsive aggression and response inhibition in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and disruptive behavioral disorders: Findings from a systematic review.

PubMed

Puiu, Andrei A; Wudarczyk, Olga; Goerlich, Katharina S; Votinov, Mikhail; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Turetsky, Bruce; Konrad, Kerstin

2018-04-22

Although impulsive aggression (IA) and dysfunctional response inhibition (RI) are hallmarks of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disrupted behavioral disorders (DBDs), little is known about their shared and distinct deviant neural mechanisms. Here, we selectively reviewed s/fMRI ADHD and DBD studies to identify disorder-specific and shared IA and RI aberrant neural mechanisms. In ADHD, deviant prefrontal and cingulate functional activity was associated with increased IA. Structural alterations were most pronounced in the cingulate cortex. Subjects with DBDs showed marked cortico-subcortical dysfunctions. ADHD and DBDs share similar cortico-limbic structural and functional alterations. RI deficits in ADHD highlighted hypoactivity in the dorso/ventro-lateral PFC, insula, and striatum, while the paralimbic system was primarily dysfunctional in DBDs. Across disorders, extensively altered cortico-limbic dysfunctions underlie IA, while RI was mostly associated with aberrant prefrontal activity. Control network deficits were evidenced across clinical phenotypes in IA and RI. Dysfunctions at any level within these cortico-subcortical projections lead to deficient cognitive-affective control by ascribing emotional salience to otherwise irrelevant stimuli. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Women with borderline personality disorder do not show altered BOLD responses during response inhibition.

PubMed

van Eijk, Julia; Sebastian, Alexandra; Krause-Utz, Annegret; Cackowski, Sylvia; Demirakca, Traute; Biedermann, Sarah V; Lieb, Klaus; Bohus, Martin; Schmahl, Christian; Ende, Gabriele; Tüscher, Oliver

2015-12-30

Impulsivity is central to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Response inhibition, addressing the ability to suppress or stop actions, is one aspect of behavioral impulse control which is frequently used to assess impulsivity. BPD patients display deficits in response inhibition under stress condition or negative emotions. We assessed whether response inhibition and its neural underpinnings are impaired in BPD when tested in an emotionally neutral setting and when co-morbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is excluded. To this end, we studied response inhibition in unmedicated BPD patients and healthy controls (HC) in two independent samples using functional magnetic resonance imaging during Simon-, Go/nogo-, and Stopsignal tasks. BPD patients and HC did not differ significantly in their performance in the Go/nogo and the Stopsignal tasks. Response interference in the Simon task was increased in BPD patients in one sample, but this could not be replicated in the second sample. In both samples, no significant differences in brain activation patterns during any of the tasks were present while the neural impulse control network was robustly activated during the inhibition tasks in both groups. Our results provide evidence that under emotionally neutral conditions response inhibition is not impaired in patients with BPD without co-occurring ADHD. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diminished frontostriatal activity during processing of monetary rewards and losses in pathological gambling.

PubMed

Balodis, Iris M; Kober, Hedy; Worhunsky, Patrick D; Stevens, Michael C; Pearlson, Godfrey D; Potenza, Marc N

2012-04-15

Mesocorticolimbic neurocircuitry and impulsivity have both been implicated in pathological gambling (PG) and in reward processing. However, the neural underpinnings of specific phases of reward and loss processing in PG and their relationships to impulsivity remain only partially understood. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined brain activity associated with different phases of reward and loss processing in PG. Given an inverse relationship between ventral striatal recruitment during anticipation of monetary rewards and impulsivity in alcohol dependence, the current study explored whether a similar association might also be present in PG. Fourteen adults with PG and 14 control comparison participants performed the Monetary Incentive Delay Task to identify brain activation changes associated with reward/loss prospect, reward/loss anticipation, and reward/loss notification. Impulsivity was assessed separately using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Relative to the control comparison group, the PG group exhibited significantly reduced activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula, and ventral striatum during several phases, including the prospect and anticipation phases of both gains and losses. Activity in the ventral striatum correlated inversely with levels of impulsivity in PG participants, consistent with prior findings in alcohol dependence. Relatively decreased activity in corticostriatal neurocircuitry during multiple phases of reward processing suggests consistent alterations in neurocircuitry underlying incentive valuation and loss prediction. Together with findings in alcohol dependence, these results suggest that impulsive tendencies in addictions may be reflected in diminished ventral striatal activations to reward anticipation and may represent targets for treatment development in addictions. Copyright © 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Increased impulsive behavior and risk proneness following lentivirus-mediated dopamine transporter over-expression in rats' nucleus accumbens.

PubMed

Adriani, W; Boyer, F; Gioiosa, L; Macrì, S; Dreyer, J-L; Laviola, G

2009-03-03

Multiple theories have been proposed for sensation seeking and vulnerability to impulse-control disorders [Zuckerman M, Kuhlman DM (2000) Personality and risk-taking: Common biosocial factors. J Pers 68:999-1029], and many of these rely on a dopamine system deficit. Available animal models reproduce only some behavioral symptoms and seem devoid of construct validity. We used lentivirus tools for over-expressing or silencing the dopamine transporter (DAT) and we evaluated the resulting behavioral profiles in terms of motivation and self-control. Wistar adult rats received stereotaxic inoculation of a lentivirus that allowed localized intra-accumbens delivery of a DAT gene enhancer/silencer, or the green fluorescent protein, GFP. These animals were studied for intolerance to delay, risk proneness and novelty seeking. As expected, controls shifted their demanding from a large reward toward a small one when the delivery of the former was increasingly delayed (or uncertain). Interestingly, in the absence of general locomotor effects, DAT over-expressing rats showed increased impulsivity (i.e. a more marked shift of demanding from the large/delayed toward the small/soon reward), and increased risk proneness (i.e. a less marked shift from the large/uncertain toward the small/sure reward), compared with controls. Rats with enhanced or silenced DAT expression did not show any significant preference for a novel environment. In summary, consistent with literature on comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and pathological gambling, we demonstrate that DAT over-expression in rats' nucleus accumbens leads to impulsive and risk prone phenotype. Thus, a reduced dopaminergic tone following altered accumbal DAT function may subserve a sensation-seeker phenotype and the vulnerability to impulse-control disorders.

Hip biomechanics during stair ascent and descent in people with and without hip osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Hall, Michelle; Wrigley, Tim V; Kean, Crystal O; Metcalf, Ben R; Bennell, Kim L

2017-07-01

Hip osteoarthritis (OA) is often associated with pain and impaired function. Understanding biomechanical alterations in patients with hip OA during challenging activities such as stair use is important to inform treatments. The aim of this study was to determine whether kinematics and kinetics during stair ambulation differed between people with hip OA and healthy controls. Fifteen participants with symptomatic and radiographic hip OA and 15 asymptomatic healthy controls underwent 3-D motion analysis during stair ascent and descent. Trunk, pelvis, and hip kinematics as well as hip kinetics were evaluated. Analyses were performed unadjusted and adjusted for speed and leg length. In both the unadjusted and adjusted analyses, participants with hip OA ascended stairs with less hip range of motion in all three planes and a lower peak external rotation moment compared to controls. In the unadjusted analysis, hip OA participants descended stairs with greater ipsilateral trunk lean, less sagittal plane range of motion, lower peak extension moment, lower peak external rotation moment, and greater hip adduction moment impulse compared to controls. In the adjusted results, peak internal rotation moment and hip adduction moment impulse were greater in hip OA participants compared to controls. Findings show that individuals with hip OA display limited range of hip joint movement, particularly during stair ascent, and overall indicate the use of strategies (e.g., trunk lean; lower peak external rotation moment; higher adduction moment impulse) that implicate altered hip abductor function. Future research is required to further understand the implications of these findings on hip OA. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:1505-1514, 2017. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Impulsivity and eating behavior in males

PubMed

Jáuregui-Lobera, Ignacio; Santiago, María José

2017-02-01

Introduction: Impulsivity is a personality trait related with the control of behaviour and emotions and it is found in different psychopathological alterations, including those referred to eating behaviour. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship among the infl uence of the aesthetic body shape model, eating behaviour (and risk for specific disorders), body mass index and impulsivity. Method: A total of 178 males were included in the study, with a mean age of 20.18 ± 2.48. Height and weight were assessed in order to obtain the body mass index. All participants fulfilled the following questionnaires: Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11), Questionnaire of Infl uences on the Body Shape Model for males (CIMEC-V) and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40). Results: With respect to possible cases of eating disorders, 5.06% were found. Scores of some items of BIS-11 correlated significantly with the EAT-40 and CIMEC-V scores. Overweight participants (39.89%) showed higher level of impulsivity as well as those with EAT-40 scores above the cut-off point for that test. Conclusions: The assessment of impulsivity from a psychological point of view might be a preventive tool with regards to disordered eating behaviours. Respecting the patients with eating disorders/overweight/obesity, that assessment might be a relevant aspect in order to improve the therapeutical approach.

Impulsivity in borderline personality disorder: a matter of disturbed impulse control or a facet of emotional dysregulation?

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Jacob, Gitta; Lieb, Klaus; Tüscher, Oliver

2013-02-01

Impulsivity is regarded as a clinical, diagnostic and pathophysiological hallmark of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Self-report measures of impulsivity consistently support the notion of higher impulsive traits in BPD patients as compared to healthy control subjects. Laboratory tests of impulsivity, i.e. neuropsychological tests of impulse control render weak and inconsistent results both across different cognitive components of impulse control and within the same cognitive component of impulse control. One important factor worsening impulsive behaviors and impulse control deficits in BPD is comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition, emotional dysregulation interacts with impulse control especially for BPD salient emotions. In sum, although basic mechanisms of impulse control seem not to be disturbed in BPD, clinically well observed impulsive behaviors may be explained by comorbid ADHD or may be the consequence of dysregulation of BPD salient emotions.

Neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control of men with lifelong antisocial behavior.

PubMed

Schiffer, Boris; Pawliczek, Christina; Mu Ller, Bernhard; Forsting, Michael; Gizewski, Elke; Leygraf, Norbert; Hodgins, Sheilagh

2014-04-30

Results of meta-analyses suggested subtle deficits in cognitive control among antisocial individuals. Because almost all studies focused on children with conduct problems or adult psychopaths, however, little is known about cognitive control mechanisms among the majority of persistent violent offenders who present an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The present study aimed to determine whether offenders with ASPD, relative to non-offenders, display dysfunction in the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control and to assess the extent to which these dysfunctions are associated with psychopathic traits and trait impulsivity. Participants comprised 21 violent offenders and 23 non-offenders who underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a non-verbal Stroop task. The offenders, relative to the non-offenders, exhibited reduced response time interference and a different pattern of conflict- and error-related activity in brain areas involved in cognitive control, attention, language, and emotion processing, that is, the anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, superior temporal and postcentral cortices, putamen, thalamus, and amygdala. Moreover, between-group differences in behavioural and neural responses revealed associations with core features of psychopathy and attentional impulsivity. Thus, the results of the present study confirmed the hypothesis that offenders with ASPD display alterations in the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control and that those alterations relate, at least in part, to personality characteristics. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Neurogenetics and Epigenetics in Impulsive Behaviour: Impact on Reward Circuitry

PubMed Central

Archer, Trevor; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Blum, Kenneth; Gold, Mark

2012-01-01

Adverse, unfavourable life conditions, particularly during early life stages and infancy, can lead to epigenetic regulation of genes involved in stress-response, behavioral disinhibition, and cognitive-emotional systems. Over time, the ultimate final outcome can be expressed through behaviors bedeviled by problems with impulse control, such as eating disorders, alcoholism, and indiscriminate social behavior. While many reward gene polymorphisms are involved in impulsive behaviors, a polymorphism by itself may not translate to the development of a particular behavioral disorder unless it is impacted by epigenetic effects. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) affects the development and integrity of the noradrenergic, dopaminergic, serotonergic, glutamatergic, and cholinergic neurotransmitter systems, and plasma levels of the neurotrophin are associated with both cognitive and aggressive impulsiveness. Epigenetic mechanisms associated with a multitude of environmental factors, including premature birth, low birth weight, prenatal tobacco exposure, non-intact family, young maternal age at birth of the target child, paternal history of antisocial behavior, and maternal depression, alter the developmental trajectories for several neuropsychiatric disorders. These mechanisms affect brain development and integrity at several levels that determine structure and function in resolving the final behavioral expressions. PMID:23264884

Increased impulsive action in rats: effects of morphine in a short and long fixed-delay response inhibition task.

PubMed

Mahoney, Megan K; Silveira, Mason M; Olmstead, Mary C

2013-12-01

Impulsive action is mediated through several neurochemical systems, although it is not clear which role each of these plays in the inability to withhold inappropriate responses. Manipulations of the opioid system alter impulsive action in rodents, although the effects are not consistent across tasks. Previously, we speculated that these discrepancies reflect differences in the cognitive mechanisms that control responding in each task. We investigated whether the effect of morphine, a mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonist, on impulsive action depends on the ability of the subjects to time the interval during which they must inhibit a response. Male Long-Evans rats were trained in a response inhibition (RI) task to withhold responding for sucrose during a 4- or 60-s delay; impulsive action was assessed as increased responding during the delay. The rats were tested following an injection of morphine (0, 1, 3, 6 mg/kg). In a subsequent experiment, the effects of morphine (6 mg/kg) plus the MOR antagonist naloxone (0, 0.3, 1, 3 mg/kg) were investigated. Morphine increased impulsive action, but had different effects in the two conditions: the drug increased the proportion of premature responses as the 4-s interval progressed and produced a general increase in responding across the 60-s interval. Naloxone blocked all morphine-induced effects. The finding that morphine increases impulsive action in a fixed-delay RI task contrasts with our previous evidence which shows no effect in the same task with a variable delay. Thus, MORs disrupt impulsive action only when rats can predict the delay to respond.

Altered Gray Matter Volume and White Matter Integrity in College Students with Mobile Phone Dependence

PubMed Central

Wang, Yongming; Zou, Zhiling; Song, Hongwen; Xu, Xiaodan; Wang, Huijun; d’Oleire Uquillas, Federico; Huang, Xiting

2016-01-01

Mobile phone dependence (MPD) is a behavioral addiction that has become an increasing public mental health issue. While previous research has explored some of the factors that may predict MPD, the underlying neural mechanisms of MPD have not been investigated yet. The current study aimed to explore the microstructural variations associated with MPD as measured with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Gray matter volume (GMV) and white matter (WM) integrity [four indices: fractional anisotropy (FA); mean diffusivity (MD); axial diffusivity (AD); and radial diffusivity (RD)] were calculated via voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis, respectively. Sixty-eight college students (42 female) were enrolled and separated into two groups [MPD group, N = 34; control group (CG), N = 34] based on Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI) scale score. Trait impulsivity was also measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). In light of underlying trait impulsivity, results revealed decreased GMV in the MPD group relative to controls in regions such as the right superior frontal gyrus (sFG), right inferior frontal gyrus (iFG), and bilateral thalamus (Thal). In the MPD group, GMV in the above mentioned regions was negatively correlated with scores on the MPAI. Results also showed significantly less FA and AD measures of WM integrity in the MPD group relative to controls in bilateral hippocampal cingulum bundle fibers (CgH). Additionally, in the MPD group, FA of the CgH was also negatively correlated with scores on the MPAI. These findings provide the first morphological evidence of altered brain structure with mobile phone overuse, and may help to better understand the neural mechanisms of MPD in relation to other behavioral and substance addiction disorders. PMID:27199831

Altered Gray Matter Volume and White Matter Integrity in College Students with Mobile Phone Dependence.

PubMed

Wang, Yongming; Zou, Zhiling; Song, Hongwen; Xu, Xiaodan; Wang, Huijun; d'Oleire Uquillas, Federico; Huang, Xiting

2016-01-01

Mobile phone dependence (MPD) is a behavioral addiction that has become an increasing public mental health issue. While previous research has explored some of the factors that may predict MPD, the underlying neural mechanisms of MPD have not been investigated yet. The current study aimed to explore the microstructural variations associated with MPD as measured with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Gray matter volume (GMV) and white matter (WM) integrity [four indices: fractional anisotropy (FA); mean diffusivity (MD); axial diffusivity (AD); and radial diffusivity (RD)] were calculated via voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis, respectively. Sixty-eight college students (42 female) were enrolled and separated into two groups [MPD group, N = 34; control group (CG), N = 34] based on Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI) scale score. Trait impulsivity was also measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). In light of underlying trait impulsivity, results revealed decreased GMV in the MPD group relative to controls in regions such as the right superior frontal gyrus (sFG), right inferior frontal gyrus (iFG), and bilateral thalamus (Thal). In the MPD group, GMV in the above mentioned regions was negatively correlated with scores on the MPAI. Results also showed significantly less FA and AD measures of WM integrity in the MPD group relative to controls in bilateral hippocampal cingulum bundle fibers (CgH). Additionally, in the MPD group, FA of the CgH was also negatively correlated with scores on the MPAI. These findings provide the first morphological evidence of altered brain structure with mobile phone overuse, and may help to better understand the neural mechanisms of MPD in relation to other behavioral and substance addiction disorders.

Effects of amphetamine exposure in adolescence or young adulthood on inhibitory control in adult male and female rats

PubMed Central

Hammerslag, Lindsey R.; Waldman, Alex J.; Gulley, Joshua M.

2014-01-01

Heightened impulsivity is a feature of some psychiatric disorders, including addiction, that also have sex-specific patterns of expression. The relationship between addiction and impulsivity may be driven by drug-induced changes in behavior caused by long term adaptations in signaling within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Here, we used a response inhibition task that is sensitive to changes in mPFC function to examine the effects of sex and exposure to amphetamine (AMPH) on impulsive action and vigilance. We also examined drug-induced alterations in glutamatergic and dopaminergic signaling through challenge injections with the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 (dizocilpine) and AMPH. Male and female Sprague Dawley rats were injected (i.p.) with saline or 3 mg/kg AMPH every other day during adolescence (postnatal day (P) 27–45) or adulthood (P85–103). Starting on P125–135, rats were tested for their ability to lever press for a food reward during periods of signaled availability and withhold responding during a “premature response” phase. In experiment 1, rats received challenge injections (i.p.) of MK-801 and AMPH followed by tests of task performance and locomotor activity. In experiment 2, rats received intra-mPFC infusion of MK-801. We found that females had better inhibitory control and poorer vigilance than males and that AMPH exposure had both sex- and age-of-exposure dependent effects on impulsivity. Systemic drug challenges disrupted task performance, particularly in females, and increased impulsivity while intra-mPFC infusions had modest effects. AMPH exposure did not affect responses to drug challenges. Together, these results suggest that sex mediates both trait and drug-induced impulsivity. PMID:24462963

Constructive thinking skills and impulsivity dimensions in conduct and substance use disorders: differences and relationships in an adolescents' sample.

PubMed

Urben, Sébastien; Suter, Maya; Pihet, Sandrine; Straccia, Claudio; Stéphan, Philippe

2015-06-01

Impact of conduct disorder (CD) and substance use disorder (SUD) on constructive thinking skills and impulsivity was explored. 71 offending adolescents were assessed for CD and SUD. Furthermore, the constructive thinking inventory, the immediate and delayed memory tasks and the UPPS impulsive behaviour scale were administered. Results showed that youths with CD, independently from SUD, presented higher personality impulsivity (urgency) and altered constructive thinking skills (categorical thinking and personal superstitious thinking). Furthermore, trait-impulsivity explained variation in constructive thinking skills. The implications of these results were discussed.

Trait impulsivity components correlate differently with proactive and reactive control

PubMed Central

Huang, Shihua; Zhu, Zude; Zhang, Wei; Chen, Yu; Zhen, Shuangju

2017-01-01

The relationship between impulsivity and cognitive control is still unknown. We hypothesized that trait impulsivity would differentially correlate with specific cognitive control processes. Trait impulsivity was measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, which assesses motor, attention, and non-planning impulsiveness components. Cognitive control was measured by a hybrid-designed Stroop task, which distinguishes proactive and reactive control. Thirty-three participants performed the Stroop task while they were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Proactive and reactive control involved increased activity in the fronto-parietal network, and brain activity was associated with impulsivity scores. Specifically, higher motor impulsiveness was associated with a larger proactive control effect in the inferior parietal lobule and a smaller reactive control effect in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate contex. Higher attention impulsivity was associated with a smaller proactive control effect in the right DLPFC. Such a correlation pattern suggests that impulsivity trait components are attributable to different cognitive control subsystems. PMID:28423021

Trait impulsivity components correlate differently with proactive and reactive control.

PubMed

Huang, Shihua; Zhu, Zude; Zhang, Wei; Chen, Yu; Zhen, Shuangju

2017-01-01

The relationship between impulsivity and cognitive control is still unknown. We hypothesized that trait impulsivity would differentially correlate with specific cognitive control processes. Trait impulsivity was measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, which assesses motor, attention, and non-planning impulsiveness components. Cognitive control was measured by a hybrid-designed Stroop task, which distinguishes proactive and reactive control. Thirty-three participants performed the Stroop task while they were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Proactive and reactive control involved increased activity in the fronto-parietal network, and brain activity was associated with impulsivity scores. Specifically, higher motor impulsiveness was associated with a larger proactive control effect in the inferior parietal lobule and a smaller reactive control effect in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate contex. Higher attention impulsivity was associated with a smaller proactive control effect in the right DLPFC. Such a correlation pattern suggests that impulsivity trait components are attributable to different cognitive control subsystems.

Influence of process conditions during impulsed electrostatic droplet formation on size distribution of hydrogel beads.

PubMed

Lewińska, Dorota; Rosiński, Stefan; Weryński, Andrzej

2004-02-01

In the medical applications of microencapsulation of living cells there are strict requirements concerning the high size uniformity and the optimal diameter, the latter dependent on the kind of therapeutic application, of manufactured gel beads. The possibility of manufacturing small size gel bead samples (diameter 300 microm and below) with a low size dispersion (less than 10%), using an impulsed voltage droplet generator, was examined in this work. The main topic was the investigation of the influence of values of electric parameters (voltage U, impulse time tau and impulse frequency f) on the quality of obtained droplets. It was concluded that, owing to the implementation of the impulse mode and regulation of tau and f values, it is possible to work in a controlled manner in the jet flow regime (U> critical voltage UC). It is also possible to obtain uniform bead samples with the average diameter, deff, significantly lower than the nozzle inner diameter dI (bead diameters 0.12-0.25 mm by dI equal to 0.3 mm, size dispersion 5-7%). Alterations of the physical parameters of the process (polymer solution physico-chemical properties, flow rate, distance between nozzle and gellifying bath) enable one to manufacture uniform gel beads in the wide range of diameters using a single nozzle.

Impulse damping control of an experimental structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redmond, J.; Meyer, J. L.; Silverberg, L.

1993-01-01

The characteristics associated with the fuel optimal control of a harmonic oscillator are extended to develop a near minimum fuel control algorithm for the vibration suppression of spacecraft. The operation of single level thrusters is regulated by recursive calculations of the standard deviations of displacement and velocity resulting in a bang-off-bang controller. A vertically suspended 16 ft cantilevered beam was used in the experiment. Results show that the structure's response was easily manipulated by minor alterations in the control law and the control system performance was not seriously degraded in the presence of multiple actuator failures.

Frontal dysfunctions of impulse control - a systematic review in borderline personality disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Jung, Patrick; Krause-Utz, Annegret; Lieb, Klaus; Schmahl, Christian; Tüscher, Oliver

2014-01-01

Disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity as used in clinical terms is very broadly defined and entails different categories including personality traits as well as different cognitive functions such as emotion regulation or interference resolution and impulse control. Impulse control as an executive function, however, is neither cognitively nor neurobehaviorally a unitary function. Recent findings from behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies suggest related but dissociable components of impulse control along functional domains like selective attention, response selection, motivational control, and behavioral inhibition. In addition, behavioral and neural dissociations are seen for proactive vs. reactive inhibitory motor control. The prefrontal cortex with its sub-regions is the central structure in executing these impulse control functions. Based on these concepts of impulse control, neurobehavioral findings of studies in BPD and ADHD were reviewed and systematically compared. Overall, patients with BPD exhibited prefrontal dysfunctions across impulse control components rather in orbitofrontal, dorsomedial, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions, whereas patients with ADHD displayed disturbed activity mainly in ventrolateral and medial prefrontal regions. Prefrontal dysfunctions, however, varied depending on the impulse control component and from disorder to disorder. This suggests a dissociation of impulse control related frontal dysfunctions in BPD and ADHD, although only few studies are hitherto available to assess frontal dysfunctions along different impulse control components in direct comparison of these disorders. Yet, these findings might serve as a hypothesis for the future systematic assessment of impulse control components to understand differences and commonalities of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in impulsive disorders.

Altered economic decision-making in abstinent heroin addicts: Evidence from the ultimatum game.

PubMed

Hou, Yu; Zhao, Liyan; Yao, Qi; Ding, Lixiang

2016-08-03

The development and persistence of drug addiction has been suggested to involve decision-making deficits. The Ultimatum Game is a widely used economic decision-making paradigm that illustrates the tension between financial self-interest and fairness motives. The behavior of responders in the Ultimatum Game has been associated with emotional reactions and cognitive control abilities, both of which are dysregulated in drug addicts. In this study, we investigated whether this economic decision-making process that involves considerations of social norms is affected by heroin addiction. Heroin addicts (n=17) and demographically matched healthy control subjects (n=18) were recruited to play the part of responders in the Ultimatum Game, during which they decided to accept or reject the monetary offers proposed by strangers. The offers were manipulated by varying the stake sizes and fairness scales. The rejection rates of all of the offer categories, response times, fairness judgments, and impulsivity were compared between heroin addicts and healthy controls. Compared with healthy subjects, the rejection rates of most unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game were significantly higher under low-offer-size conditions among heroin addicts. In contrast, the most unfair offers were more likely to be accepted by heroin addicts in the high-offer-size condition than by healthy subjects. The ratings of unfairness were equal in both conditions although the rejection rates were different. Heroin addicts had higher scores on BIS attentional/cognitive impulsivity and non-planning impulsivity, but not in motor impulsivity. Rejection rates to most unfair offers under low-offer-size conditions significantly correlated with score on BIS non-planning impulsivity and total score of impulsivity. Heroin addicts differentially responded under different stake-level conditions in the Ultimatum Game, with emotional impulses in low-offer-size conditions and selfish motives in the face of high monetary reward. These findings indicate that Ultimatum Game may be associated with heroin addiction and provide a productive new target for enhancing treatment for heroin addiction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Brain functional connectivity changes in children that differ in impulsivity temperamental trait

PubMed Central

Inuggi, Alberto; Sanz-Arigita, Ernesto; González-Salinas, Carmen; Valero-García, Ana V.; García-Santos, Jose M.; Fuentes, Luis J.

2014-01-01

Impulsivity is a core personality trait forming part of normal behavior and contributing to adaptive functioning. However, in typically developing children, altered patterns of impulsivity constitute a risk factor for the development of behavioral problems. Since both pathological and non-pathological states are commonly characterized by continuous transitions, we used a correlative approach to investigate the potential link between personality and brain dynamics. We related brain functional connectivity of typically developing children, measured with magnetic resonance imaging at rest, with their impulsivity scores obtained from a questionnaire completed by their parents. We first looked for areas within the default mode network (DMN) whose functional connectivity might be modulated by trait impulsivity. Then, we calculated the functional connectivity among these regions and the rest of the brain in order to assess if impulsivity trait altered their relationships. We found two DMN clusters located at the posterior cingulate cortex and the right angular gyrus which were negatively correlated with impulsivity scores. The whole-brain correlation analysis revealed the classic network of correlating and anti-correlating areas with respect to the DMN. The impulsivity trait modulated such pattern showing that the canonical anti-phasic relation between DMN and action-related network was reduced in high impulsive children. These results represent the first evidence that the impulsivity, measured as personality trait assessed through parents' report, exerts a modulatory influence over the functional connectivity of resting state brain networks in typically developing children. The present study goes further to connect developmental approaches, mainly based on data collected through the use of questionnaires, and behavioral neuroscience, interested in how differences in brain structure and functions reflect in differences in behavior. PMID:24834038

Brain functional connectivity changes in children that differ in impulsivity temperamental trait.

PubMed

Inuggi, Alberto; Sanz-Arigita, Ernesto; González-Salinas, Carmen; Valero-García, Ana V; García-Santos, Jose M; Fuentes, Luis J

2014-01-01

Impulsivity is a core personality trait forming part of normal behavior and contributing to adaptive functioning. However, in typically developing children, altered patterns of impulsivity constitute a risk factor for the development of behavioral problems. Since both pathological and non-pathological states are commonly characterized by continuous transitions, we used a correlative approach to investigate the potential link between personality and brain dynamics. We related brain functional connectivity of typically developing children, measured with magnetic resonance imaging at rest, with their impulsivity scores obtained from a questionnaire completed by their parents. We first looked for areas within the default mode network (DMN) whose functional connectivity might be modulated by trait impulsivity. Then, we calculated the functional connectivity among these regions and the rest of the brain in order to assess if impulsivity trait altered their relationships. We found two DMN clusters located at the posterior cingulate cortex and the right angular gyrus which were negatively correlated with impulsivity scores. The whole-brain correlation analysis revealed the classic network of correlating and anti-correlating areas with respect to the DMN. The impulsivity trait modulated such pattern showing that the canonical anti-phasic relation between DMN and action-related network was reduced in high impulsive children. These results represent the first evidence that the impulsivity, measured as personality trait assessed through parents' report, exerts a modulatory influence over the functional connectivity of resting state brain networks in typically developing children. The present study goes further to connect developmental approaches, mainly based on data collected through the use of questionnaires, and behavioral neuroscience, interested in how differences in brain structure and functions reflect in differences in behavior.

Impulse control disorders are associated with multiple psychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Jaakkola, Elina; Kaasinen, Valtteri; Siri, Chiara; Martikainen, Kirsti; Cilia, Roberto; Niemelä, Solja; Joutsa, Juho

2014-01-01

Impulse control disorders can have serious adverse consequences to the life of a patient with Parkinson's disease. Although impulse control disorders are common, a possible psychiatric comorbidity has not been fully characterized. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychiatric symptoms exhibited by Parkinson's disease patients with impulse control disorders. The study was conducted as a postal survey to patients in the registry of the Finnish Parkinson Association. A total of 290 Parkinson's disease patients were evaluated for impulse control disorders using the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease. Psychiatric symptoms were systematically screened using the Symptom Checklist 90. We found that 108 of the evaluated patients had one or more impulse control disorders. Patients with impulse control disorders had markedly higher scores for symptoms of psychoticism (Bonferroni corrected p < 0.001), interpersonal sensitivity (p < 0.001), obsessive-compulsive disorder (p < 0.001), and depression (p = 0.01) when compared with patients without impulse control disorders. Impulse control disorders were shown to be independently associated with these symptoms. Patients with multiple impulse control disorders had higher scores for depression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms when compared with patients that exhibited only one impulse control disorder. COUNCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the previous observations that impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease are linked with multiple psychiatric symptoms, including psychoticism, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and depression. Clinicians treating these patients should acknowledge the concomitant psychiatric symptoms.

Multiplex Immunoassay of Plasma Cytokine Levels in Men with Alcoholism and the Relationship to Psychiatric Assessments

PubMed Central

Manzardo, Ann M.; Poje, Albert B.; Penick, Elizabeth C.; Butler, Merlin G.

2016-01-01

Chronic alcohol use alters adaptive immunity and cytokine activity influencing immunological and hormone responses, inflammation, and wound healing. Brain cytokine disturbances may impact neurological function, mood, cognition and traits related to alcoholism including impulsiveness. We examined the relationship between plasma cytokine levels and self-rated psychiatric symptoms in 40 adult males (mean age 51 ± 6 years; range 33–58 years) with current alcohol dependence and 30 control males (mean age 48 ± 6 years; range 40–58 years) with no history of alcoholism using multiplex sandwich immunoassays with the Luminex magnetic-bead based platform. Log-transformed cytokine levels were analyzed for their relationship with the Symptom Checklist-90R (SCL-90R), Barratt Impulsivity Scales (BIS) and Alcoholism Severity Scale (ASS). Inflammatory cytokines (interferon γ-induced protein-10 (IP-10); monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1); regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES)) were significantly elevated in alcoholism compared to controls while bone marrow-derived hematopoietic cytokines and chemokines (granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF); soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L); growth-related oncogene (GRO)) were significantly reduced. GRO and RANTES levels were positively correlated with BIS scales; and macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC) levels were positively correlated with SCL-90R scale scores (p < 0.05). Elevated inflammatory mediators in alcoholism may influence brain function leading to increased impulsiveness and/or phobia. The novel association between RANTES and GRO and impulsivity phenotype in alcoholism should be further investigated in alcoholism and psychiatric conditions with core impulsivity and anxiety phenotypes lending support for therapeutic intervention. PMID:27043532

Multiplex Immunoassay of Plasma Cytokine Levels in Men with Alcoholism and the Relationship to Psychiatric Assessments.

PubMed

Manzardo, Ann M; Poje, Albert B; Penick, Elizabeth C; Butler, Merlin G

2016-03-29

Chronic alcohol use alters adaptive immunity and cytokine activity influencing immunological and hormone responses, inflammation, and wound healing. Brain cytokine disturbances may impact neurological function, mood, cognition and traits related to alcoholism including impulsiveness. We examined the relationship between plasma cytokine levels and self-rated psychiatric symptoms in 40 adult males (mean age 51 ± 6 years; range 33-58 years) with current alcohol dependence and 30 control males (mean age 48 ± 6 years; range 40-58 years) with no history of alcoholism using multiplex sandwich immunoassays with the Luminex magnetic-bead based platform. Log-transformed cytokine levels were analyzed for their relationship with the Symptom Checklist-90R (SCL-90R), Barratt Impulsivity Scales (BIS) and Alcoholism Severity Scale (ASS). Inflammatory cytokines (interferon γ-induced protein-10 (IP-10); monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1); regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES)) were significantly elevated in alcoholism compared to controls while bone marrow-derived hematopoietic cytokines and chemokines (granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF); soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L); growth-related oncogene (GRO)) were significantly reduced. GRO and RANTES levels were positively correlated with BIS scales; and macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC) levels were positively correlated with SCL-90R scale scores (p < 0.05). Elevated inflammatory mediators in alcoholism may influence brain function leading to increased impulsiveness and/or phobia. The novel association between RANTES and GRO and impulsivity phenotype in alcoholism should be further investigated in alcoholism and psychiatric conditions with core impulsivity and anxiety phenotypes lending support for therapeutic intervention.

Frontal Dysfunctions of Impulse Control – A Systematic Review in Borderline Personality Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Sebastian, Alexandra; Jung, Patrick; Krause-Utz, Annegret; Lieb, Klaus; Schmahl, Christian; Tüscher, Oliver

2014-01-01

Disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity as used in clinical terms is very broadly defined and entails different categories including personality traits as well as different cognitive functions such as emotion regulation or interference resolution and impulse control. Impulse control as an executive function, however, is neither cognitively nor neurobehaviorally a unitary function. Recent findings from behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies suggest related but dissociable components of impulse control along functional domains like selective attention, response selection, motivational control, and behavioral inhibition. In addition, behavioral and neural dissociations are seen for proactive vs. reactive inhibitory motor control. The prefrontal cortex with its sub-regions is the central structure in executing these impulse control functions. Based on these concepts of impulse control, neurobehavioral findings of studies in BPD and ADHD were reviewed and systematically compared. Overall, patients with BPD exhibited prefrontal dysfunctions across impulse control components rather in orbitofrontal, dorsomedial, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions, whereas patients with ADHD displayed disturbed activity mainly in ventrolateral and medial prefrontal regions. Prefrontal dysfunctions, however, varied depending on the impulse control component and from disorder to disorder. This suggests a dissociation of impulse control related frontal dysfunctions in BPD and ADHD, although only few studies are hitherto available to assess frontal dysfunctions along different impulse control components in direct comparison of these disorders. Yet, these findings might serve as a hypothesis for the future systematic assessment of impulse control components to understand differences and commonalities of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in impulsive disorders. PMID:25232313

Assessment of impulsivity in adolescent mice: A new training procedure for a 3-choice serial reaction time task.

PubMed

Sasamori, Hitomi; Ohmura, Yu; Kubo, Takuya; Yoshida, Takayuki; Yoshioka, Mitsuhiro

2018-05-02

Immaturity in impulse control among adolescents could result in substance abuse, criminal involvement, and suicide. The brains of adolescents and adults are anatomically, neurophysiologically, and pharmacologically different. Therefore, preclinical models of adolescent impulsivity are required to screen drugs for adolescents and elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying age-related differences in impulsivity. The conventional 3- or 5-choice serial reaction time task, which is a widely used task to assess impulsivity in adult rodents, cannot be used for young mice because of two technical problems: impaired growth caused by food restriction and the very long training duration. To overcome these problems, we altered the conventional training process, optimizing the degree of food restriction for young animals and shortening the training duration. We found that almost all basal performance levels were similar between the novel and conventional procedures. We also confirmed the pharmacological validity of our results: the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2C (5-HT 2C ) receptor agonist Ro60-0175 (0.6 mg/kg, subcutaneous) reduced the occurrence of premature responses, whereas the 5-HT 2C receptor antagonist SB242084 (0.5 mg/kg intraperitoneal) increased their occurrence, consistent with results of previous studies using conventional procedures. Furthermore, we detected age-related differences in impulsivity using the novel procedure: adolescent mice were found to be more impulsive than adult mice, congruent with the results of human studies. Thus, the new procedure enables the assessment of impulsivity in adolescent mice and facilitates a better understanding of the neurophysiological/pharmacological properties of adolescents. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Is the Internet gaming-addicted brain close to be in a pathological state?

PubMed

Park, Chang-Hyun; Chun, Ji-Won; Cho, Huyn; Jung, Young-Chul; Choi, Jihye; Kim, Dai Jin

2017-01-01

Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is becoming a common and widespread mental health concern. Although IGA induces a variety of negative psychosocial consequences, it is yet ambiguous whether the brain addicted to Internet gaming is considered to be in a pathological state. We investigated IGA-induced abnormalities of the brain specifically from the network perspective and qualitatively assessed whether the Internet gaming-addicted brain is in a state similar to the pathological brain. Topological properties of brain functional networks were examined by applying a graph-theoretical approach to analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired during a resting state in 19 IGA adolescents and 20 age-matched healthy controls. We compared functional distance-based measures, global and local efficiency of resting state brain functional networks between the two groups to assess how the IGA subjects' brain was topologically altered from the controls' brain. The IGA subjects had severer impulsiveness and their brain functional networks showed higher global efficiency and lower local efficiency relative to the controls. These topological differences suggest that IGA induced brain functional networks to shift toward the random topological architecture, as exhibited in other pathological states. Furthermore, for the IGA subjects, the topological alterations were specifically attributable to interregional connections incident on the frontal region, and the degree of impulsiveness was associated with the topological alterations over the frontolimbic connections. The current findings lend support to the proposition that the Internet gaming-addicted brain could be in the state similar to pathological states in terms of topological characteristics of brain functional networks. © 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Diminished fronto-striatal activity during processing of monetary rewards and losses in pathological gambling

PubMed Central

Balodis, Iris M.; Kober, Hedy; Worhunsky, Patrick D.; Stevens, Michael C.; Pearlson, Godfrey D.; Potenza, Marc N.

2012-01-01

Background Mesocorticolimbic neurocircuitry and impulsivity have both been implicated in pathological gambling (PG) and in reward processing. However, the neural underpinnings of specific phases of reward and loss processing in PG and their relationships to impulsivity remain only partially understood. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined brain activity associated with different phases of reward and loss processing in PG. Given an inverse relationship between ventral striatal recruitment during anticipation of monetary rewards and impulsivity in alcohol dependence, the current study explored whether a similar association might also be present in PG. Methods Fourteen adults with PG and 14 control comparison (CC) participants performed the Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MIDT) to identify brain activation changes associated with reward/loss prospect, reward/loss anticipation and reward/loss notification. Impulsivity was assessed separately using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Results Relative to the CC group, the PG group exhibited significantly reduced activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula and ventral striatum during several phases, including the prospect and anticipation phases of both gain and losses. Activity in the ventral striatum correlated inversely with levels of impulsivity in PG participants, consistent with prior findings in alcohol dependence. Conclusions Relatively decreased activity in cortico-striatal neurocircuitry during multiple phases of reward processing suggests consistent alterations in neurocircuitry underlying incentive valuation and loss prediction. Together with findings in alcohol dependence, these results suggest that impulsive tendencies in addictions may be reflected in diminished ventral striatal activations to reward anticipation and may represent targets for treatment development in addictions. PMID:22336565

Effects of mindful eating training on delay and probability discounting for food and money in obese and healthy-weight individuals.

PubMed

Hendrickson, Kelsie L; Rasmussen, Erin B

2013-07-01

Obese individuals tend to behave more impulsively than healthy weight individuals across a variety of measures, but it is unclear whether this pattern can be altered. The present study examined the effects of a mindful eating behavioral strategy on impulsive and risky choice patterns for hypothetical food and money. In Experiment 1, 304 participants completed computerized delay and probability discounting tasks for food-related and monetary outcomes. High percent body fat (PBF) predicted more impulsive choice for food, but not small-value money, replicating previous work. In Experiment 2, 102 randomly selected participants from Experiment 1 were assigned to participate in a 50-min workshop on mindful eating or to watch an educational video. They then completed the discounting tasks again. Participants who completed the mindful eating session showed more self-controlled and less risk-averse discounting patterns for food compared to baseline; those in the control condition discounted similarly to baseline rates. There were no changes in discounting for money for either group, suggesting stimulus specificity for food for the mindful eating condition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using stop signals to reduce impulsive choices for palatable unhealthy foods.

PubMed

Veling, Harm; Aarts, Henk; Stroebe, Wolfgang

2013-05-01

Exposure to palatable foods in the environment can trigger impulsive reactions to obtain them, which may lead to unhealthy food choices and eating behaviour. Two studies tested the fundamental question whether impulsive unhealthy food choices can be altered by means of linking unhealthy palatable foods to behavioural stop signals. Study 1 adopted a 2 (signal condition: stop signal vs. control) by 2 (appetite: low vs. high) between-subjects design. Study 2 adopted a 2 (signal condition: stop signal vs. control) between-subjects design with frequency to consume unhealthy palatable foods as a continuous factor. Participants performed a task in which behavioural stop signals were either consistently (or not) presented in close temporal proximity to unhealthy palatable snack foods. Next, participants were given the opportunity to select snacks that they would like to consume. Two studies showed that participants were less likely to select unhealthy palatable foods that had been presented near stop signals, and that they selected healthy foods instead. Importantly, this reduction in choices for palatable foods was especially observed when participants' appetite was relatively high (Study 1), or when this food was part of their habit to frequently consume this food (Study 2). These findings show that a short stop signal intervention in which palatable foods are presented in close temporal proximity of stop signals can reduce palatable food choices by modifying an impulsive determinant of eating behaviour. What is already known on this subject? Exposure to unhealthy palatable foods in the environment can lead to impulsive food choices. People's habits towards unhealthy palatable foods and their current state of appetite are important determinants of such impulsive food choices. This impulsive behaviour is hard to change. What this study add? Linking unhealthy palatable foods to behavioural stop signals reduces choices for these foods, and increases healthy food choices. This effect is particularly strong when people's food choices are driven by their current state of appetite or habits. Behavioural stop signals foster healthy eating behaviour by modifying an impulsive determinant of behaviour. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

Nicotinic alteration of decision-making.

PubMed

Naudé, Jérémie; Dongelmans, Malou; Faure, Philippe

2015-09-01

Addiction to nicotine is characterized by impulses, urges and lack of self-control towards cigarettes. A key element in the process of addiction is the development of habits oriented towards nicotine consumption that surpass flexible systems as a consequence of a gradual adaptation to chronic drug exposure. However, the long-term effects of nicotine on brain circuits also induce wide changes in decision-making processes, affecting behaviors unrelated to cigarettes. This review aims at providing an update on the implications of nicotine on general decision-making processes, with an emphasis on impulsivity and risk-taking. As impulsivity is a rather ambiguous behavioral trait, we build on economic and normative theories to better characterize these nicotine-induced alterations in decision-making. Nonetheless, experimental data are sparse and often contradictory. We will discuss how the latest findings on the neurobiological basis of choice behavior may help disentangling these issues. We focus on the role of nicotine acetylcholine receptors and their different subunits, and on the spatio-temporal dynamics (i.e. diversity of the neural circuits, short- and long-term effects) of both endogenous acetylcholine and nicotine action. Finally, we try to link these neurobiological results with neuro-computational models of attention, valuation and action, and of the role of acetylcholine in these decision processes. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'The Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor: From Molecular Biology to Cognition'. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Utility of Impulsive Bias and Altered Decision Making as Predictors of Drug Efficacy and Target Selection: Rethinking Behavioral Screening for Antidepressant Drugs.

PubMed

Marek, Gerard J; Day, Mark; Hudzik, Thomas J

2016-03-01

Cognitive dysfunction may be a core feature of major depressive disorder, including affective processing bias, abnormal response to negative feedback, changes in decision making, and increased impulsivity. Accordingly, a translational medicine paradigm predicts clinical action of novel antidepressants by examining drug-induced changes in affective processing bias. With some exceptions, these concepts have not been systematically applied to preclinical models to test new chemical entities. The purpose of this review is to examine whether an empirically derived behavioral screen for antidepressant drugs may screen for compounds, at least in part, by modulating an impulsive biasing of responding and altered decision making. The differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) 72-second schedule is an operant schedule with a documented fidelity for discriminating antidepressant drugs from nonantidepressant drugs. However, a theoretical basis for this empirical relationship has been lacking. Therefore, this review will discuss whether response bias toward impulsive behavior may be a critical screening characteristic of DRL behavior requiring long inter-response times to obtain rewards. This review will compare and contrast DRL behavior with the five-choice serial reaction time task, a test specifically designed for assessing motoric impulsivity, with respect to psychopharmacological testing and the neural basis of distributed macrocircuits underlying these tasks. This comparison suggests that the existing empirical basis for the DRL 72-second schedule as a pharmacological screen for antidepressant drugs is complemented by a novel hypothesis that altering impulsive response bias for rodents trained on this operant schedule is a previously unrecognized theoretical cornerstone for this screening paradigm. Copyright © 2016 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Sleep patterns and impulse control among Japanese junior high school students.

PubMed

Abe, Takeru; Hagihara, Akihito; Nobutomo, Koichi

2010-10-01

Adolescents with decreased impulse control exhibit behavioral problems. Lifestyles are related to impulse control. However, the relations of sleep patterns and impulse control among adolescents are unknown. Thus we examined how sleep patterns were associated with impulse control among Japanese junior high school students. Surveys were completed by a nationwide sample of 1934 students. A significant association between decreased impulse control and bedtimes after midnight was revealed. Specific lifestyle factors related to bedtimes after midnight were older age, greater numbers of hours spent watching television, lack of participation in an extracurricular activity, greater use of convenience stores, and increased attendance at cram schools. This study revealed that going to sleep after midnight was significantly related to decreased impulse control among adolescents. Data about specific lifestyle factors related to going to sleep after midnight should be useful in preventing those behaviors demonstrated by school children that derive from decreased impulse control.

Diagnosis and treatment of impulse control disorders in patients with movement disorders.

PubMed

Mestre, Tiago A; Strafella, Antonio P; Thomsen, Teri; Voon, Valerie; Miyasaki, Janis

2013-05-01

Impulse control disorders are a psychiatric condition characterized by the failure to resist an impulsive act or behavior that may be harmful to self or others. In movement disorders, impulse control disorders are associated with dopaminergic treatment, notably dopamine agonists (DAs). Impulse control disorders have been studied extensively in Parkinson's disease, but are also recognized in restless leg syndrome and atypical Parkinsonian syndromes. Epidemiological studies suggest younger age, male sex, greater novelty seeking, impulsivity, depression and premorbid impulse control disorders as the most consistent risk factors. Such patients may warrant special monitoring after starting treatment with a DA. Various individual screening tools are available for people without Parkinson's disease. The Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease has been developed specifically for Parkinson's disease. The best treatment for impulse control disorders is prevention. However, after the development of impulse control disorders, the mainstay intervention is to reduce or discontinue the offending anti-Parkinsonian medication. In refractory cases, other pharmacological interventions are available, including neuroleptics, antiepileptics, amantadine, antiandrogens, lithium and opioid antagonists. Unfortunately, their use is only supported by case reports, small case series or open-label clinical studies. Prospective, controlled studies are warranted. Ongoing investigations include naltrexone and nicotine.

Impulsivity and AMPA receptors: aniracetam ameliorates impulsive behavior induced by a blockade of AMPA receptors in rats.

PubMed

Nakamura, K; Kurasawa, M; Shirane, M

2000-04-17

The study aimed to ascertain the involvement of central AMPA receptors in impulsive behaviors of aged rats and to examine the effects of aniracetam. Premature response in the two-lever choice reaction task was assessed as an index of impulsivity. Intracerebroventricular injection of 2, 3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoyl-benzo(F)quinoxaline (NBQX), an AMPA receptor antagonist, dose-dependently (10.1-1009 ng/rat) increased only premature response without altering responding speed and choice accuracy 30 min after the injection. Aniracetam (30 mg/kg p.o.), a positive allosteric modulator of AMPA receptors, or AMPA (55.9 ng/rat, co-injected with NBQX) completely restored the NBQX-induced increase in impulsivity. These results indicate that AMPA receptors are tonically involved in the regulation of impulsivity.

Deficient inhibition in alcohol-dependence: let's consider the role of the motor system!

PubMed

Quoilin, Caroline; Wilhelm, Emmanuelle; Maurage, Pierre; de Timary, Philippe; Duque, Julie

2018-04-26

Impaired inhibitory control contributes to the development, maintenance, and relapse of alcohol-dependence, but the neural correlates of this deficit are still unclear. Because inhibitory control has been labeled as an executive function, most studies have focused on prefrontal areas, overlooking the contribution of more "primary" structures, such as the motor system. Yet, appropriate neural inhibition of the motor output pathway has emerged as a central aspect of healthy behavior. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this motor inhibition is altered in alcohol-dependence. Neural inhibitory measures of motor activity were obtained in 20 detoxified alcohol-dependent (AD) patients and 20 matched healthy subjects, using a standard transcranial magnetic stimulation procedure whereby motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) are elicited in a choice reaction time task. Moreover, behavioral inhibition and trait impulsivity were evaluated in all participants. Finally, the relapse status of patients was assessed 1 year after the experiment. As expected, AD patients displayed poorer behavioral inhibition and higher trait impulsivity than controls. More importantly, the MEP data revealed a considerable shortage of neural motor inhibition in AD patients. Interestingly, this neural defect was strongest in the patients who ended up relapsing during the year following the experiment. Our data suggest a strong motor component in the neural correlates of altered inhibitory control in AD patients. They also highlight an intriguing relationship with relapse and the perspective of a new biomarker to follow strategies aiming at reducing relapse in AD patients.

Neural correlates of emotional action control in anger-prone women with borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Bertsch, Katja; Roelofs, Karin; Roch, Paul Jonathan; Ma, Bo; Hensel, Saskia; Herpertz, Sabine C; Volman, Inge

2018-05-01

Difficulty in controlling emotional impulses is a crucial component of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that often leads to destructive, impulsive behaviours against others. In line with recent findings in aggressive individuals, deficits in prefrontal amygdala coupling during emotional action control may account for these symptoms. To study the neurobiological correlates of altered emotional action control in individuals with BPD, we asked medication-free, anger-prone, female patients with BPD and age- and intelligence-matched healthy women to take part in an approach-avoidance task while lying in an MRI scanner. The task required controlling fast behavioural tendencies to approach happy and avoid angry faces. Additionally, before the task we collected saliva testosterone and self-reported information on tendencies to act out anger and correlated this with behavioural and functional MRI (fMRI) data. We included 30 patients and 28 controls in our analysis. Patients with BPD reported increased tendencies to act out anger and were faster in approaching than avoiding angry faces than with healthy women, suggesting deficits in emotional action control in women with BPD. On a neural level, controlling fast emotional action tendencies was associated with enhanced activation in the antero- and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex across groups. Healthy women showed a negative coupling between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right amygdala, whereas this was absent in patients with BPD. Specificity of results to BPD and sex differences remain unknown owing to the lack of clinical control groups and male participants. The results indicate reduced lateral prefrontal-amygdala communication during emotional action control in anger-prone women with BPD. The findings provide a possible neural mechanism underlying difficulties with controlling emotional impulses in patients with BPD.

Altering risky decision-making: Influence of impulsivity on the neuromodulation of prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Cheng, Gordon L F; Lee, Tatia M C

2016-01-01

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) subserves complex cognitive abilities, including risky decision-making; the modulation of this brain area is shown to alter the way people take risks. Yet, neuromodulation of the PFC in relation to risk-taking behavior remains relatively less well-studied. Moreover, the psychological variables that influence such neuromodulation remain poorly understood. To address these issues, 16 participants took part in 3 experimental sessions on separate days. They received: (i) left anodal-right cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); (ii) left cathodal-right anodal stimulation; or (iii) sham stimulation while they completed two risk-taking tasks. They also measured on several cognitive-affective abilities and personality traits. It was revealed that left cathodal-right anodal stimulation led to significantly reduced risk-taking under a context of haste. The reduction of risk-taking (relative to sham) correlated with state and trait impulsivity, such that the effect was larger in more impulsive individuals. For these individuals, the tDCS effect size was considered to be large (generalized partial η(2) > .17). The effect of prefrontal-neuromodulation in reducing risk-taking was influenced by baseline impulsivity, reflecting a state-dependent effect of neuromodulation on the PFC. The results of this study carry important insights into the use of neuromodulation to alter higher cognition.

MAOA alters the effects of heavy drinking and childhood physical abuse on risk for severe impulsive acts of violence among alcoholic violent offenders.

PubMed

Tikkanen, Roope; Ducci, Francesca; Goldman, David; Holi, Matti; Lindberg, Nina; Tiihonen, Jari; Virkkunen, Matti

2010-05-01

A polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) has been shown to alter the effect of persistent drinking and childhood maltreatment on the risk for violent and antisocial behaviors. These findings indicate that MAOA could contribute to inter-individual differences in stress resiliency. Recidivism in severe violent crimes was assessed after 8 years of nonincarcerated follow-up in a male sample of 174 impulsive Finnish alcoholic violent offenders, the majority of whom exhibited antisocial (ASPD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD) or both. We examined whether MAOA genotype alters the effects of heavy drinking and childhood physical abuse (CPA) on the risk for committing impulsive recidivistic violent crimes. Logistic regression analyses showed that both heavy drinking and CPA were significant independent predictors of recidivism in violent behavior (OR 5.2, p = 0.004 and OR 5.3, p = 0.003) among offenders having the high MAOA activity genotype (MAOA-H), but these predictors showed no effect among offenders carrying the low MAOA activity genotype (MAOA-L). Carriers of the MAOA-H allele have a high risk to commit severe recidivistic impulsive violent crimes after exposure to heavy drinking and CPA.

MAOA Alters the Effects of Heavy Drinking and Childhood Physical Abuse on Risk for Severe Impulsive Acts of Violence Among Alcoholic Violent Offenders

PubMed Central

Tikkanen, Roope; Ducci, Francesca; Goldman, David; Holi, Matti; Lindberg, Nina; Tiihonen, Jari; Virkkunen, Matti

2011-01-01

Background A polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) has been shown to alter the effect of persistent drinking and childhood maltreatment on the risk for violent and antisocial behaviors. These findings indicate that MAOA could contribute to inter-individual differences in stress resiliency. Methods Recidivism in severe violent crimes was assessed after 8 years of nonincarcerated follow-up in a male sample of 174 impulsive Finnish alcoholic violent offenders, the majority of whom exhibited antisocial (ASPD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD) or both. We examined whether MAOA genotype alters the effects of heavy drinking and childhood physical abuse (CPA) on the risk for committing impulsive recidivistic violent crimes. Results Logistic regression analyses showed that both heavy drinking and CPA were significant independent predictors of recidivism in violent behavior (OR 5.2, p = 0.004 and OR 5.3, p = 0.003) among offenders having the high MAOA activity genotype (MAOA-H), but these predictors showed no effect among offenders carrying the low MAOA activity genotype (MAOA-L). Conclusion Carriers of the MAOA-H allele have a high risk to commit severe recidivistic impulsive violent crimes after exposure to heavy drinking and CPA. PMID:20201935

Dopamine Gene Profiling to Predict Impulse Control and Effects of Dopamine Agonist Ropinirole.

PubMed

MacDonald, Hayley J; Stinear, Cathy M; Ren, April; Coxon, James P; Kao, Justin; Macdonald, Lorraine; Snow, Barry; Cramer, Steven C; Byblow, Winston D

2016-07-01

Dopamine agonists can impair inhibitory control and cause impulse control disorders for those with Parkinson disease (PD), although mechanistically this is not well understood. In this study, we hypothesized that the extent of such drug effects on impulse control is related to specific dopamine gene polymorphisms. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study aimed to examine the effect of single doses of 0.5 and 1.0 mg of the dopamine agonist ropinirole on impulse control in healthy adults of typical age for PD onset. Impulse control was measured by stop signal RT on a response inhibition task and by an index of impulsive decision-making on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. A dopamine genetic risk score quantified basal dopamine neurotransmission from the influence of five genes: catechol-O-methyltransferase, dopamine transporter, and those encoding receptors D1, D2, and D3. With placebo, impulse control was better for the high versus low genetic risk score groups. Ropinirole modulated impulse control in a manner dependent on genetic risk score. For the lower score group, both doses improved response inhibition (decreased stop signal RT) whereas the lower dose reduced impulsiveness in decision-making. Conversely, the higher score group showed a trend for worsened response inhibition on the lower dose whereas both doses increased impulsiveness in decision-making. The implications of the present findings are that genotyping can be used to predict impulse control and whether it will improve or worsen with the administration of dopamine agonists.

Neuronal codes for the inhibitory control of impulsive actions in the rat infralimbic cortex.

PubMed

Tsutsui-Kimura, Iku; Ohmura, Yu; Izumi, Takeshi; Matsushima, Toshiya; Amita, Hidetoshi; Yamaguchi, Taku; Yoshida, Takayuki; Yoshioka, Mitsuhiro

2016-01-01

Poor impulse control is a debilitating condition observed in various psychiatric disorders and could be a risk factor for drug addiction, criminal involvement, and suicide. The rat infralimbic cortex (IL), located in the ventral portion of the medial prefrontal cortex, has been implicated in impulse control. To elucidate the neurophysiological basis of impulse control, we recorded single unit activity in the IL of a rat performing a 3-choiceserial reaction time task (3-CSRTT) and 2-choice task (2-CT), which are animal models for impulsivity. The inactivation of IL neuronal activity with an injection of muscimol (0.1 μg /side) disrupted impulse control in the 3-CSRTT. More than 60% (38/56) of isolated IL units were linked to impulse control, while approximately 30% of all units were linked to attentional function in the 3-CSRTT. To avoid confounding motor-related units with the impulse control-related units, we further conducted the 2-CT in which the animals' motor activities were restricted during recording window. More than 30% (14/44) of recorded IL units were linked to impulse control in the 2-CT. Several types of impulse control-related units were identified. Only 16% of all units were compatible with the results of the muscimol experiment, which showed a transient decline in the firing rate immediately before the release of behavioral inhibition. This is the first study to elucidate the neurophysiological basis of impulse control in the IL and to propose that IL neurons control impulsive actions in a more complex manner than previously considered. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Diagnosis and treatment of impulse control disorders in patients with movement disorders

PubMed Central

Mestre, Tiago A.; Strafella, Antonio P.; Thomsen, Teri; Voon, Valerie

2013-01-01

Impulse control disorders are a psychiatric condition characterized by the failure to resist an impulsive act or behavior that may be harmful to self or others. In movement disorders, impulse control disorders are associated with dopaminergic treatment, notably dopamine agonists (DAs). Impulse control disorders have been studied extensively in Parkinson’s disease, but are also recognized in restless leg syndrome and atypical Parkinsonian syndromes. Epidemiological studies suggest younger age, male sex, greater novelty seeking, impulsivity, depression and premorbid impulse control disorders as the most consistent risk factors. Such patients may warrant special monitoring after starting treatment with a DA. Various individual screening tools are available for people without Parkinson’s disease. The Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease has been developed specifically for Parkinson’s disease. The best treatment for impulse control disorders is prevention. However, after the development of impulse control disorders, the mainstay intervention is to reduce or discontinue the offending anti-Parkinsonian medication. In refractory cases, other pharmacological interventions are available, including neuroleptics, antiepileptics, amantadine, antiandrogens, lithium and opioid antagonists. Unfortunately, their use is only supported by case reports, small case series or open-label clinical studies. Prospective, controlled studies are warranted. Ongoing investigations include naltrexone and nicotine. PMID:23634190

A STUDY OF METHODS OF CONTROLLING IMPULSES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

WHITESIDE, RAY

THE PERSON LESS ABLE TO CONTROL HIS IMPULSES IS ALSO APT TO EXHIBIT SOCIALLY DISVALUED BEHAVIOR. VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC FAILURE IS A PARTIAL CONSEQUENCE OF IMPULSIVENESS AND LACK OF SELF-CONTROL. TO INVESTIGATE IMPULSE CONTROL, TWO INSTRUMENTS BELIEVED TO MEASURE ATTRIBUTES OF OPPOSITE POLES OF THIS CONCEPT (SEQUENTIAL TESTS OF EDUCATIONAL…

Screening for impulse control symptoms in patients with de novo Parkinson disease: a case-control study.

PubMed

Weintraub, Daniel; Papay, Kimberly; Siderowf, Andrew

2013-01-08

To determine the frequency and correlates of impulse control and related behavior symptoms in patients with de novo, untreated Parkinson disease (PD) and healthy controls (HCs). The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative is an international, multisite, case-control clinical study conducted at 21 academic movement disorders centers. Participants were recently diagnosed, untreated PD patients (n = 168) and HCs (n = 143). The outcome measures were presence of current impulse control and related behavior symptoms based on recommended cutoff points for the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease (QUIP)-Short Form. There were 311 participants with complete QUIP data. Frequencies of impulse control and related behavior symptoms for patients with PD vs HCs were as follows: gambling (1.2% vs. 0.7%), buying (3.0% vs. 2.1%), sexual behavior (4.2% vs. 3.5%), eating (7.1% vs. 10.5%), punding (4.8% vs. 2.1%), hobbyism (5.4% vs. 11.9%), walkabout (0.6% vs. 0.7%), and any impulse control or related behavior (18.5% vs. 20.3%). In multivariable models, a diagnosis of PD was not associated with symptoms of any impulse control or related behavior (p ≥ 0.10 in all cases). PD itself does not seem to confer an increased risk for development of impulse control or related behavior symptoms, which further reinforces the reported association between PD medications and impulse control disorders in PD. Given that approximately 20% of patients with newly diagnosed PD report some impulse control or related behavior symptoms, long-term follow-up is needed to determine whether such patients are at increased risk for impulse control disorder development once PD medications are initiated.

Impulsivity, attention, memory, and decision-making among adolescent marijuana users.

PubMed

Dougherty, Donald M; Mathias, Charles W; Dawes, Michael A; Furr, R Michael; Charles, Nora E; Liguori, Anthony; Shannon, Erin E; Acheson, Ashley

2013-03-01

Marijuana is a popular drug of abuse among adolescents, and they may be uniquely vulnerable to resulting cognitive and behavioral impairments. Previous studies have found impairments among adolescent marijuana users. However, the majority of this research has examined measures individually rather than multiple domains in a single cohesive analysis. This study used a logistic regression model that combines performance on a range of tasks to identify which measures were most altered among adolescent marijuana users. The purpose of this research was to determine unique associations between adolescent marijuana use and performances on multiple cognitive and behavioral domains (attention, memory, decision-making, and impulsivity) in 14- to 17-year-olds while simultaneously controlling for performances across the measures to determine which measures most strongly distinguish marijuana users from nonusers. Marijuana-using adolescents (n = 45) and controls (n = 48) were tested. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to test for: (1) differences between marijuana users and nonusers on each measure, (2) associations between marijuana use and each measure after controlling for the other measures, and (3) the degree to which (1) and (2) together elucidated differences among marijuana users and nonusers. Of all the cognitive and behavioral domains tested, impaired short-term recall memory and consequence sensitivity impulsivity were associated with marijuana use after controlling for performances across all measures. This study extends previous findings by identifying cognitive and behavioral impairments most strongly associated with adolescent marijuana users. These specific deficits are potential targets of intervention for this at-risk population.

Screening for impulse control symptoms in patients with de novo Parkinson disease

PubMed Central

Papay, Kimberly; Siderowf, Andrew

2013-01-01

Objective: To determine the frequency and correlates of impulse control and related behavior symptoms in patients with de novo, untreated Parkinson disease (PD) and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative is an international, multisite, case-control clinical study conducted at 21 academic movement disorders centers. Participants were recently diagnosed, untreated PD patients (n = 168) and HCs (n = 143). The outcome measures were presence of current impulse control and related behavior symptoms based on recommended cutoff points for the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease (QUIP)-Short Form. Results: There were 311 participants with complete QUIP data. Frequencies of impulse control and related behavior symptoms for patients with PD vs HCs were as follows: gambling (1.2% vs 0.7%), buying (3.0% vs 2.1%), sexual behavior (4.2% vs 3.5%), eating (7.1% vs 10.5%), punding (4.8% vs 2.1%), hobbyism (5.4% vs 11.9%), walkabout (0.6% vs 0.7%), and any impulse control or related behavior (18.5% vs 20.3%). In multivariable models, a diagnosis of PD was not associated with symptoms of any impulse control or related behavior (p ≥ 0.10 in all cases). Conclusions: PD itself does not seem to confer an increased risk for development of impulse control or related behavior symptoms, which further reinforces the reported association between PD medications and impulse control disorders in PD. Given that approximately 20% of patients with newly diagnosed PD report some impulse control or related behavior symptoms, long-term follow-up is needed to determine whether such patients are at increased risk for impulse control disorder development once PD medications are initiated. PMID:23296128

Impulsive choice and pre-exposure to delays: iv. effects of delay- and immediacy-exposure training relative to maturational changes in impulsivity.

PubMed

Renee Renda, C; Rung, Jillian M; Hinnenkamp, Jay E; Lenzini, Stephanie N; Madden, Gregory J

2018-04-23

Impulsive choice describes preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Excessive delay discounting (i.e., rapid devaluation of delayed rewards) underlies some impulsive choices, and is observed in many maladaptive behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, gambling). Interventions designed to reduce delay discounting may provide therapeutic gains. One such intervention provides rats with extended training with delayed reinforcers. When compared to a group given extended training with immediate reinforcers, delay-exposed rats make significantly fewer impulsive choices. To what extent is this difference due to delay-exposure training shifting preference toward self-control or immediacy-exposure training (the putative control group) shifting preference toward impulsivity? The current study compared the effects of delay- and immediacy-exposure training to a no-training control group and evaluated within-subject changes in impulsive choice across 51 male Wistar rats. Delay-exposed rats made significantly fewer impulsive choices than immediacy-exposed and control rats. Between-group differences in impulsive choice were not observed in the latter two groups. While delay-exposed rats showed large, significant pre- to posttraining reductions in impulsive choice, immediacy-exposed and control rats showed small reductions in impulsive choice. These results suggest that extended training with delayed reinforcers reduces impulsive choice, and that extended training with immediate reinforcers does not increase impulsive choice. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor ligands on sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delayed reinforcement in a delay-discounting procedure

PubMed Central

Yates, Justin R; Gunkel, Benjamin T; Rogers, Katherine K; Hughes, Mallory N; Prior, Nicholas A

2016-01-01

Rationale The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor has been recently identified as an important mediator of impulsive choice, as assessed in delay discounting. Although discounting is independently influenced by sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delayed reinforcement, few studies have examined how NMDA receptor ligands differentially affect these parameters. Objectives The current study examined the effects of various NMDA receptor ligands on sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delayed reinforcement in a delay-discounting procedure. Methods Following behavioral training, rats received treatments of the following NMDA receptor ligands: the uncompetitive antagonists ketamine (0, 1.0, 5.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p.), MK-801 (0, 0.003, 0.01, or 0.03 mg/kg; s.c.), and memantine (0, 2.5, 5.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p.), the competitive antagonist CGS 19755 (0, 5.0, 10.0, or 20.0 mg/kg; s.c.), the non-competitive NR2B subunit-selective antagonist ifenprodil (0, 1.0, 3.0, or 10.0 mg/kg; i.p), and the partial agonist D-cycloserine (0, 3.25, 15.0, or 30.0 mg/kg; s.c.). Results When an exponential model was used to describe discounting, CGS 19755 (5.0 mg/kg) increased impulsive choice without altering sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude. Conversely, ketamine (10.0 mg/kg), memantine (5.0 mg/kg), and ifenprodil (10.0 mg/kg) decreased sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude without altering impulsive choice. MK-801 and D-cycloserine did not alter delay-discounting performance, although two-way ANOVA analyses indicated D-cycloserine (15.0 mg/kg) decreased impulsive choice. Conclusions The behavioral changes observed in delay discounting following administration of NMDA receptor antagonists do not always reflect an alteration in impulsive choice. These results emphasize the utility in employing quantitative methods to assess drug effects in delay discounting. PMID:27837332

Impact of Family History of Alcoholism on Glutamine/Glutamate Ratio in Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Substance-Naïve Adolescents

PubMed Central

Cohen-Gilbert, Julia E.; Sneider, Jennifer T.; Crowley, David J.; Rosso, Isabelle M.; Jensen, J. Eric; Silveri, Marisa M.

2015-01-01

Neuroimaging studies of individuals with family histories of alcoholism provide evidence suggesting neurobiological risk factors for alcoholism. Youth family history positive (FH+) for alcoholism exhibit increased impulsivity compared to family history negative (FH−) peers, in conjunction with altered functional activation in prefrontal cortex, including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This study examined glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln), amino acids vital to protein synthesis, cellular metabolism and neurotransmission, acquired from ACC and parieto-occipital cortex (POC) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) at 4T. Participants were 28 adolescents (13 male, 12–14yrs) and 31 emerging adults (16 male, 18–25yrs), stratified into FH− and FH+ groups. Significantly higher ACC Gln/Glu was observed in emerging adults versus adolescents in FH− but not FH+ groups. In FH− adolescents, higher impulsivity was significantly associated with higher ACC Gln/Glu. In FH+ emerging adults, higher impulsivity was negatively associated with ACC Gln/Glu. No differences or associations were observed for POC. These findings provide preliminary evidence that family history of alcoholism is associated with a neurochemical profile that may influence normative age differences in glutamatergic metabolites and their association with impulse control, which together could confer greater genetic risk of addiction later in life. PMID:26025607

Impulsive artistic creativity as a presentation of transient cognitive alterations.

PubMed

Finkelstein, Y; Vardi, J; Hod, I

1991-01-01

A 27-year-old right-handed male mosaic artisan who had not shown any interest in drawing or artistic activity was admitted to the Department of Neurology for attacks of bizarre behavior and convulsive disorder. The patient reported feeling "waves" engulfing him during the attacks, leaving him floating helplessly. During some attacks, the patient impulsively initiated drawing activity. Interictal sleep-deprivation EEG showed a left frontotemporal focus of paroxysmal discharge. Brain tomography with SPECT showed low 99Tc-HMPAO uptake in the left frontoparietal region. Psychodiagnostic tests gave evidence of dysfunction of the left frontal region, with preference of the right hemisphere. It is suggested that the attacks of altered cognitive state were, in this case, provoked by spreading depression of the left hemisphere, while the integrative functions of the right hemisphere remained intact. Thus, the impulsive artistic creativity during the attacks may represent a "release phenomenon" of the complex visuospatial skills of the right (subdominant) hemisphere. This symptomatology of transient cognitive alterations is unique and, to the best of our knowledge, has not been previously reported.

Trait impulsive choice predicts resistance to extinction and propensity to relapse to cocaine seeking: a bidirectional investigation.

PubMed

Broos, Nienke; Diergaarde, Leontien; Schoffelmeer, Anton Nm; Pattij, Tommy; De Vries, Taco J

2012-05-01

Despite the strong association between impulsivity and addiction in humans, it is still a matter of debate whether impulsive choice predisposes to, or results from, drug dependence. Furthermore, it is unknown whether treating impulsivity can protect against relapse propensity. Therefore, this study explored the bidirectional relationship between impulsive choice and cocaine taking and seeking in rat behavioral models. In experiment 1, to determine whether impulsive choice predisposes to cocaine taking or seeking, rats were selected based on trait impulsivity in a delayed reward task and subsequently compared on various stages of cocaine self-administration (SA). To examine the consequence of cocaine intake on impulsive choice, impulsivity was monitored once a week throughout various stages of cocaine SA. To determine whether treating impulsive choice can protect against relapse propensity, in experiment 2, impulsive choice was manipulated by pharmacological interventions and cocaine-associated contextual cues. Trait impulsive choice as determined in experiment 1 predicted high extinction resistance and enhanced propensity to context-induced relapse in the cocaine SA model, whereas cocaine intake did not alter impulsive choice. Furthermore, acute changes in impulsive choice were not related to rates of context-induced relapse. Taken together, the current data indicate that trait impulsive choice predicts persistent cocaine seeking during extinction and enhanced propensity to relapse, whereas acute manipulations of impulsive choice had no favorable outcomes on relapse measures. These observations suggest that trait impulsivity can be used as a predictive factor for addiction liability, but treating this impulsivity does not necessarily protect against relapse.

Effects of dopamine agonist dose and gender on the prognosis of impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Joutsa, Juho; Martikainen, Kirsti; Vahlberg, Tero; Kaasinen, Valtteri

2012-12-01

Cross-sectional studies have demonstrated that Parkinson's disease patients have an increased risk of impulse control disorders, and that the disorders frequently co-exist with depressive symptoms. There have been no previous large-scale prospective studies investigating predictive and prognostic factors of these disorders. A population of 290 Parkinson's disease patients was studied at baseline and approximately 15 months later. The same screening methodology was used at both time-points (demographic and medication data together with the Questionnaire for Impulsive-compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's disease and the Beck Depression Inventory). The data was analyzed separating patients with and without impulse control disorders at baseline to obtain clinically useful prognostic factors. In patients who had impulse control disorders at baseline (n = 119), high dopamine agonist dose was associated with the presence of disorders at follow-up. Dopamine agonist levodopa equivalent daily dose over 160 mg was significantly associated with impulse control disorders with a positive predictive value of 92.5% (95% confidence interval 79.6%-98.4%). In addition, females had a better prognosis of impulse control disorders compared to males. The development of novel impulse control disorders (no disorder at baseline, disorder at follow-up) was associated with a concurrent increase in depression scores. The results suggest that dopamine agonist dose and gender are associated with the prognosis of impulse control disorders. Symptoms of depression emerge together with novel impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulse position control algorithms for nonlinear systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sesekin, A. N.; Nepp, A. N.

2015-11-01

The article is devoted to the formalization and description of impulse-sliding regime in nonlinear dynamical systems that arise in the application of impulse position controls of a special kind. The concept of trajectory impulse-sliding regime formalized as some limiting network element Euler polygons generated by a discrete approximation of the impulse position control This paper differs from the previously published papers in that it uses a definition of solutions of systems with impulse controls, it based on the closure of the set of smooth solutions in the space of functions of bounded variation. The need for the study of such regimes is the fact that they often arise when parry disturbances acting on technical or economic control system.

Being watched by others eliminates the effect of emotional arousal on inhibitory control.

PubMed

Yu, Jiaxin; Tseng, Philip; Muggleton, Neil G; Juan, Chi-Hung

2015-01-01

The psychological effect of being watched by others has been proven a powerful tool in modulating social behaviors (e.g., charitable giving) and altering cognitive performance (e.g., visual search). Here we tested whether such awareness would affect one of the core elements of human cognition: emotional processing and impulse control. Using an emotion stop-signal paradigm, we found that viewing emotionally-arousing erotic images before attempting to inhibit a motor response impaired participants' inhibition ability, but such an impairing effect was completely eliminated when participants were led to believe that their facial expressions were monitored by a webcam. Furthermore, there was no post-error slowing in any of the conditions, thus these results cannot be explained by a deliberate speed-accuracy tradeoff or other types of conscious shift in strategy. Together, these findings demonstrate that the interaction between emotional arousal and impulse control can be dependent on one's state of self-consciousness. Furthermore, this study also highlights the effect that the mere presence of the experimenter may have on participants' cognitive performance, even if it's only a webcam.

The Effect of Local Violence on Children’s Attention and Impulse Control

PubMed Central

Tirado-Strayer, Nicole; Papachristos, Andrew V.; Raver, C. Cybele

2012-01-01

Objectives. We examined whether the burden of violence in a child’s community environment alters the child’s behavior and functioning in the classroom setting. Methods. To identify the effects of local violence, we exploited variation in the timing of local homicides, based on data from the Chicago Police Department, relative to the timing of interview assessments conducted as part of a randomized controlled trial conducted with preschoolers in Head Start programs from 2004–2006, the Chicago School Readiness Project. We compared children’s scores when exposed to recent local violence with scores when no recent violence had occurred to identify causal effects. Results. When children were assessed within a week of a homicide that occurred near their home, they exhibited lower levels of attention and impulse control and lower preacademic skills. The analysis showed strong positive effects of local violence on parental distress, providing suggestive evidence that parental responses may be a likely pathway by which local violence affects young children. Conclusions. Exposure to homicide generates acute psychological distress among caregivers and impairs children’s self-regulatory behavior and cognitive functioning. PMID:23078491

Being watched by others eliminates the effect of emotional arousal on inhibitory control

PubMed Central

Yu, Jiaxin; Tseng, Philip; Muggleton, Neil G.; Juan, Chi-Hung

2015-01-01

The psychological effect of being watched by others has been proven a powerful tool in modulating social behaviors (e.g., charitable giving) and altering cognitive performance (e.g., visual search). Here we tested whether such awareness would affect one of the core elements of human cognition: emotional processing and impulse control. Using an emotion stop-signal paradigm, we found that viewing emotionally-arousing erotic images before attempting to inhibit a motor response impaired participants’ inhibition ability, but such an impairing effect was completely eliminated when participants were led to believe that their facial expressions were monitored by a webcam. Furthermore, there was no post-error slowing in any of the conditions, thus these results cannot be explained by a deliberate speed-accuracy tradeoff or other types of conscious shift in strategy. Together, these findings demonstrate that the interaction between emotional arousal and impulse control can be dependent on one’s state of self-consciousness. Furthermore, this study also highlights the effect that the mere presence of the experimenter may have on participants’ cognitive performance, even if it’s only a webcam. PMID:25653635

Trait impulsivity in suicide attempters: preliminary study.

PubMed

Doihara, Chiho; Kawanishi, Chiaki; Ohyama, Nene; Yamada, Tomoki; Nakagawa, Makiko; Iwamoto, Yohko; Odawara, Toshinari; Hirayasu, Yoshio

2012-10-01

Suicide attempt is a risk factor for suicide. To investigate trait impulsivity among suicide attempters, 93 attempters admitted to an emergency department and 113 healthy controls were evaluated using the Japanese version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11J). Impulsivity was analyzed in relation to clinical data in the attempters. Total BIS-11J, attention impulsiveness, and motor impulsiveness scores were significantly higher in the attempters than in the controls. Both total BIS-11J and non-planning impulsiveness scores were significantly higher in attempters with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders among the diagnostic groups. Control of impulsivity should be considered as one of the targets for suicide prevention. © 2012 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2012 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Pathological gambling: an impulse control disorder? Measurement of impulsivity using neurocognitive tests.

PubMed

Dannon, Pinhas N; Shoenfeld, Netta; Rosenberg, Oded; Kertzman, Semion; Kotler, Moshe

2010-04-01

Pathological gambling is classified in the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and in the ICD-10 (International Classification of Disease) as an impulse control disorder. The association between impulsivity and pathological gambling remains a matter of debate: some researchers find high levels of impulsivity within pathological gamblers, others report no difference compared to controls, and yet others even suggest that it is lower. In this review we examine the relationship between pathological gambling and impulsivity assessed by various neurocognitive tests. These tests--the Stroop task, the Stop Signal Task, the Matching Familiar Figures Task, the Iowa Gambling Task, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Tower of London test, and the Continuous Performance Test--demonstrated less impulsivity in gambling behavior. The differences in performance between pathological gamblers and healthy controls on the neurocognitive tasks could be due to addictive behavior features rather than impulsive behavior.

Impulse position control algorithms for nonlinear systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sesekin, A. N., E-mail: sesekin@list.ru; Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, Ural Division of Russian Academy of Sciences, 16 S. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterinburg, 620990; Nepp, A. N., E-mail: anepp@urfu.ru

2015-11-30

The article is devoted to the formalization and description of impulse-sliding regime in nonlinear dynamical systems that arise in the application of impulse position controls of a special kind. The concept of trajectory impulse-sliding regime formalized as some limiting network element Euler polygons generated by a discrete approximation of the impulse position control This paper differs from the previously published papers in that it uses a definition of solutions of systems with impulse controls, it based on the closure of the set of smooth solutions in the space of functions of bounded variation. The need for the study of suchmore » regimes is the fact that they often arise when parry disturbances acting on technical or economic control system.« less

Impulsive control of a financial model [rapid communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Jitao; Qiao, Fei; Wu, Qidi

2005-02-01

In this Letter, several new theorems on the stability of impulsive control systems are presented. These theorem are then used to find the conditions under which an advertising strategy can be asymptotically control to the equilibrium point by using impulsive control. Given the parameters of the financial model and the impulsive control law, an estimation of the upper bound of the impulse interval is given, i.e., number of advert can been decreased (i.e., can decrease cost) for to obtain the equivalent advertising effect.The result is illustrated to be efficient through a numerical example.

[Impulse control in addiction: a translational perspective].

PubMed

Schmaal, L; Broos, N; Joos, L; Pattij, T; Goudriaan, A E

2013-01-01

Impulsivity is a hallmark of addiction and predicts treatment response and relapse. Impulsivity is, however, a complex construct. Translational cross-species research is needed to give us greater insight into the neurobiology and the role of impulsivity in addiction and to help with the development of new treatment strategies for improving patients' impulse control. To review recent evidence concerning the concept of impulsivity and the role of impulsivity in addiction. The concept and neurobiology of impulsivity are reviewed from a translational perspective. The role of impulsivity in addiction and implications for treatment are discussed. Our recent translational cross-species study indicates that impulsivity is made up of several, separate independent features with partly distinct underlying neurobiological substrates. There are also indications that these features make a unique and independent contribution to separate stages of the addiction cycle. In addition, the improvement of impulse control is a promising new target area for treatments that could lead to better results. However, those involved in developing new treatment strategies will have to take into account the complexity and multidimensional character of impulsivity.

Repeated intermittent administration of psychomotor stimulant drugs alters the acquisition of Pavlovian approach behavior in rats: differential effects of cocaine, d-amphetamine and 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("Ecstasy").

PubMed

Taylor, J R; Jentsch, J D

2001-07-15

Psychomotor stimulant drugs can produce long-lasting changes in neurochemistry and behavior after multiple doses. In particular, neuroadaptations within corticolimbic brain structures that mediate incentive learning and motivated behavior have been demonstrated after chronic exposure to cocaine, d-amphetamine, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). As stimulus-reward learning is likely relevant to addictive behavior (i.e., augmented conditioned reward and stimulus control of behavior), we have investigated whether prior repeated administration of psychomotor stimulant drugs (of abuse, including cocaine, d-amphetamine, or MDMA, would affect the acquisition of Pavlovian approach behavior. Water-deprived rats were tested for the acquisition of Pavlovian approach behavior after 5 days treatment with cocaine (15-20 mg/kg once or twice daily), d-amphetamine (2.5 mg/kg once or twice daily), or MDMA (2.5 mg/kg twice daily) followed by a 7-day, drug-free period. Prior repeated treatment with cocaine or d-amphetamine produced a significant enhancement of acquisition of Pavlovian approach behavior, indicating accelerated stimulus-reward learning, whereas MDMA administration produced increased inappropriate responding, indicating impulsivity. Abnormal drug-induced approach behavior was found to persist throughout the testing period. These studies demonstrate that psychomotor stimulant-induced sensitization can produce long-term alterations in stimulus-reward learning and impulse control that may contribute to the compulsive drug taking that typifies addiction.

Differences in Trait Impulsivity Indicate Diversification of Dog Breeds into Working and Show Lines.

PubMed

Fadel, Fernanda Ruiz; Driscoll, Patricia; Pilot, Malgorzata; Wright, Hannah; Zulch, Helen; Mills, Daniel

2016-03-10

Impulsiveness describes the inability to inhibit behaviour in the presence of salient cues. Trait-level impulsivity exists on a continuum and individual differences can be adaptive in different contexts. While breed related differences in behavioural tendency in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) are well established, the phenomenon within lines of a breed which have been selected more recently is not well studied, although it may challenge the popular notion of breed-typical behaviour. We describe differences in impulsivity between and within two dog breeds with working and show lines selected for different levels of impulsivity: Border Collies (herding work) and Labrador Retrievers (gun work). Recent show line selection might have lessened differences in impulsivity between breeds. We tested this hypothesis on a dataset of 1161 individuals assessed using a validated psychometric tool (Dog Impulsivity Assessment Scale--DIAS). Collies were more impulsive on average, consistent with the original purpose of breed selection. Regarding line, working Collies differed from working Labradors, but show lines from the two breeds were not significantly different. Altered or relaxed artificial selection for behavioural traits when appearance rather than behaviour become the primary focus for breeders may reduce average differences in impulsivity between breeds in show lines.

Intrinsic brain connectivity predicts impulse control disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Tessitore, Alessandro; De Micco, Rosa; Giordano, Alfonso; di Nardo, Federica; Caiazzo, Giuseppina; Siciliano, Mattia; De Stefano, Manuela; Russo, Antonio; Esposito, Fabrizio; Tedeschi, Gioacchino

2017-12-01

Impulse control disorders can be triggered by dopamine replacement therapies in patients with PD. Using resting-state functional MRI, we investigated the intrinsic brain network connectivity at baseline in a cohort of drug-naive PD patients who successively developed impulse control disorders over a 36-month follow-up period compared with patients who did not. Baseline 3-Tesla MRI images of 30 drug-naive PD patients and 20 matched healthy controls were analyzed. The impulse control disorders' presence and severity at follow-up were assessed by the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Single-subject and group-level independent component analysis was used to investigate functional connectivity differences within the major resting-state networks. We also compared internetwork connectivity between patients. Finally, a multivariate Cox regression model was used to investigate baseline predictors of impulse control disorder development. At baseline, decreased connectivity in the default-mode and right central executive networks and increased connectivity in the salience network were detected in PD patients with impulse control disorders at follow-up compared with those without. Increased default-mode/central executive internetwork connectivity was significantly associated with impulse control disorders development (P < 0.05). Our findings demonstrated that abnormal brain connectivity in the three large-scale networks characterizes drug-naive PD patients who will eventually develop impulse control disorders while on dopaminergic treatment. We hypothesize that these divergent cognitive and limbic network connectivity changes could represent a potential biomarker and an additional risk factor for the emergence of impulse control disorders. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Reward signals, attempted suicide, and impulsivity in late-life depression.

PubMed

Dombrovski, Alexandre Y; Szanto, Katalin; Clark, Luke; Reynolds, Charles F; Siegle, Greg J

2013-10-01

IMPORTANCE—Suicide can be viewed as an escape from unendurable punishment at the cost of any future rewards. Could faulty estimation of these outcomes predispose to suicidal behavior? In behavioral studies, many of those who have attempted suicide misestimate expected rewards on gambling and probabilistic learning tasks.OBJECTIVES—To describe the neural circuit abnormalities that underlie disadvantageous choices in people at risk for suicide and to relate these abnormalities to impulsivity, which is one of the components of vulnerability to suicide.DESIGN—Case-control functional magnetic resonance imaging study of reward learning using are inforcement learning model.SETTING—University hospital and outpatient clinic.PATIENTS—Fifty-three participants 60 years or older, including 15 depressed patients who had attempted suicide, 18 depressed patients who had never attempted suicide (depressed control subjects), and 20 psychiatrically healthy controls.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES—Components of the cortical blood oxygenation level–dependent response tracking expected and unpredicted rewards.RESULTS—Depressed elderly participants displayed 2 distinct disruptions of control over reward-guided behavior. First, impulsivity and a history of suicide attempts (particularly poorly planned ones) were associated with a weakened expected reward signal in the paralimbic cortex,which in turn predicted the behavioral insensitivity to contingency change. Second, depression was associated with disrupted corticostriatothalamic encoding of unpredicted rewards, which in turn predicted the behavioral over sensitivity to punishment. These results were robust to the effects of possible brain damage from suicide attempts, depressive severity, co-occurring substance use and anxiety disorders, antidepressant and anticholinergic exposure, lifetime exposure to electroconvulsive therapy, vascular illness, and incipient dementia.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE—Altered paralimbic reward signals and impulsivity and/or carelessness may facilitate unplanned suicidal acts. This pattern, also seen in gambling and cocaine use, may reflect a primary deficit in the paralimbic cortex or in its mesolimbic input. The over reactivity to punishment in depression may be caused in part by a disruption of appetitive learning in the corticostriatothalamic circuits.

Reward Signals, Attempted Suicide, and Impulsivity in Late-Life Depression

PubMed Central

Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.; Szanto, Katalin; Clark, Luke; Reynolds, Charles F.; Siegle, Greg J.

2013-01-01

IMPORTANCE Suicide can be viewed as an escape from unendurable punishment at the cost of any future rewards. Could faulty estimation of these outcomes predispose to suicidal behavior? In behavioral studies, many of those who have attempted suicide misestimate expected rewards on gambling and probabilistic learning tasks. OBJECTIVES To describe the neural circuit abnormalities that underlie disadvantageous choices in people at risk for suicide and to relate these abnormalities to impulsivity, which is one of the components of vulnerability to suicide. DESIGN Case-control functional magnetic resonance imaging study of reward learning using a reinforcement learning model. SETTING University hospital and outpatient clinic. PATIENTS Fifty-three participants 60 years or older, including 15 depressed patients who had attempted suicide, 18 depressed patients who had never attempted suicide (depressed control subjects), and 20 psychiatrically healthy controls. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Components of the cortical blood oxygenation level–dependent response tracking expected and unpredicted rewards. RESULTS Depressed elderly participants displayed 2 distinct disruptions of control over reward-guided behavior. First, impulsivity and a history of suicide attempts (particularly poorly planned ones) were associated with a weakened expected reward signal in the paralimbic cortex, which in turn predicted the behavioral insensitivity to contingency change. Second, depression was associated with disrupted corticostriatothalamic encoding of unpredicted rewards, which in turn predicted the behavioral oversensitivity to punishment. These results were robust to the effects of possible brain damage from suicide attempts, depressive severity, co-occurring substance use and anxiety disorders, antidepressant and anticholinergic exposure, lifetime exposure to electroconvulsive therapy, vascular illness, and incipient dementia. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Altered paralimbic reward signals and impulsivity and/or carelessness may facilitate unplanned suicidal acts. This pattern, also seen in gambling and cocaine use, may reflect a primary deficit in the paralimbic cortex or in its mesolimbic input. The overreactivity to punishment in depression may be caused in part by a disruption of appetitive learning in the corticostriatothalamic circuits. PMID:23925710

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: decreased striatal dopamine transporter levels.

PubMed

Voon, Valerie; Rizos, Alexandra; Chakravartty, Riddhika; Mulholland, Nicola; Robinson, Stephanie; Howell, Nicholas A; Harrison, Neil; Vivian, Gill; Ray Chaudhuri, K

2014-02-01

Impulse control disorders are commonly associated with dopaminergic therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD). PD patients with impulse control disorders demonstrate enhanced dopamine release to conditioned cues and a gambling task on [(11)C]raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and enhanced ventral striatal activity to reward on functional MRI. We compared PD patients with impulse control disorders and age-matched and gender-matched controls without impulse control disorders using [(123)I]FP-CIT (2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)tropane) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), to assess striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) density. The [(123)I]FP-CIT binding data in the striatum were compared between 15 PD patients with and 15 without impulse control disorders using independent t tests. Those with impulse control disorders showed significantly lower DAT binding in the right striatum with a trend in the left (right: F(1,24)=5.93, p=0.02; left: F(1,24)=3.75, p=0.07) compared to controls. Our findings suggest that greater dopaminergic striatal activity in PD patients with impulse control disorders may be partly related to decreased uptake and clearance of dopamine from the synaptic cleft. Whether these findings are related to state or trait effects is not known. These findings dovetail with reports of lower DAT levels secondary to the effects of methamphetamine and alcohol. Although any regulation of DAT by antiparkinsonian medication appears to be modest, PD patients with impulse control disorders may be differentially sensitive to regulatory mechanisms of DAT expression by dopaminergic medications.

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: decreased striatal dopamine transporter levels

PubMed Central

Voon, Valerie; Rizos, Alexandra; Chakravartty, Riddhika; Mulholland, Nicola; Robinson, Stephanie; Howell, Nicholas A; Harrison, Neil; Vivian, Gill; Ray Chaudhuri, K

2014-01-01

Objective Impulse control disorders are commonly associated with dopaminergic therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD). PD patients with impulse control disorders demonstrate enhanced dopamine release to conditioned cues and a gambling task on [11C]raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and enhanced ventral striatal activity to reward on functional MRI. We compared PD patients with impulse control disorders and age-matched and gender-matched controls without impulse control disorders using [123I]FP-CIT (2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)tropane) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), to assess striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) density. Methods The [123I]FP-CIT binding data in the striatum were compared between 15 PD patients with and 15 without impulse control disorders using independent t tests. Results Those with impulse control disorders showed significantly lower DAT binding in the right striatum with a trend in the left (right: F(1,24)=5.93, p=0.02; left: F(1,24)=3.75, p=0.07) compared to controls. Conclusions Our findings suggest that greater dopaminergic striatal activity in PD patients with impulse control disorders may be partly related to decreased uptake and clearance of dopamine from the synaptic cleft. Whether these findings are related to state or trait effects is not known. These findings dovetail with reports of lower DAT levels secondary to the effects of methamphetamine and alcohol. Although any regulation of DAT by antiparkinsonian medication appears to be modest, PD patients with impulse control disorders may be differentially sensitive to regulatory mechanisms of DAT expression by dopaminergic medications. PMID:23899625

Cannabinoid CB1 Receptor Activation Mediates the Opposing Effects of Amphetamine on Impulsive Action and Impulsive Choice

PubMed Central

Wiskerke, Joost; Stoop, Nicky; Schetters, Dustin; Schoffelmeer, Anton N. M.; Pattij, Tommy

2011-01-01

It is well known that acute challenges with psychostimulants such as amphetamine affect impulsive behavior. We here studied the pharmacology underlying the effects of amphetamine in two rat models of impulsivity, the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) and the delayed reward task (DRT), providing measures of inhibitory control, an aspect of impulsive action, and impulsive choice, respectively. We focused on the role of cannabinoid CB1 receptor activation in amphetamine-induced impulsivity as there is evidence that acute challenges with psychostimulants activate the endogenous cannabinoid system, and CB1 receptor activity modulates impulsivity in both rodents and humans. Results showed that pretreatment with either the CB1 receptor antagonist/inverse agonist SR141716A or the neutral CB1 receptor antagonist O-2050 dose-dependently improved baseline inhibitory control in the 5-CSRTT. Moreover, both compounds similarly attenuated amphetamine-induced inhibitory control deficits, suggesting that CB1 receptor activation by endogenously released cannabinoids mediates this aspect of impulsive action. Direct CB1 receptor activation by Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) did, however, not affect inhibitory control. Although neither SR141716A nor O-2050 affected baseline impulsive choice in the DRT, both ligands completely prevented amphetamine-induced reductions in impulsive decision making, indicating that CB1 receptor activity may decrease this form of impulsivity. Indeed, acute Δ9-THC was found to reduce impulsive choice in a CB1 receptor-dependent way. Together, these results indicate an important, though complex role for cannabinoid CB1 receptor activity in the regulation of impulsive action and impulsive choice as well as the opposite effects amphetamine has on both forms of impulsive behavior. PMID:22016780

Generating chaos for discrete time-delayed systems via impulsive control.

PubMed

Guan, Zhi-Hong; Liu, Na

2010-03-01

Generating chaos for a class of discrete time-delayed systems via impulsive control is investigated in this paper. With the augmented matrix method, the time-delay impulsive systems can be transformed into a new class of linear discrete impulsive systems. Based on the largest Lyapunov exponent and the boundedness of the systems, some theoretical results about the chaotification for the discrete impulsive systems with time delay are derived and an example is given to visualize the satisfactory control performance.

Impulsivity, Attention, Memory, and Decision-Making among Adolescent Marijuana Users

PubMed Central

Dougherty, Donald M.; Mathias, Charles W.; Dawes, Michael A.; Furr, R. Michael; Charles, Nora E.; Liguori, Anthony; Shannon, Erin E.; Acheson, Ashley

2012-01-01

Rationale Marijuana is a popular drug of abuse among adolescents, and they may be uniquely vulnerable to resulting cognitive and behavioral impairments. Previous studies have found impairments among adolescent marijuana users. However, the majority of this research has examined measures individually rather than multiple domains in a single cohesive analysis. This study used a logistic regression model that combines performance on a range of tasks to identify which measures were most altered among adolescent marijuana users. Objectives The purpose of this research was to determine unique associations between adolescent marijuana user and performances on multiple cognitive and behavioral domains (attention, memory, decision-making, and impulsivity) in 14- to 17-year-olds while simultaneously controlling for performances across the measures to determine which measures most strongly distinguish marijuana users from non-users. Methods Marijuana-using adolescents (n=45) and controls (n=48) were tested. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to test for: (a) differences between marijuana users and non-users on each measure, (b) associations between marijuana use and each measure after controlling for the other measures, and (c) the degree to which (a) and (b) together elucidated differences among marijuana users and non-users. Results Of all the cognitive and behavioral domains tested, impaired short-term recall memory and consequence sensitivity impulsivity were associated with marijuana use after controlling for performances across all measures. Conclusions This study extends previous findings by identifying cognitive and behavioral impairments most strongly associated with adolescent marijuana users. These specific deficits are potential targets of intervention for this at-risk population. PMID:23138434

Self-reported impulsivity, but not behavioral approach or inhibition, mediates the relationship between stress and self-control

PubMed Central

Hamilton, Kristen R.; Sinha, Rajita; Potenza, Marc N.

2014-01-01

Stress has been associated with poor self-control. Individual differences in impulsivity and other behavioral tendencies may influence the relationship of stress with self-control, although this possibility has not been examined to date. The present research investigated whether cumulative stress is associated with poor self-control, and whether this relationship is mediated by impulsivity, behavioral approach, and behavioral inhibition in men and women. A community sample of 566 adults (319 women and 247 men) was assessed on the Cumulative Adversity Interview, Brief Self-control Scale, Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and Behavioral Activation System and Behavioral Inhibition System Scale (BIS/BAS). Data were analyzed using regression and bootstrapping techniques. In the total sample, the effects of cumulative stress on self-control were mediated by impulsivity. Neither behavioral inhibition nor behavioral approach mediated the association between cumulative stress and self-control in the total sample. Results were similar when men and women were considered separately, with impulsivity, but not behavioral inhibition or approach, mediating the association between cumulative stress and self-control. Impulsive individuals might benefit preferentially from interventions focusing on stress management and strategies for improving self-control. PMID:24508183

Self-reported impulsivity, but not behavioral approach or inhibition, mediates the relationship between stress and self-control.

PubMed

Hamilton, Kristen R; Sinha, Rajita; Potenza, Marc N

2014-11-01

Stress has been associated with poor self-control. Individual differences in impulsivity and other behavioral tendencies may influence the relationship of stress with self-control, although this possibility has not been examined to date. The present research investigated whether cumulative stress is associated with poor self-control, and whether this relationship is mediated by impulsivity, behavioral approach, and behavioral inhibition in men and women. A community sample of 566 adults (319 women and 247 men) was assessed on the Cumulative Adversity Interview, Brief Self-control Scale, Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and Behavioral Activation System and Behavioral Inhibition System Scale (BIS/BAS). Data were analyzed using regression and bootstrapping techniques. In the total sample, the effects of cumulative stress on self-control were mediated by impulsivity. Neither behavioral inhibition nor behavioral approach mediated the association between cumulative stress and self-control in the total sample. Results were similar when men and women were considered separately, with impulsivity, but not behavioral inhibition or approach, mediating the association between cumulative stress and self-control. Impulsive individuals might benefit preferentially from interventions focusing on stress management and strategies for improving self-control. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity in adolescents with major depressive disorder: A comparative tunisian study.

PubMed

Khemakhem, Khaoula; Boudabous, Jaweher; Cherif, Leila; Ayadi, Hela; Walha, Adel; Moalla, Yousr; Hadjkacem, Imen; Ghribi, Farhat

2017-08-01

The association between impulsivity and depressive disorders in adolescence has been little studied at the literature and in our country, yet impulsivity is a major risk factor for suicide. Thus we aimed on this study to evaluate impulsivity in 25 adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder MDD compared to a control sample and to analyze the correlations between impulsivity and clinical features of MDD. Employing a matched case-control design, participants included 25 adolescents with MDD and 75 controls. We have administered the Barratt Impulsivity Scale BIS-11 for the two groups to evaluate impulsivity. Semi structured interviews according DSM 5 criteria were conducted for adolescents with MDD. The Child Depressive Inventory CDI was used to measure depressive symptoms in the control sample. Adolescents with MDD were more impulsive compared to controls according to the BIS-11 in its three domains: motor (24.96±6.26 against 20.6±4.84; p=0.000), attentional (20.88±5.03 against 16.64±3.2; p=0.000) and non planning (28.2±7.26 against 24.44±4.32; p=0.02). Impulsivity was not correlated with clinical features of MDD (suicide attempts, psychiatric comorbidities, antidepressant medication …). Adolescents with MDD seem to be more impulsive than control subjects regardless their clinical features. Whether it is a specific characteristic or a symptom among others of MDD, impulsivity predicts health-related behaviors and associated damage that need to be detected and prevented in time. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulse-control disorders in a college sample: results from the self-administered Minnesota Impulse Disorders Interview (MIDI).

PubMed

Odlaug, Brian L; Grant, Jon E

2010-01-01

This study sought to examine the prevalence rates of and gender differences among impulse-control disorders in a college sample. During the fall semester of 2006, 791 college students from 2 private colleges in the Midwest completed a self-administered, modified version of the Minnesota Impulse Disorders Interview to assess lifetime rates of DSM-IV-TR-diagnosed impulse-control disorders. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The mean age of the sample was 20.0 +/- 1.25 years, with females comprising 67.9% of the respondents. Of the individuals, 10.4% (n = 82) met criteria for at least 1 lifetime impulse-control disorder. The most common disorders were trichotillomania (3.91%) and compulsive sexual behavior (3.66%). Kleptomania was the least common (0.38%). Males were significantly more likely to screen positive for pathological gambling (P = .003) and compulsive sexual behavior (P = .002). Females were more likely to have compulsive buying (P = .033). Impulse-control disorders appear to be common among college students. The high rates indicate that these disorders may be incipient during late adolescence and early adulthood and should be addressed prior to onset of clinical versions of the impulse-control disorder.

Supplementary active stabilization of nonrigid gravity gradient satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keat, J. E.

1972-01-01

The use of active control for stability augmentation of passive gravity gradient satellites is investigated. The reaction jet method of control is the main interest. Satellite nonrigidity is emphasized. The reduction in the Hamiltonian H is used as a control criteria. The velocities, relative to local vertical, of the jets along their force axes are shown to be of fundamental significance. A basic control scheme which satisfies the H reduction criteria is developed. Each jet is fired when its velocity becomes appropriately large. The jet is de-energized when velocity reaches zero. Firing constraints to preclude orbit alteration may be needed. Control is continued until H has been minimized. This control policy is investigated using impulse and rectangular pulse models of the jet outputs.

The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, impulsivity and suicide behavior in euthymic bipolar patients.

PubMed

Malloy-Diniz, Leandro Fernandes; Neves, Fernando Silva; de Moraes, Paulo Henrique Paiva; De Marco, Luiz Armando; Romano-Silva, Marco Aurélio; Krebs, Marie-Odile; Corrêa, Humberto

2011-09-01

Suicide behavior is very frequent in Bipolar Disorder (BD) and they are both closely associated with impulsivity. Furthermore they are, impulsivity, BD and suicide behavior, associated with serotonergic function, at least partially, under genetic determinism and somewhat associated with the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism, the 5-HTTLPR. We aimed to assess different impulsivity components in BD sub-grouped by suicidal attempt and healthy controls. We hypothesized that the non-planning/cognitive impulsivity, could be more closely associated with suicidal behavior. We further associated 5-HTTLPR genotypes with neuropsychological results to test the hypothesis that this polymorphism is associated with cognitive impulsivity. We assessed 95 euthymic bipolar patients sub-grouped by suicidal attempt history in comparison with 94 healthy controls. All subjects underwent a laboratory assessment of impulsivity (Continuous Performance Test and Iowa Gambling Test). Furthermore the genotyping of 5-HTTLPR was performed in all subjects. We found that bipolar patients are more impulsive than healthy controls in all impulsivity dimensions we studied. Furthermore bipolar patients with a suicide attempt history have a greater cognitive impulsivity when compared to both bipolar patients without such a history as well when compared to healthy controls. No association was found between 5-HTTLPR genotypes and neuropsychological measures of impulsive behavior. The sample studied can be considered small and a potentially confounding variable - medication status - was not controlled. A lifetime suicide attempt seems associated with cognitive impulsivity independently of the socio-demographic and clinical variables studied as well with 5-HTTLPR genotype. Further studies in larger samples are necessary. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Finite-Element Method Model of Soft Tissue Response to Impulsive Acoustic Radiation Force

PubMed Central

Palmeri, Mark L.; Sharma, Amy C.; Bouchard, Richard R.; Nightingale, Roger W.; Nightingale, Kathryn R

2010-01-01

Several groups are studying acoustic radiation force and its ability to image the mechanical properties of tissue. Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging is one modality using standard diagnostic ultrasound scanners to generate localized, impulsive, acoustic radiation forces in tissue. The dynamic response of tissue is measured via conventional ultrasonic speckle-tracking methods and provides information about the mechanical properties of tissue. A finite-element method (FEM) model has been developed that simulates the dynamic response of tissues, with and without spherical inclusions, to an impulsive acoustic radiation force excitation from a linear array transducer. These FEM models were validated with calibrated phantoms. Shear wave speed, and therefore elasticity, dictates tissue relaxation following ARFI excitation, but Poisson’s ratio and density do not significantly alter tissue relaxation rates. Increased acoustic attenuation in tissue increases the relative amount of tissue displacement in the near field compared with the focal depth, but relaxation rates are not altered. Applications of this model include improving image quality, and distilling material and structural information from tissue’s dynamic response to ARFI excitation. Future work on these models includes incorporation of viscous material properties and modeling the ultrasonic tracking of displaced scatterers. PMID:16382621

Impulsivity, self-control, and hypnotic suggestibility.

PubMed

Ludwig, V U; Stelzel, C; Krutiak, H; Prunkl, C E; Steimke, R; Paschke, L M; Kathmann, N; Walter, H

2013-06-01

Hypnotic responding might be due to attenuated frontal lobe functioning after the hypnotic induction. Little is known about whether personality traits linked with frontal functioning are associated with responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions. We assessed whether hypnotic suggestibility is related to the traits of self-control and impulsivity in 154 participants who completed the Brief Self-Control Scale, the Self-Regulation Scale, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A). BIS-11 non-planning impulsivity correlated positively with HGSHS:A (Bonferroni-corrected). Furthermore, in the best model emerging from a stepwise multiple regression, both non-planning impulsivity and self-control positively predicted hypnotic suggestibility, and there was an interaction of BIS-11 motor impulsivity with gender. For men only, motor impulsivity tended to predict hypnotic suggestibility. Hypnotic suggestibility is associated with personality traits linked with frontal functioning, and hypnotic responding in men and women might differ. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Control Capacity as a Predictor of Borderline Personality Disorder Features, Problematic Drinking, and Their Co-Occurrence

PubMed Central

Johnson, Benjamin N.; Ashe, Melinda L.; Wilson, Stephen J.

2017-01-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) share impulsivity as an etiological factor. However, impulsivity is ill-defined, often overlapping with self-control capacity. This study attempts to disentangle these constructs and their associations with alcohol use and BPD. Undergraduates (N = 192) completed the Five Factor Model Rating Form, which generated two dimensional scales of BPD, the Self-Control Scale, the UPPS-P (self-reported impulsivity), and the Stop-signal and delay discounting tasks (laboratory-measured impulsivity). Self-control appeared as a major predictor of BPD features and drinking, explaining as much or more variance in outcome than impulsivity. Co-occurrence of elevated BPD features and problem drinking was also best explained by self-control. Laboratory measures of impulsivity were not correlated with BPD scales or alcohol use. Self-regulatory capacity may be an important but overlooked factor in BPD and alcohol use and should be considered alongside impulsivity in future research. PMID:27064849

Individual in Context: The Role of Impulse Control on the Association between the Home, School, and Neighborhood Developmental Contexts and Adolescent Delinquency.

PubMed

Fine, Adam; Mahler, Alissa; Steinberg, Laurence; Frick, Paul J; Cauffman, Elizabeth

2017-07-01

Social ecological theories and decades of supporting research suggest that contexts exert a powerful influence on adolescent delinquency. Individual traits, such as impulse control, also pose a developmental disadvantage to adolescents through increasing risk of delinquency. However, such individual differences may also predispose some youth to struggle more in adverse environments, but also to excel in enriched environments. Despite the prominence of impulse control in both developmental and criminological literatures, researchers are only beginning to consider impulse control as an individual characteristic that may affect developmental outcomes in response to environmental input. Using a racially diverse (Latino 46 %; Black 37 %; White 15 %; other race 2 %) sample of 1,216 first-time, male, juvenile offenders from the longitudinal Crossroads Study, this study examined key interactions between baseline impulse control and the home, school, and neighborhood contexts in relation to delinquency within the following 6 months. The results indicated that even after accounting for prior delinquency, youth in more negative home, school, and neighborhood contexts engaged in the same amount of delinquency in the following 6 months regardless of their level of impulse control. However, the effects of positive home, school, and neighborhood contexts on delinquency were stronger for youth with moderate or high impulse control and minimally affected youth with low impulse control. The findings suggest two risk factors for delinquency: low impulse control as a dispositional vulnerability that operates independently of developmental context, and a second that results from a contextual vulnerability.

Impact of family history of alcoholism on glutamine/glutamate ratio in anterior cingulate cortex in substance-naïve adolescents.

PubMed

Cohen-Gilbert, Julia E; Sneider, Jennifer T; Crowley, David J; Rosso, Isabelle M; Jensen, J Eric; Silveri, Marisa M

2015-12-01

Neuroimaging studies of individuals with family histories of alcoholism provide evidence suggesting neurobiological risk factors for alcoholism. Youth family history positive (FH+) for alcoholism exhibit increased impulsivity compared to family history negative (FH-) peers in conjunction with altered functional activation in prefrontal cortex, including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This study examined glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln), amino acids vital to protein synthesis, cellular metabolism and neurotransmission, acquired from ACC and parieto-occipital cortex (POC) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) at 4T. Participants were 28 adolescents (13 male, 12-14 yrs) and 31 emerging adults (16 male, 18-25 yrs), stratified into FH- and FH+ groups. Significantly higher ACC Gln/Glu was observed in emerging adults versus adolescents in FH- but not FH+ groups. In FH- adolescents, higher impulsivity was significantly associated with higher ACC Gln/Glu. In FH+ emerging adults, higher impulsivity was negatively associated with ACC Gln/Glu. No differences or associations were observed for POC. These findings provide preliminary evidence that family history of alcoholism is associated with a neurochemical profile that may influence normative age differences in glutamatergic metabolites and their association with impulse control, which together could confer greater genetic risk of addiction later in life. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Using Dual Process Models to Examine Impulsivity Throughout Neural Maturation.

PubMed

Leshem, Rotem

2016-01-01

The multivariate construct of impulsivity is examined through neural systems and connections that comprise the executive functioning system. It is proposed that cognitive and behavioral components of impulsivity can be divided into two distinct groups, mediated by (1) the cognitive control system: deficits in top-down cognitive control processes referred to as action/cognitive impulsivity and (2) the socioemotional system: related to bottom-up affective/motivational processes referred to as affective impulsivity. Examination of impulsivity from a developmental viewpoint can guide future research, potentially enabling the selection of more effective interventions for impulsive individuals, based on the cognitive components requiring improvement.

Binge drinking and family history of alcoholism are associated with an altered developmental trajectory of impulsive choice across adolescence.

PubMed

Jones, Scott A; Steele, Joel S; Nagel, Bonnie J

2017-07-01

To test whether binge drinking, the density of familial alcoholism (FHD) and their interaction are associated with an altered developmental trajectory of impulsive choice across adolescence, and whether more life-time drinks are associated with a greater change in impulsive choice across age. Alcohol-naive adolescents, with varying degrees of FHD, were recruited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study on adolescent development, and were grouped based on whether they remained non-drinkers (n = 83) or initiated binge drinking (n = 33) during follow-up. During all visits, adolescents completed a monetary delay discounting task to measure impulsive choice. The effects of binge-drinking status, FHD and their interaction on impulsive choice across adolescence were tested. Developmental Brain Imaging Laboratory, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA. A total of 116 healthy male and female adolescents (ages 10-17 years at baseline) completed two to four visits between July 2008 and May 2016. Discounting rates were obtained based on adolescents' preference for immediate or delayed rewards. FHD was based on parent-reported prevalence of alcohol use disorder in the participant's first- and second-degree relatives. Binge-drinking status was determined based on the number of recent binge-drinking episodes. There was a significant interaction effect of binge-drinking status and FHD on impulsive choice across age (b = 1.090, P < 0.05, β = 0.298). In adolescents who remained alcohol-naive, greater FHD was associated with a steeper decrease in discounting rates across adolescence (b = -0.633, P < 0.05, β = -0.173); however, this effect was not present in binge-drinkers. Furthermore, total life-time drinks predicted escalated impulsive choice (b = 0.002, P < 0.05, β = 0.295) in binge-drinking adolescents. A greater degree of familial alcoholism is associated with a steeper decline in impulsive choice across adolescence, but only in those who remain alcohol-naive. Meanwhile, more life-time drinks during adolescence is associated with increases in impulsive choice across age. © 2017 Society for the Study of Addiction.

The mediating role of non-suicidal self-injury in the relationship between impulsivity and suicidal behavior among inpatients receiving treatment for substance use disorders.

PubMed

Anestis, Michael D; Tull, Matthew T; Lavender, Jason M; Gratz, Kim L

2014-08-15

Several theories posit a direct role of impulsivity in suicidal behavior. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (IPTS) argues that the relationship between impulsivity and suicidal behavior is explained by the painful and/or provocative experiences (PPEs) often encountered by impulsive individuals. It thus seems plausible that nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), itself associated with impulsivity, might account for the relationship between impulsivity and suicidal behavior. We examined data from 93 adult inpatients (54.8% male) seeking treatment for substance use disorders. Patients completed a structured interview assessing prior suicidal behavior and a series of self-report questionnaires examining impulsivity, NSSI, and psychopathology. Four impulsivity dimensions (negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance) were associated with lifetime number of suicide attempts and/or suicide potential. Furthermore, results supported our hypotheses, as all but one relation was better accounted for by NSSI and, in the one exception, the direct effect was non-significant. Findings are consistent with the IPTS and suggest that suicidal behavior may not be a direct manifestation of impulsivity, but facilitated through exposure to PPEs capable of altering an individual׳s relationship to pain and fear of death. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The insanity defense: Related issues.

PubMed

Asokan, T V

2016-12-01

For the past 150 years, there is no change in the understanding and knowledge other than autonomy and capacity to choose the right and wrong for criminal liability. The alternative concept that human behavior is the result of an interaction between biological and environmental factors other than free choice failed to impress the criminal justice system because of a direct threat to a society's deep seated need to blame someone than themselves for criminal harms that occur. The insanity defense has a long history, and is evolved after many tests that have been tried and tested. McNaughton's rules stressed on "understandability of right and wrong" and "intellectual" rather than a moral or affective definition dominated in its formulation. Lack of control and irresistible drives or impulses were neglected Going by the current understanding of neurological evidences of compulsion and lack of impulse control, rationality tests without the inclusion of lack of control, seem to be outdated. Separate "Control determination" than the "Rationality determination" by the jurors may improve the accuracy of Juror's categorizations. There is a suggestion that Relevance ratio is ideal for 'Evidentiary relevance" and there should be a quality control on expert testimonies. With progress in neuroscience, the law may need to abandon or alter some of its current assumptions about the nature of voluntary conduct, which underlies various defenses.

Impulse control disorders and levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease: an update.

PubMed

Voon, Valerie; Napier, T Celeste; Frank, Michael J; Sgambato-Faure, Veronique; Grace, Anthony A; Rodriguez-Oroz, Maria; Obeso, Jose; Bezard, Erwan; Fernagut, Pierre-Olivier

2017-03-01

Dopaminergic medications used in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease are associated with motor and non-motor behavioural side-effects, such as dyskinesias and impulse control disorders also known as behavioural addictions. Levodopa-induced dyskinesias occur in up to 80% of patients with Parkinson's after a few years of chronic treatment. Impulse control disorders, including gambling disorder, binge eating disorder, compulsive sexual behaviour, and compulsive shopping occur in about 17% of patients with Parkinson's disease on dopamine agonists. These behaviours reflect the interactions of the dopaminergic medications with the individual's susceptibility, and the underlying neurobiology of Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonian rodent models show enhanced reinforcing effects of chronic dopaminergic medication, and a potential role for individual susceptibility. In patients with Parkinson's disease and impulse control disorders, impairments are observed across subtypes of decisional impulsivity, possibly reflecting uncertainty and the relative balance of rewards and losses. Impairments appear to be more specific to decisional than motor impulsivity, which might reflect differences in ventral and dorsal striatal engagement. Emerging evidence suggests impulse control disorder subtypes have dissociable correlates, which indicate that individual susceptibility predisposes towards the expression of different behavioural subtypes and neurobiological substrates. Therapeutic interventions to treat patients with Parkinson's disease and impulse control disorders have shown efficacy in randomised controlled trials. Large-scale studies are warranted to identify individual risk factors and novel therapeutic targets for these diseases. Mechanisms underlying impulse control disorders and dyskinesias could provide crucial insights into other behavioural symptoms in Parkinson's disease and addictions in the general population. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Executive functions, impulsivity, and inhibitory control in adolescents: A structural equation model

PubMed Central

Fino, Emanuele; Melogno, Sergio; Iliceto, Paolo; D’Aliesio, Sara; Pinto, Maria Antonietta; Candilera, Gabriella; Sabatello, Ugo

2014-01-01

Background. Adolescence represents a critical period for brain development, addressed by neurodevelopmental models to frontal, subcortical-limbic, and striatal activation, a pattern associated with rise of impulsivity and deficits in inhibitory control. The present study aimed at studying the association between self-report measures of impulsivity and inhibitory control with executive function in adolescents, employing structural equation modeling. Method. Tests were administered to 434 high school students. Acting without thinking was measured through the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory, reward sensitivity through the Behavioral Activation System, and sensation seeking through the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personali- ty Questionnaire. Inhibitory control was assessed through the Behavioral Inhibition System. The performance at the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task indicated executive function. Three models were specified using Sample Covariance Matrix, and the estimated parameters using Maximum Likelihood. Results. In the final model, impulsivity and inhibitory control predicted executive function, but sensation seeking did not. The fit of the model to data was excellent. Conclusions. The hypothesis that inhibitory control and impulsivity are predictors of executive function was supported. Our results appear informative of the validity of self-report measures to examine the relation between impulsivity traits rather than others to regulatory function of cognition and behavior. PMID:25157298

Cognitive control training for emotion-related impulsivity.

PubMed

Peckham, Andrew D; Johnson, Sheri L

2018-06-01

Many forms of psychopathology are tied to a heightened tendency to respond impulsively to strong emotions, and this tendency, in turn, is closely tied to problems with cognitive control. The goal of the present study was to test whether a two-week, six-session cognitive control training program is efficacious in reducing emotion-related impulsivity. Participants (N = 52) reporting elevated scores on an emotion-related impulsivity measure completed cognitive control training targeting working memory and response inhibition. A subset of participants were randomized to a waitlist control group. Impulsivity, emotion regulation, and performance on near and far-transfer cognitive tasks were assessed at baseline and after completion of training. Emotion-related impulsivity declined significantly from pre-training to post-training and at two-week follow-up; improvements were not observed in the waitlist control group. A decrease in brooding rumination and an increase in reappraisal were also observed. Participants showed significant improvements on trained versions of the working memory and inhibition tasks as well as improvements on an inhibition transfer task. In sum, these preliminary findings show that cognitive training appears to be well-tolerated for people with significant emotion-driven impulsivity. Results provide preliminary support for the efficacy of cognitive training interventions as a way to reduce emotion-related impulsivity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimal neurocognitive, personality and behavioral measures for assessing impulsivity in cocaine dependence.

PubMed

LoBue, Christian; Cullum, C Munro; Braud, Jacqueline; Walker, Robrina; Winhusen, Theresa; Suderajan, Prabha; Adinoff, Bryon

2014-11-01

Impulsivity may underlie the poor treatment retention and high relapse rates observed in cocaine-dependent persons. However, observed differences in measures of impulsivity between cocaine-dependent and healthy control participants often do not reach clinical significance, suggesting that the clinical relevance of these differences may be limited. To examine which measures of impulsivity (i.e. self-report impulsivity, self-report personality, neurocognitive testing) best distinguish cocaine-dependent and healthy control participants (i.e. showing differences at least 1.5 standard deviations [SD] from controls). Optimal measures were considered to demonstrate sufficient classification accuracy. Sixty-five recently abstinent cocaine-dependent and 25 healthy control participants were assessed using select neurocognitive tests and self-report questionnaires including the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11a), and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe). When corrected for years of education and gender, neurocognitive measures did not demonstrate clinically significant differences between cocaine-dependent and control participants. The personality measures TCI Purposefulness and Congruent Second Nature and NEO-PI-R Impulsiveness, and the self-rating measures FrSBe Disinhibition and BIS-11 Motor Impulsivity and Total successfully identified clinically meaningful elevations in impulsivity within cocaine-dependent participants (>1.5 SDs from controls). Furthermore, these measures achieved 84-93% accuracy in discriminating cocaine-dependent from control participants. Clinically significant neurocognitive impairment in cocaine-dependent participants was not observed in this sample. As the BIS-11 or FrSBe are brief to administer, accurate, and have been shown to predict treatment retention and relapse, these measures appear to be optimal, relative to the personality measures, for examining trait impulsivity in cocaine dependence.

Optimal neurocognitive, personality and behavioral measures for assessing impulsivity in cocaine dependence

PubMed Central

LoBue, Christian; Cullum, C. Munro; Braud, Jacqueline; Walker, Robrina; Winhusen, Theresa; Suderajan, Prabha; Adinoff, Bryon

2015-01-01

Background Impulsivity may underlie the poor treatment retention and high relapse rates observed in cocaine-dependent persons. However, observed differences in measures of impulsivity between cocaine-dependent and healthy control participants often do not reach clinical significance, suggesting that the clinical relevance of these differences may be limited. Objectives To examine which measures of impulsivity (i.e. self-report impulsivity, self-report personality, neurocognitive testing) best distinguish cocaine-dependent and healthy control participants (i.e. showing differences at least 1.5 standard deviations [SD] from controls). Optimal measures were considered to demonstrate sufficient classification accuracy. Methods Sixty-five recently abstinent cocaine-dependent and 25 healthy control participants were assessed using select neurocognitive tests and self-report questionnaires including the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11a), and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe). Results When corrected for years of education and gender, neurocognitive measures did not demonstrate clinically significant differences between cocaine-dependent and control participants. The personality measures TCI Purposefulness and Congruent Second Nature and NEO-PI-R Impulsiveness, and the self-rating measures FrSBe Disinhibition and BIS-11 Motor Impulsivity and Total successfully identified clinically meaningful elevations in impulsivity within cocaine-dependent participants (>1.5 SDs from controls). Furthermore, these measures achieved 84–93% accuracy in discriminating cocaine-dependent from control participants. Conclusion Clinically significant neurocognitive impairment in cocaine-dependent participants was not observed in this sample. As the BIS-11 or FrSBe are brief to administer, accurate, and have been shown to predict treatment retention and relapse, these measures appear to be optimal, relative to the personality measures, for examining trait impulsivity in cocaine dependence. PMID:25083938

State-dependent impulsive models of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies and their dynamic consequences.

PubMed

Tang, Sanyi; Cheke, Robert A

2005-03-01

A state-dependent impulsive model is proposed for integrated pest management (IPM). IPM involves combining biological, mechanical, and chemical tactics to reduce pest numbers to tolerable levels after a pest population has reached its economic threshold (ET). The complete expression of an orbitally asymptotically stable periodic solution to the model with a maximum value no larger than the given ET is presented, the existence of which implies that pests can be controlled at or below their ET levels. We also prove that there is no periodic solution with order larger than or equal to three, except for one special case, by using the properties of the LambertW function and Poincare map. Moreover, we show that the existence of an order two periodic solution implies the existence of an order one periodic solution. Various positive invariant sets and attractors of this impulsive semi-dynamical system are described and discussed. In particular, several horseshoe-like attractors, whose interiors can simultaneously contain stable order 1 periodic solutions and order 2 periodic solutions, are found and the interior structure of the horseshoe-like attractors is discussed. Finally, the largest invariant set and the sufficient conditions which guarantee the global orbital and asymptotic stability of the order 1 periodic solution in the meaningful domain for the system are given using the Lyapunov function. Our results show that, in theory, a pest can be controlled such that its population size is no larger than its ET by applying effects impulsively once, twice, or at most, a finite number of times, or according to a periodic regime. Moreover, our theoretical work suggests how IPM strategies could be used to alter the levels of the ET in the farmers' favour.

Orbitofrontal reward sensitivity and impulsivity in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Wilbertz, Gregor; van Elst, Ludger Tebartz; Delgado, Mauricio R; Maier, Simon; Feige, Bernd; Philipsen, Alexandra; Blechert, Jens

2012-03-01

Impulsivity symptoms of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) such as increased risk taking have been linked with impaired reward processing. Previous studies have focused on reward anticipation or on rewarded executive functioning tasks and have described a striatal hyporesponsiveness and orbitofrontal alterations in adult and adolescent ADHD. Passive reward delivery and its link to behavioral impulsivity are less well understood. To study this crucial aspect of reward processing we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with electrodermal assessment in male and female adult ADHD patients (N=28) and matched healthy control participants (N=28) during delivery of monetary and non-monetary rewards. Further, two behavioral tasks assessed risky decision making (game of dice task) and delay discounting. Results indicated that both groups activated ventral and dorsal striatum and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) in response to high-incentive (i.e. monetary) rewards. A similar, albeit less strong activation pattern was found for low-incentive (i.e. non-monetary) rewards. Group differences emerged when comparing high and low incentive rewards directly: activation in the mOFC coded for the motivational change in reward delivery in healthy controls, but not ADHD patients. Additionally, this dysfunctional mOFC activity in patients correlated with risky decision making and delay discounting and was paralleled by physiological arousal. Together, these results suggest that the mOFC codes reward value and type in healthy individuals whereas this function is deficient in ADHD. The brain-behavior correlations suggest that this deficit might be related to behavioral impulsivity. Reward value processing difficulties in ADHD should be considered when assessing reward anticipation and emotional learning in research and applied settings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robust changes in reward circuitry during reward loss in current and former cocaine users during performance of a monetary incentive delay task.

PubMed

Patel, Krishna T; Stevens, Michael C; Meda, Shashwath A; Muska, Christine; Thomas, Andre D; Potenza, Marc N; Pearlson, Godfrey D

2013-10-01

Abnormal function in reward circuitry in cocaine addiction could predate drug use as a risk factor, follow drug use as a consequence of substance-induced alterations, or both. We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging monetary incentive delay task (MIDT) to investigate reward-loss neural response differences among 42 current cocaine users, 35 former cocaine users, and 47 healthy subjects who also completed psychological measures and tasks related to impulsivity and reward. We found various reward processing-related group differences in several MIDT phases. Across task phases we found a control > current user > former user activation pattern, except for loss outcome, where former compared with current cocaine users activated ventral tegmental area more robustly. We also found regional prefrontal activation differences during loss anticipation between cocaine-using groups. Both groups of cocaine users scored higher than control subjects on impulsivity, compulsivity and reward-punishment sensitivity factors. In addition, impulsivity-related factors correlated positively with activation in amygdala and negatively with anterior cingulate activation during loss anticipation. Compared with healthy subjects, both former and current users displayed abnormal brain activation patterns during MIDT performance. Both cocaine groups differed similarly from healthy subjects, but differences between former and current users were localized to the ventral tegmental area during loss outcome and to prefrontal regions during loss anticipation, suggesting that long-term cocaine abstinence does not normalize most reward circuit abnormalities. Elevated impulsivity-related factors that relate to loss processing in current and former users suggest that these tendencies and relationships may pre-exist cocaine addiction. © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry.

Ankle taping can reduce external ankle joint moments during drop landings on a tilted surface.

PubMed

Sato, Nahoko; Nunome, Hiroyuki; Hopper, Luke S; Ikegami, Yasuo

2017-09-20

Ankle taping is commonly used to prevent ankle sprains. However, kinematic assessments investigating the biomechanical effects of ankle taping have provided inconclusive results. This study aimed to determine the effect of ankle taping on the external ankle joint moments during a drop landing on a tilted surface at 25°. Twenty-five participants performed landings on a tilted force platform that caused ankle inversion with and without ankle taping. Landing kinematics were captured using a motion capture system. External ankle inversion moment, the angular impulse due to the medio-lateral and vertical components of ground reaction force (GRF) and their moment arm lengths about the ankle joint were analysed. The foot plantar inclination relative to the ground was assessed. In the taping condition, the foot plantar inclination and ankle inversion angular impulse were reduced significantly compared to that of the control. The only component of the external inversion moment to change significantly in the taped condition was a shortened medio-lateral GRF moment arm length. It can be assumed that the ankle taping altered the foot plantar inclination relative to the ground, thereby shortening the moment arm of medio-lateral GRF that resulted in the reduced ankle inversion angular impulse.

Monoamine oxidase A gene promoter methylation and transcriptional downregulation in an offender population with antisocial personality disorder.

PubMed

Checknita, D; Maussion, G; Labonté, B; Comai, S; Tremblay, R E; Vitaro, F; Turecki, N; Bertazzo, A; Gobbi, G; Côté, G; Turecki, G

2015-03-01

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is characterised by elevated impulsive aggression and increased risk for criminal behaviour and incarceration. Deficient activity of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene is suggested to contribute to serotonergic system dysregulation strongly associated with impulsive aggression and antisocial criminality. To elucidate the role of epigenetic processes in altered MAOA expression and serotonin regulation in a population of incarcerated offenders with ASPD compared with a healthy non-incarcerated control population. Participants were 86 incarcerated participants with ASPD and 73 healthy controls. MAOA promoter methylation was compared between case and control groups. We explored the functional impact of MAOA promoter methylation on gene expression in vitro and blood 5-HT levels in a subset of the case group. Results suggest that MAOA promoter hypermethylation is associated with ASPD and may contribute to downregulation of MAOA gene expression, as indicated by functional assays in vitro, and regression analysis with whole-blood serotonin levels in offenders with ASPD. These results are consistent with prior literature suggesting MAOA and serotonergic dysregulation in antisocial populations. Our results offer the first evidence suggesting epigenetic mechanisms may contribute to MAOA dysregulation in antisocial offenders. Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Impulsive control of stochastic systems with applications in chaos control, chaos synchronization, and neural networks.

PubMed

Li, Chunguang; Chen, Luonan; Aihara, Kazuyuki

2008-06-01

Real systems are often subject to both noise perturbations and impulsive effects. In this paper, we study the stability and stabilization of systems with both noise perturbations and impulsive effects. In other words, we generalize the impulsive control theory from the deterministic case to the stochastic case. The method is based on extending the comparison method to the stochastic case. The method presented in this paper is general and easy to apply. Theoretical results on both stability in the pth mean and stability with disturbance attenuation are derived. To show the effectiveness of the basic theory, we apply it to the impulsive control and synchronization of chaotic systems with noise perturbations, and to the stability of impulsive stochastic neural networks. Several numerical examples are also presented to verify the theoretical results.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, impulse control disorders and drug addiction: common features and potential treatments.

PubMed

Fontenelle, Leonardo F; Oostermeijer, Sanne; Harrison, Ben J; Pantelis, Christos; Yücel, Murat

2011-05-07

The basic concepts underlying compulsive, impulsive and addictive behaviours overlap, which may help explain why laymen use these expressions interchangeably. Although there has been a large research effort to better characterize and disentangle these behaviours, clinicians and scientists are still unable to clearly differentiate them. Accordingly, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), impulse control disorders (ICD) and substance-related disorders (SUD) overlap on different levels, including phenomenology, co-morbidity, neurocircuitry, neurocognition, neurochemistry and family history. In this review we summarize these issues with particular emphasis on the role of the opioid system in the pathophysiology and treatment of OCD, ICD and SUD. We postulate that with progression and chronicity of OCD, the proportion of the OCD-related behaviours (e.g. checking, washing, ordering and hoarding, among others) that are driven by impulsive 'rash' processes increase as involvement of more ventral striatal circuits becomes prominent. In contrast, as SUD and ICD progress, the proportion of the SUD- and ICD-related behaviours that are driven by compulsive 'habitual' processes increase as involvement of more dorsal striatal circuits become prominent. We are not arguing that, with time, ICD becomes OCD or vice versa. Instead, we are proposing that these disorders may acquire qualities of the other with time. In other words, while patients with ICD/SUD may develop 'compulsive impulsions', patients with OCD may exhibit 'impulsive compulsions'. There are many potential implications of our model. Theoretically, OCD patients exhibiting impulsive or addictive features could be managed with drugs that address the quality of the underlying drives and the involvement of neural systems. For example, agents for the reduction or prevention of relapse of addiction (e.g. heavy drinking), which modulate the cortico-mesolimbic dopamine system through the opioid (e.g. buprenorphine and naltrexone), glutamate (e.g. topiramate), serotonin (e.g. ondansetron) or γ-aminobutyric acid (e.g. baclofen and topiramate) systems, may prove to show some benefit in certain forms of OCD. Based on the available evidence, we suggest that the treatment of patients with these disorders must account for alterations in the underlying motivations and neurobiology of the condition. We provide an initial guide to the specific treatments that future clinical trials might consider in patients with OCD. For example, it might be wise to test naltrexone in patients with co-morbid SUD and ICD, topiramate in patients with co-morbid ICD and eating disorders, and baclofen in patients with co-morbid Tourette's syndrome. These trials could also include scales aimed at assessing underlying impulsivity (e.g. Barratt Impulsiveness Scale) to check whether this construct might predict response to drugs acting on the reward system. © 2011 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.

Attention Network Dysfunction in Bulimia Nervosa - An fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Dahmen, Brigitte; Schulte-Rüther, Martin; Legenbauer, Tanja; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Konrad, Kerstin

2016-01-01

Objective Recent evidence has suggested an increased rate of comorbid ADHD and subclinical attentional impairments in bulimia nervosa (BN) patients. However, little is known regarding the underlying neural mechanisms of attentional functions in BN. Method Twenty BN patients and twenty age- and weight-matched healthy controls (HC) were investigated using a modified version of the Attention Network Task (ANT) in an fMRI study. This design enabled an investigation of the neural mechanisms associated with the three attention networks involved in alerting, reorienting and executive attention. Results The BN patients showed hyperactivation in parieto-occipital regions and reduced deactivation of default-mode-network (DMN) areas during alerting compared with HCs. Posterior cingulate activation during alerting correlated with the severity of eating-disorder symptoms within the patient group. Conversely, BN patients showed hypoactivation during reorienting and executive attention in anterior cingulate regions, the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and parahippocampus compared with HCs, which was negatively associated with global ADHD symptoms and impulsivity, respectively. Discussion Our findings demonstrate altered brain mechanisms in BN associated with all three attentional networks. Failure to deactivate the DMN and increased parieto-occipital activation required for alerting might be associated with a constant preoccupation with food or body image-related thoughts. Hypoactivation of executive control networks and TPJ might increase the likelihood of inattentive and impulsive behaviors and poor emotion regulation. Thus, dysfunction in the attentional network in BN goes beyond an altered executive attentional domain and needs to be considered in the diagnosis and treatment of BN. PMID:27607439

Neurobiological Indicators of Disinhibition in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

PubMed Central

Sadeh, Naomi; Spielberg, Jeffrey M.; Miller, Mark W.; Milberg, William P.; Salat, David H.; Amick, Melissa M.; Fortier, Catherine B.; McGlinchey, Regina E.

2015-01-01

Deficits in impulse control are increasingly recognized in association with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To further our understanding of the neurobiology of PTSD-related disinhibition, we examined alterations in brain morphology and network connectivity associated with response inhibition failures and PTSD severity. The sample consisted of 189 trauma-exposed Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans (89% male, ages 19–62) presenting with a range of current PTSD severity. Disinhibition was measured using commission errors on a Go/No-Go task with emotional stimuli, and PTSD was assessed using a measure of current symptom severity. Whole-brain vertex-wise analyses of cortical thickness revealed two clusters associated with PTSD-related disinhibition (Monte Carlo cluster corrected p< .05). The first cluster included portions of right inferior and middle frontal gyri and frontal pole. The second cluster spanned portions of left medial orbital frontal, rostral anterior cingulate, and superior frontal gyrus. In both clusters, commission errors were associated with reduced cortical thickness at higher (but not lower) levels of PTSD symptoms. Resting-state fMRI analyses revealed alterations in the functional connectivity of the right frontal cluster. Together, study findings suggest that reductions in cortical thickness in regions involved in flexible decision-making, emotion regulation, and response inhibition contribute to impulse control deficits in PTSD. Further, aberrant coupling between frontal regions and networks involved in selective attention, memory/learning, and response preparation suggest disruptions in functional connectivity may also play a role. PMID:25959594

Neurobiological indicators of disinhibition in posttraumatic stress disorder.

PubMed

Sadeh, Naomi; Spielberg, Jeffrey M; Miller, Mark W; Milberg, William P; Salat, David H; Amick, Melissa M; Fortier, Catherine B; McGlinchey, Regina E

2015-08-01

Deficits in impulse control are increasingly recognized in association with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To our further understanding of the neurobiology of PTSD-related disinhibition, we examined alterations in brain morphology and network connectivity associated with response inhibition failures and PTSD severity. The sample consisted of 189 trauma-exposed Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans (89% male, ages 19-62) presenting with a range of current PTSD severity. Disinhibition was measured using commission errors on a Go/No-Go (GNG) task with emotional stimuli, and PTSD was assessed using a measure of current symptom severity. Whole-brain vertex-wise analyses of cortical thickness revealed two clusters associated with PTSD-related disinhibition (Monte Carlo cluster corrected P < 0.05). The first cluster included portions of right inferior and middle frontal gyri and frontal pole. The second cluster spanned portions of left medial orbital frontal, rostral anterior cingulate, and superior frontal gyrus. In both clusters, commission errors were associated with reduced cortical thickness at higher (but not lower) levels of PTSD symptoms. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses revealed alterations in the functional connectivity of the right frontal cluster. Together, study findings suggest that reductions in cortical thickness in regions involved in flexible decision-making, emotion regulation, and response inhibition contribute to impulse control deficits in PTSD. Furthermore, aberrant coupling between frontal regions and networks involved in selective attention, memory/learning, and response preparation suggest disruptions in functional connectivity may also play a role. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The mediating role of anger in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and impulsivity.

PubMed

Contractor, Ateka A; Armour, Cherie; Wang, Xin; Forbes, David; Elhai, Jon D

2015-03-01

Research indicates a significant relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anger (Olatunji, Ciesielski, & Tolin, 2010; Orth & Wieland, 2006). Individuals may seek urgent coping to deal with the distress of anger, which is a mobilizing and action-oriented emotion (Novaco & Chemtob, 2002); possibly in the form of impulsive actions consistent with impulsivity's association with anger (Milligan & Waller, 2001; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). This could be 1 of the explanations for the relationship between PTSD and impulsivity (Kotler, Julian, Efront, & Amir, 2001; Ledgerwood & Petry, 2006). The present study assessed the mediating role of anger between PTSD (overall scores and subscales of arousal and negative alterations in mood/cognitions) and impulsivity, using gender as a covariate of impulsivity. The PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), Dimensions of Anger Reaction scale-5, and the UPPS Impulsivity Scale were administered to a sample of 244 undergraduate students with a trauma history. Results based on 1000 bootstrapped samples indicated significant direct effects of PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) on anger, of anger on impulsivity, and of PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) on impulsivity. Further, anger significantly mediated the relationship between PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) and impulsivity, consistent with the hypothesized models. Results suggest that impulsivity aims at coping with distressing anger, possibly explaining the presence of substance usage, and other impulsive behaviors in people with PTSD. Further, anger probably serves as a mobilizing and action-oriented emotion coupled with PTSD symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Duality in Phase Space and Complex Dynamics of an Integrated Pest Management Network Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Baoyin; Tang, Sanyi; Cheke, Robert A.

Fragmented habitat patches between which plants and animals can disperse can be modeled as networks with varying degrees of connectivity. A predator-prey model with network structures is proposed for integrated pest management (IPM) with impulsive control actions. The model was analyzed using numerical methods to investigate how factors such as the impulsive period, the releasing constant of natural enemies and the mode of connections between the patches affect pest outbreak patterns and the success or failure of pest control. The concept of the cluster as defined by Holland and Hastings is used to describe variations in results ranging from global synchrony when all patches have identical fluctuations to n-cluster solutions with all patches having different dynamics. Heterogeneity in the initial densities of either pest or natural enemy generally resulted in a variety of cluster oscillations. Surprisingly, if n > 1, the clusters fall into two groups one with low amplitude fluctuations and the other with high amplitude fluctuations (i.e. duality in phase space), implying that control actions radically alter the system's characteristics by inducing duality and more complex dynamics. When the impulsive period is small enough, i.e. the control strategy is undertaken frequently, the pest can be eradicated. As the period increases, the pest's dynamics shift from a steady state to become chaotic with periodic windows and more multicluster oscillations arise for heterogenous initial density distributions. Period-doubling bifurcation and periodic halving cascades occur as the releasing constant of the natural enemy increases. For the same ecological system with five differently connected networks, as the randomness of the connectedness increases, the transient duration becomes smaller and the probability of multicluster oscillations appearing becomes higher.

The temptation of suicide: striatal gray matter, discounting of delayed rewards, and suicide attempts in late-life depression

PubMed Central

Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.; Siegle, Greg J.; Szanto, Katalin; Clark, Luke; Reynolds, Charles F.; Aizenstein, Howard

2012-01-01

Background Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Further, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Methods Fifty-two persons aged ≥60 underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression (13 suicide attempters [SA], 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly), and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted MPRAGE MRI scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly-deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task. Results SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting on the MCQ, but not delay aversion on the CGT. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and possibly ventral, but not sensorimotor striatum. Conclusions Our findings, while limited by small sample size and case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity. PMID:21999930

The temptation of suicide: striatal gray matter, discounting of delayed rewards, and suicide attempts in late-life depression.

PubMed

Dombrovski, A Y; Siegle, G J; Szanto, K; Clark, L; Reynolds, C F; Aizenstein, H

2012-06-01

Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson's disease (PD) trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Furthermore, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Fifty-two persons aged ≥ 60 years underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression [13 suicide attempters (SA), 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly] and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo (MPRAGE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT). SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting but not delay aversion. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and ventral but not sensorimotor striatum. Our findings, although limited by small sample size and the case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity.

Chaotification of complex networks with impulsive control.

PubMed

Guan, Zhi-Hong; Liu, Feng; Li, Juan; Wang, Yan-Wu

2012-06-01

This paper investigates the chaotification problem of complex dynamical networks (CDN) with impulsive control. Both the discrete and continuous cases are studied. The method is presented to drive all states of every node in CDN to chaos. The proposed impulsive control strategy is effective for both the originally stable and unstable CDN. The upper bound of the impulse intervals for originally stable networks is derived. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical results is verified by numerical examples.

A single-center, cross-sectional prevalence study of impulse control disorders in Parkinson disease: association with dopaminergic drugs.

PubMed

Poletti, Michele; Logi, Chiara; Lucetti, Claudio; Del Dotto, Paolo; Baldacci, Filippo; Vergallo, Andrea; Ulivi, Martina; Del Sarto, Simone; Rossi, Giuseppe; Ceravolo, Roberto; Bonuccelli, Ubaldo

2013-10-01

The current study aimed at establishing the prevalence of impulse control disorders (ICDs) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and their association with demographic, drug-related, and disease-related characteristics. We performed a single-center cross-sectional study of 805 PD patients. Impulse control disorders were investigated with the Questionnaire for Impulsive Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's Disease; also comorbid neuropsychiatric complications (dementia, delusions, visual hallucinations) were investigated with clinical interviews and ad hoc instruments (Parkinson Psychosis Questionnaire and Neuropsychiatry Inventory). Impulse control disorders were identified in 65 patients (prevalence, 8.1%), with pathological gambling and hypersexuality the most frequent. Impulse control disorders were present in 57 of 593 cognitively preserved patients (prevalence, 9.6%) and in 8 of 212 demented patients (prevalence, 3.8%). Impulse control disorders were significantly associated with dopamine agonists (odds ratio [OR], 5.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.60-12.46; P < 0.0001) and levodopa (OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.06-6.35; P = 0.034). Impulse control disorders frequency was similar for pramipexole and ropinirole (16.6% vs 12.5%; OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 0.79-2.74; P = 0.227). Additional variables associated with ICDs were male sex and younger age. These findings suggested that dopaminergic treatments in PD are associated with increased odds of having an ICD, but also other demographic and clinical variables are associated with ICDs, suggesting the multifactorial nature of the ICD phenomenon in PD.

Impulsive action: emotional impulses and their control

PubMed Central

Frijda, Nico H.; Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Rietveld, Erik

2014-01-01

This paper presents a novel theoretical view on impulsive action, integrating thus far separate perspectives on non-reflective action, motivation, emotion regulation, and impulse control. We frame impulsive action in terms of directedness of the individual organism toward, away, or against other givens – toward future states and away from one’s present state. First, appraisal of a perceived or thought-of event or object on occasion, rapidly and without premonition or conscious deliberation, triggers a motive to modify one’s relation to that event or object. Situational specifics of the event as perceived and appraised motivate and guide selection of readiness for a particular kind of purposive action. Second, perception of complex situations can give rise to multiple appraisals, multiple motives, and multiple simultaneous changes in action readiness. Multiple states of action readiness may interact in generating action, by reinforcing or attenuating each other, thereby yielding impulse control. We show how emotion control can itself result from a motive state or state of action readiness. Our view links impulsive action mechanistically to states of action readiness, which is the central feature of what distinguishes one kind of emotion from another. It thus provides a novel theoretical perspective to the somewhat fragmented literature on impulsive action. PMID:24917835

The relationship between impulsivity and suicide among rural youths aged 15-35 years: a case-control psychological autopsy study.

PubMed

Lin, Lin; Zhang, Jie; Zhou, Li; Jiang, Chao

2016-01-01

In China, the gender ratio of suicide rates did not match the Western patterns, which was higher for females than males. However, the rural men were at relatively high risk of suicide in Liaoning province. Impulsivity was an important factor of suicide behaviors, but there was a lack of studies in China. This research aimed to study the relationship between impulsive personality traits and suicidal behavior among Chinese rural youths. Suicides were consecutively sampled from six randomly selected counties in Liaoning Province in China. Between 2005 and 2007, a total of 162 suicide victims were enrolled in the study along with 162 community controls matched for age, gender, and location. The psychological autopsy method was used to collect data from informants knowledgeable about the selected suicide victims and controls. The results showed the suicide victims in the study were more likely to demonstrate dysfunctional impulsivity and less likely to demonstrate functional impulsivity compared with the controls. Mental disorders, acute negative life events, and dysfunctional impulsivity contributed to the risk of suicide; educational and functional impulsivity were protective factors. Suicide prevention efforts in rural China may address impulsivity.

The Relationship between Impulsivity and Suicide Among Rural Youths Aged 15–35 Years: A Case-Control Psychological Autopsy Study1

PubMed Central

Lin, Lin; Zhang, Jie; Zhou, Li; Jiang, Chao

2015-01-01

In China, the gender ratio of suicide rates did not match the Western patterns, which was higher for females than males. However, the rural men were at relatively high risk of suicide in Liaoning province. Impulsivity was an important factor of suicide behaviors, but there was a lack of studies in China. This research aimed to study the relationship between impulsive personality traits and suicidal behavior among Chinese rural youths. Suicides were consecutively sampled from six randomly selected counties in Liaoning Province in China. Between 2005 and 2007, a total of 162 suicide victims were enrolled in the study along with 162 community controls matched for age, gender, and location. The psychological autopsy method was used to collect data from informants knowledgeable about the selected suicide victims and controls. The results showed the suicide victims in the study were more likely to demonstrate dysfunctional impulsivity and less likely to demonstrate functional impulsivity compared with the controls. Mental disorders, acute negative life events and dysfunctional impulsivity contributed to the risk of suicide; educational and functional impulsivity were protective factors. Suicide prevention efforts in rural China may address impulsivity. PMID:26110614

Recent Translational Findings on Impulsivity in Relation to Drug Abuse

PubMed Central

Weafer, Jessica; Mitchell, Suzanne H.

2015-01-01

Impulsive behavior is strongly implicated in drug abuse, as both a cause and a consequence of drug use. To understand how impulsive behaviors lead to and result from drug use, translational evidence from both human and non-human animal studies is needed. Here, we review recent (2009 or later) studies that have investigated two major components of impulsive behavior, inhibitory control and impulsive choice, across preclinical and clinical studies. We concentrate on the stop-signal task as the measure of inhibitory control and delay discounting as the measure of impulsive choice. Consistent with previous reports, recent studies show greater impulsive behavior in drug users compared with non-users. Additionally, new evidence supports the prospective role of impulsive behavior in drug abuse, and has begun to identify the neurobiological mechanisms underlying impulsive behavior. We focus on the commonalities and differences in findings between preclinical and clinical studies, and suggest future directions for translational research. PMID:25678985

Gender-specific mediational links between parenting styles, parental monitoring, impulsiveness, drinking control, and alcohol-related problems.

PubMed

Patock-Peckham, Julie A; King, Kevin M; Morgan-Lopez, Antonio A; Ulloa, Emilio C; Moses, Jennifer M Filson

2011-03-01

Recently, it has been suggested that traits may dynamically change as conditions change. One possible mechanism that may influence impulsiveness is parental monitoring. Parental monitoring reflects a knowledge regarding one's offspring's whereabouts and social connections. The aim of this investigation was to examine potential gender-specific parental influences to impulsiveness (general behavioral control), control over one's own drinking (specific behavioral control), and alcohol-related problems among individuals in a period of emerging adulthood. Direct and mediational links between parenting styles (permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative), parental monitoring, impulsiveness, drinking control, and alcohol-related problems were investigated. A multiple-group, SEM model with (316 women, 265 men) university students was examined. In general, the overall pattern among male and female respondents was distinct. For daughters, perceptions of a permissive father were indirectly linked to more alcohol-related problems through lower levels of monitoring by fathers and more impulsive symptoms. Perceptions of an authoritative father were also indirectly linked to fewer impulsive symptoms through higher levels of monitoring by fathers among daughters. For men, perceptions of a permissive mother were indirectly linked to more alcohol-related problems through lower levels of monitoring by mothers and more impulsive symptoms. For sons, perceptions of mother authoritativeness were indirectly linked to fewer alcohol-related problems through more monitoring by mothers and fewer impulsive symptoms. Monitoring by an opposite-gender parent mediated the link between parenting styles (i.e., permissive, authoritative) on impulsiveness.

Effects of Displacement Damage on the Time-Resolved Gain and Bandwidth of a Low Breakdown Voltage Si Avalanche Photodiode

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, Jamie S.; Onoda, Shinobu; Hirao, Toshio; Becker, Heidi; Johnston, Allan; Laird, Jamie S.; Itoh, Hisayoshi

2006-01-01

Effects of displacement damage and ionization damage induced by gamma irradiation on the dark current and impulse response of a high-bandwidth low breakdown voltage Si Avalanche Photodiode has been investigated using picosecond laser microscopy. At doses as high as 10Mrad (Si) minimal alteration in the impulse response and bandwidth were observed. However, dark current measurements also performed with and without biased irradiation exhibit anomalously large damage factors for applied biases close to breakdown. The absence of any degradation in the impulse response is discussed as are possible mechanisms for higher dark current damage factors observed for biased irradiation.

Impulse Control and Callous-Unemotional Traits Distinguish Patterns of Delinquency and Substance Use in Justice Involved Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Role of Neighborhood Context.

PubMed

Ray, James V; Thornton, Laura C; Frick, Paul J; Steinberg, Laurence; Cauffman, Elizabeth

2016-04-01

Both callous-unemotional (CU) traits and impulse control are known risk factors associated with delinquency and substance use. However, research is limited in how contextual factors such as neighborhood conditions influence the associations between these two dispositional factors and these two externalizing behaviors. The current study utilized latent class analysis (LCA) to identify unique classes of delinquency and substance use within an ethnically diverse sample (n = 1216) of justice-involved adolescents (ages 13 to 17) from three different sites. Neighborhood disorder, CU traits, and impulse control were all independently associated with membership in classes with more extensive histories of delinquency and substance use. The effects of CU traits and impulse control in distinguishing delinquent classes was invariant across levels of neighborhood disorder, whereas neighborhood disorder moderated the association between impulse control and substance use. Specifically, the probability of being in more severe substance using classes for those low in impulse control was stronger in neighborhoods with fewer indicators of social and physical disorder.

Multisynchronization of Coupled Heterogeneous Genetic Oscillator Networks via Partial Impulsive Control.

PubMed

He, Ding-Xin; Ling, Guang; Guan, Zhi-Hong; Hu, Bin; Liao, Rui-Quan

2018-02-01

This paper focuses on the collective dynamics of multisynchronization among heterogeneous genetic oscillators under a partial impulsive control strategy. The coupled nonidentical genetic oscillators are modeled by differential equations with uncertainties. The definition of multisynchronization is proposed to describe some more general synchronization behaviors in the real. Considering that each genetic oscillator consists of a large number of biochemical molecules, we design a more manageable impulsive strategy for dynamic networks to achieve multisynchronization. Not all the molecules but only a small fraction of them in each genetic oscillator are controlled at each impulsive instant. Theoretical analysis of multisynchronization is carried out by the control theory approach, and a sufficient condition of partial impulsive controller for multisynchronization with given error bounds is established. At last, numerical simulations are exploited to demonstrate the effectiveness of our results.

Depression in university students: associations with impulse control disorders.

PubMed

Leppink, Eric W; Lust, Katherine; Grant, Jon E

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the implications of depression in a sample of university students, particularly relating to impulse control disorders. While previous studies have shown high rates of depression among university students, no study to date has assessed whether levels of depression show associations with the incidence of impulse control disorders in this population. In all, 6000 students participated in the College Student Computer Use Survey. A total of 1717 students completed the scales of interest for this analysis. Participants were assigned to groups based on depression scores: severe (N = 75), mild/moderate (N = 647) and none (N = 995). The three groups were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) or chi-square test. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to elucidate associations between depression and impulse control disorder diagnoses. Groups differed across demographic, health and academic variables. The severe depression group reported higher rates of skin-picking disorder, compulsive sexual behaviour and compulsive buying. Results suggest a significant association between depression and impulse control disorders. One possibility is that a facet of impulsivity contributes to both problems, which could be important information for clinicians. Future studies will need to clarify the exact nature of the relationship between depression and impulse control disorders.

Risk of Gambling Disorder and Impulse Control Disorder With Aripiprazole, Pramipexole, and Ropinirole: A Pharmacoepidemiologic Study.

PubMed

Etminan, Mahyar; Sodhi, Mohit; Samii, Ali; Procyshyn, Ric M; Guo, Michael; Carleton, Bruce C

2017-02-01

Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning regarding the potential risk of gambling disorder, but large epidemiologic studies are lacking. We used a large health claims database from the United States and conducted a nested case-control study. Cases were defined as subjects newly diagnosed with gambling disorder or impulse control disorder. For each case, 10 controls were selected and matched to cases by age and follow-up time and calendar time. Adjusted rate ratios were computed with conditional logistic regression. There are 355 cases of gambling disorder and 3550 controls along with 4341 cases of impulse control disorder and 43,410 corresponding controls. After adjusting for confounders, users of aripiprazole demonstrated an increased risk of pathologic gambling (rate ratio [RR], 5.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.78-15.38) and impulse control disorder (RR, 7.71; 95% CI, 5.81-10.34). The risk was also elevated for pramipexole or ropinirole for both gambling disorder and impulse control disorder (RR, 7.61; 95% CI, 2.75-21.07; RR, 3.28; 95% CI, 2.31-4.66, respectively). Our study confirms an association between aripiprazole, pramipexole, or ropinirole and impulse control disorder and gambling disorder.

Beyond discounting: possible experimental models of impulse control.

PubMed

Monterosso, J; Ainslie, G

1999-10-01

Animal studies of impulsivity have typically used one of three models: a delay of reward procedure, a differential reinforcement for low rate responding (DRL) procedure, or an autoshaping procedure. In each of these paradigms, we argue, measurement of impulsivity is implicitly or explicitly equated with the effect delay has on the value of reward. The steepness by which delay diminishes value (the temporal discount function) is treated as an index of impulsivity. In order to provide a better analog of human impulsivity, this model needs to be expanded to include the converse of impulsivity - self-control. Through mechanisms such as committing to long range interests before the onset of temptation, or through bundling individual choices into classes of choices that are made at once, human decision-making can often look far less myopic than single trial experiments predict. For people, impulsive behavior may be more often the result of the breakdown of self-control mechanisms than of steep discount functions. Existing animal models of self-control are discussed, and future directions are suggested for psychopharmacological research.

Stability of uncertain impulsive complex-variable chaotic systems with time-varying delays.

PubMed

Zheng, Song

2015-09-01

In this paper, the robust exponential stabilization of uncertain impulsive complex-variable chaotic delayed systems is considered with parameters perturbation and delayed impulses. It is assumed that the considered complex-variable chaotic systems have bounded parametric uncertainties together with the state variables on the impulses related to the time-varying delays. Based on the theories of adaptive control and impulsive control, some less conservative and easily verified stability criteria are established for a class of complex-variable chaotic delayed systems with delayed impulses. Some numerical simulations are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed criteria of impulsive stabilization for uncertain complex-variable chaotic delayed systems. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissociable Frontostriatal White Matter Connectivity Underlies Reward and Motor Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Hampton, William H.; Alm, Kylie H.; Venkatraman, Vinod; Nugiel, Tehila; Olson, Ingrid R.

2017-01-01

Dysfunction of cognitive control often leads to impulsive decision-making in clinical and healthy populations. Some research suggests that a generalized cognitive control mechanism underlies the ability to modulate various types of impulsive behavior, while other evidence suggests different forms of impulsivity are dissociable, and rely on distinct neural circuitry. Past research consistently implicates several brain regions, such as the striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex, in impulsive behavior. However the ventral and dorsal striatum are distinct in regards to function and connectivity. Nascent evidence points to the importance of frontostriatal white matter connectivity in impulsivity, yet it remains unclear whether particular tracts relate to different control behaviors. Here we used probabilistic tractography of diffusion imaging data to relate ventral and dorsal frontostriatal connectivity to reward and motor impulsivity measures. We found a double dissociation such that individual differences in white matter connectivity between the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with reward impulsivity, as measured by delay discounting, whereas connectivity between dorsal striatum and supplementary motor area was associated with motor impulsivity, but not vice versa. Our findings suggest that (a) structural connectivity can is associated with a large amount of behavioral variation; (b) different types of impulsivity are driven by dissociable frontostriatal neural circuitry. PMID:28189592

Impulsivity-focused group intervention to reduce binge eating episodes in patients with binge eating disorder: study protocol of the randomised controlled IMPULS trial.

PubMed

Schag, Kathrin; Leehr, Elisabeth J; Martus, Peter; Bethge, Wolfgang; Becker, Sandra; Zipfel, Stephan; Giel, Katrin E

2015-12-18

The core symptom of binge eating disorder (BED) is recurrent binge eating that is accompanied by a sense of loss of control. BED is frequently associated with obesity, one of the main public health challenges today. Experimental studies deliver evidence that general trait impulsivity and disorder-specific food-related impulsivity constitute risk factors for BED. Cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) is deemed to be the most effective intervention concerning BED. We developed a group intervention based on CBT and especially focusing on impulsivity. We hypothesise that such an impulsivity-focused group intervention is able to increase control over impulsive eating behaviour, that is, reduce binge eating episodes, further eating pathology and impulsivity. Body weight might also be influenced in the long term. The present randomised controlled trial investigates the feasibility, acceptance and efficacy of this impulsivity-focused group intervention in patients with BED. We compare 39 patients with BED in the experimental group to 39 patients with BED in the control group at three appointments: before and after the group intervention and in a 3-month follow-up. Patients with BED in the experimental group receive 8 weekly sessions of the impulsivity-focused group intervention with 5-6 patients per group. Patients with BED in the control group receive no group intervention. The primary outcome is the binge eating frequency over the past 4 weeks. Secondary outcomes comprise further eating pathology, general impulsivity and food-related impulsivity assessed by eye tracking methodology, and body weight. Additionally, we assess binge eating and other impulsive behaviour weekly in process analyses during the time period of the group intervention. This study has been approved by the ethics committee of the medical faculty of Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and the University Hospital Tübingen. Data are monitored by the Centre of Clinical Studies, University Hospital Tübingen. German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00007689, 14/01/2015, version from 11/06/2015, pre-results. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

A multidimensional approach of impulsivity in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Lopez, Régis; Dauvilliers, Yves; Jaussent, Isabelle; Billieux, Joël; Bayard, Sophie

2015-06-30

We aimed to compare adult patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and matched controls on four dimensions of impulsivity (urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking) and to examine the association between impulsivity and ADHD symptoms. The study was conducted on 219 participants: 72 adult ADHD patients and 147 aged and gender matched controls. All participants completed questionnaires measuring the various facets of impulsivity (UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale), ADHD and depressive symptoms severity. Patients were also assessed for ADHD subtypes, mood disorders, and addictive behaviors. ADHD patients exhibited higher urgency, lower premeditation and lower perseverance in comparison to controls. Lack of perseverance showed the strongest association with ADHD (area under curve=0.95). Patients with combined inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive subtypes reported more frequently substance abuse problems and had higher scores on urgency and sensation seeking dimensions of impulsivity than those with predominantly inattentive subtype. We report for the first time a multidimensional evaluation of impulsivity in adult ADHD patients. The UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale may constitute a useful screening tool for ADHD in adults and may help to further understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying the differences between the ADHD subgroups. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spin Stabilized Impulsively Controlled Missile (SSICM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crawford, J. I.; Howell, W. M.

1985-12-01

This patent is for the Spin Stabilized Impulsively Controlled Missile (SSICM). SSICM is a missile configuration which employs spin stabilization, nutational motion, and impulsive thrusting, and a body mounted passive or semiactive sensor to achieve very small miss distances against a high speed moving target. SSICM does not contain an autopilot, control surfaces, a control actuation system, nor sensor stabilization gimbals. SSICM spins at a rate sufficient to provide frequency separation between body motions and inertial target motion. Its impulsive thrusters provide near instantaneous changes in lateral velocity, whereas conventional missiles require a significant time delay to achieve lateral acceleration.

Minnesota Impulse Disorders Interview (MIDI): Validation of a structured diagnostic clinical interview for impulse control disorders in an enriched community sample.

PubMed

Chamberlain, Samuel R; Grant, Jon E

2018-07-01

Disorders of impulsivity are common, functionally impairing, and highly relevant across different clinical and research settings. Few structured clinical interviews for the identification and diagnosis of impulse control disorders exist, and none have been validated in a community sample in terms of psychometric properties. The Minnesota Impulse control disorders Interview (MIDI v2.0) was administered to an enriched sample of 293 non-treatment seeking adults aged 18-35 years, recruited using media advertisements in two large US cities. In addition to the MIDI, participants undertook extended clinical interview for other mental disorders, the Barratt impulsiveness questionnaire, and the Padua obsessive-compulsive inventory. The psychometric properties of the MIDI were characterized. In logistic regression, the MIDI showed good concurrent validity against the reference measures (versus gambling disorder interview, p < 0.001; Barratt impulsiveness attentional and non-planning scores p < 0.05), and good discriminant validity versus primarily non-impulsive symptoms, including against anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (all p > 0.05). Test re-test reliability was excellent (0.95). The MIDI has good psychometric properties and thus may be a valuable interview tool for clinical and research studies involving impulse control disorders. Further research is needed to better understanding the optimal diagnostic classification and neurobiology of these neglected disorders. Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subthalamic nucleus stimulation influences expression and suppression of impulsive behaviour in Parkinson’s disease

PubMed Central

Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Elias, William J.; Frysinger, Robert C.; Bashore, Theodore R.; Downs, Kara E.; van Wouwe, Nelleke C.; van den Wildenberg, Wery P. M.

2010-01-01

Past studies show beneficial as well as detrimental effects of subthalamic nucleus deep-brain stimulation on impulsive behaviour. We address this paradox by investigating individuals with Parkinson’s disease treated with subthalamic nucleus stimulation (n = 17) and healthy controls without Parkinson’s disease (n = 17) on performance in a Simon task. In this reaction time task, conflict between premature response impulses and goal-directed action selection is manipulated. We applied distributional analytic methods to separate the strength of the initial response impulse from the proficiency of inhibitory control engaged subsequently to suppress the impulse. Patients with Parkinson’s disease were tested when stimulation was either turned on or off. Mean conflict interference effects did not differ between controls and patients, or within patients when stimulation was on versus off. In contrast, distributional analyses revealed two dissociable effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation. Fast response errors indicated that stimulation increased impulsive, premature responding in high conflict situations. Later in the reaction process, however, stimulation improved the proficiency with which inhibitory control was engaged to suppress these impulses selectively, thereby facilitating selection of the correct action. This temporal dissociation supports a conceptual framework for resolving past paradoxical findings and further highlights that dynamic aspects of impulse and inhibitory control underlying goal-directed behaviour rely in part on neural circuitry inclusive of the subthalamic nucleus. PMID:20861152

Impulse control and restrained eating among young women: Evidence for compensatory cortical activation during a chocolate-specific delayed discounting task.

PubMed

Dong, Debo; Wang, Yulin; Jackson, Todd; Chen, Shuaiyu; Wang, Yu; Zhou, Feng; Chen, Hong

2016-10-01

Theory and associated research indicate that people with elevated restrained eating (RE) scores have higher risk for binge eating, future bulimic symptom onset and weight gain. Previous imaging studies have suggested hyper-responsive reward brain area activation in response to food cues contributes to this risk but little is known about associated neural impulse control mechanisms, especially when considering links between depleted cognitive resources related to unsuccessful RE. Towards illuminating this issue, we used a chocolate-specific delayed discounting (DD) task to investigate relations between RE scores, behavior impulsivity, and corresponding neural impulse control correlates in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 27 young women. Specifically, participants were required to choose between more immediate, smaller versus delayed, larger hypothetical chocolate rewards following initial consumption of a chocolate. As predicted, RE scores were correlated positively with behavior impulse control levels. More critically, higher RE scores were associated with stronger activation in impulse control region, the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the completion of difficult decision trials reflecting higher cognitive demands and resource depletion relative to easy decision trials. Exploratory analyses revealed a positive correlation between RE scores and activity in a reward system hub, the right striatum. Moreover, a positive correlation between left DLPFC and striatum activation was posited to reflect, in part, impulse control region compensation in response to stronger reward signal among women with RE elevations. Findings suggested impulse control lapses may contribute to difficulties in maintaining RE, particularly when cognitive demands are high. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The insanity defense: Related issues

PubMed Central

Asokan, T. V.

2016-01-01

For the past 150 years, there is no change in the understanding and knowledge other than autonomy and capacity to choose the right and wrong for criminal liability. The alternative concept that human behavior is the result of an interaction between biological and environmental factors other than free choice failed to impress the criminal justice system because of a direct threat to a society's deep seated need to blame someone than themselves for criminal harms that occur. The insanity defense has a long history, and is evolved after many tests that have been tried and tested. McNaughton's rules stressed on “understandability of right and wrong” and “intellectual” rather than a moral or affective definition dominated in its formulation. Lack of control and irresistible drives or impulses were neglected Going by the current understanding of neurological evidences of compulsion and lack of impulse control, rationality tests without the inclusion of lack of control, seem to be outdated. Separate “Control determination” than the “Rationality determination” by the jurors may improve the accuracy of Juror's categorizations. There is a suggestion that Relevance ratio is ideal for ‘Evidentiary relevance” and there should be a quality control on expert testimonies. With progress in neuroscience, the law may need to abandon or alter some of its current assumptions about the nature of voluntary conduct, which underlies various defenses PMID:28216769

An examination of the relationship between measures of impulsivity and risky simulated driving amongst young drivers.

PubMed

Hatfield, Julie; Williamson, Ann; Kehoe, E James; Prabhakharan, Prasannah

2017-06-01

The risky driving of young drivers may owe in part to youthful motivations (such as experience-seeking, authority rebellion, desire for peer approval) combined with incompletely developed impulse control. Although self-reported impulsiveness has been positively associated with self-reports of risky driving, results based on objective measures of response inhibition (e.g., Go/No-go tasks) have been inconclusive. The present study examined interrelationships between measures of response inhibition, self-report impulsiveness scales, and responses to events during a simulated drive that were designed to detect impulsive, unsafe behaviours (e.g., turning across on-coming traffic). Participants were 72 first-year Psychology students. More speeding and "Unsafe" responding to critical events during simulated driving were associated with poorer impulse control as assessed by commission errors during a Go/No-Go task. These results consolidate evidence for a relationship between impulse control and risky driving amongst young drivers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Obesity, eating behaviour and mental health among university students in Mexico City.

PubMed

Lazarevich, Irina; Irigoyen-Camacho, María Esther; Velázquez-Alva, María del Consuelo

2013-11-01

Psychological factors are important in the development of obesity; however these are frequently underestimated in intervention programs. To examine the association of mental health with altered eating behavior related to weigh gain, and with abdominal obesity among college students in order to provide more comprehensive guidelines for intervention programs. A cross-sectional study was performed with 1,122 university students (from a total population of 1,820 freshmen students) at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico City. Body mass index and waist circumference (WC) were recorded. A six items questionnaire was applied to assess altered eating behavior. Self-reported questionnaires for depression (Beck Depression Inventory), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder Scale of Carrol and Davidson), and impulsiveness symptoms (Plutchik Impulsivity Scale) were used. Multiple logistic regression models were performed. An increased WC was associated with depression symptoms (OR=1.4), female sex (OR=1.5), and age (OR=1.1). Students with altered eating behaviors showed elevated levels of impulsivity (e.g. have difficulties to stop eating, OR=4.2) and depression (e.g. have problem to eat at regular times, OR=6.98). In addition, higher WC was associated with female sex, parents' obesity, and unhealthy eating behaviors (e.g. have difficulties to stop eating, OR=1.42; and constantly feel hungry, and eat too much, OR=2.25). Although preventive programs directed at development of adequate eating habits and physical activity are considered a key component of intervention programs, strategies for the management of emotions, the promotion of positive mood and impulsivity-reduction techniques are a necessary complement for a comprehensive approach to overweight and obesity. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2013. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

Reduced Functional Connectivity within the Mesocorticolimbic System in Substance Use Disorders: An fMRI Study of Puerto Rican Young Adults

PubMed Central

Posner, Jonathan; Amira, Leora; Algaze, Antonio; Canino, Glorisa; Duarte, Cristiane S.

2016-01-01

Studies of the mesocorticolimbic reward system (MCLS) and its relationship with impulsivity and substance use disorders (SUD) have largely focused on individuals from non-minority backgrounds. This represents a significant gap in the literature particularly for minority populations who are disproportionately affected by the consequences of SUD. Using resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), we examined the coherence of neural activity, or functional connectivity, within the brain’s MCLS in 28 young adult Puerto Ricans (ages 25–27) who were part of a population-based cohort study. Half of the sample lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the other half lived in the South Bronx, New York. At each of the two sites, half of the sample had a history of a SUD. Relative to those without SUD, individuals with SUD had decreased connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and several regions within the MCLS. This finding was true irrespective of study site (i.e., San Juan or South Bronx). Reduced connectivity within the MCLS was also associated with higher self-reported levels of impulsivity. Path analysis suggested a potential mechanism linking impulsivity, the MCLS, and SUD: impulsivity, potentially by chronically promoting reward seeking behaviors, may contribute to decreased MCLS connectivity, which in turn, may confer vulnerability for SUD. Expanding upon prior studies suggesting that alterations within the MCLS underlie SUD, our findings suggest that such alterations are also related to impulsivity and are present in a high-risk young minority population. PMID:27252633

The Role of Emotion-Driven Impulse Control Difficulties in the Relation Between Social Anxiety and Aggression.

PubMed

Dixon, Laura J; Tull, Matthew T; Lee, Aaron A; Kimbrel, Nathan A; Gratz, Kim L

2017-06-01

To enhance our understanding of the factors that may account for increased aggression in socially anxious individuals, this study examined associations among emotion-driven impulse control difficulties, social anxiety, and dimensions of aggression (i.e., hostility, anger, physical aggression, verbal aggression). Individuals (N = 107; 73.8% male; M age = 40.8 years) receiving residential substance abuse treatment participated in this cross-sectional study. Social anxiety symptoms were significantly positively correlated with emotion-driven impulse control difficulties, anger, and hostility, but not verbal or physical aggression. Separate models for each aggression facet were examined to test the direct and indirect paths. Bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated a significant indirect path from social anxiety symptoms to each facet of aggression through emotion-driven impulse control difficulties (ps < .05). Results highlight the potential utility of targeting emotion-driven impulse control difficulties to decrease aggression among socially anxious individuals. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sex differences in succumbing to sexual temptations: a function of impulse or control?

PubMed

Tidwell, Natasha D; Eastwick, Paul W

2013-12-01

Men succumb to sexual temptations (e.g., infidelity, mate poaching) more than women. Explanations for this effect vary; some researchers propose that men and women differ in sexual impulse strength, whereas others posit a difference in sexual self-control. These studies are the first to test such underlying mechanisms. In Study 1, participants reported on their impulses and intentional control exertion when they encountered a real-life tempting but forbidden potential partner. Study 2 required participants to perform a reaction-time task in which they accepted/rejected potential partners, and we used process dissociation to separate the effects of impulse and control. In both studies, men succumbed to the sexual temptations more than women, and this sex difference emerged because men experienced stronger impulses, not because they exerted less intentional control. Implications for the integration of evolutionary and self-regulatory perspectives on sex differences are discussed.

Intake-dependent effects of cocaine self-administration on impulsive choice in a delay discounting task

PubMed Central

Mitchell, Marci R.; Weiss, Virginia G.; Ouimet, Dominique J.; Fuchs, Rita A.; Morgan, Drake; Setlow, Barry

2014-01-01

Cocaine use is associated with high levels of impulsive choice (greater discounting of delayed rewards) in humans, but the cause/effect relationships between cocaine use and impulsive choice are not fully understood. In previous work, we found that both experimenter- and self-administration of fixed quantities of cocaine caused lasting increases in impulsive choice in rats. The present study extended these findings by taking into account baseline impulsive choice prior to self-administration, and by allowing rats free access to cocaine. Male Long-Evans rats were trained in a delay discounting task in which they made discrete-trial choices between small immediate and large delayed food rewards. Half of the rats were then implanted with intravenous catheters and, following recovery, allowed to self-administer cocaine HCl (1.0 mg/kg/infusion) in 6 hour sessions over 14 days. Control rats orally self-administered a sucrose solution under similar conditions. Upon completion of self-administration training, rats remained abstinent for 3 weeks before retesting in the delay discounting task. Cocaine and control groups did not differ prior to self-administration, but afterward, the cocaine group showed greater impulsive choice (fewer choices of large, delayed rewards) than controls. Additional analyses revealed that the effects of cocaine on impulsive choice were intake-dependent; rats classified as “low intake” did not differ from controls, whereas rats classified as “high intake” were significantly more impulsive than both controls and their pre-cocaine baseline. These findings are consistent with the idea that cocaine-induced, pharmacologically based neural adaptations promote the development of impulsive decision making. PMID:24841739

A web-based study of bipolarity and impulsivity in athletes engaging in extreme and high-risk sports.

PubMed

Dudek, Dominika; Siwek, Marcin; Jaeschke, Rafał; Drozdowicz, Katarzyna; Styczeń, Krzysztof; Arciszewska, Aleksandra; Chrobak, Adrian A; Rybakowski, Janusz K

2016-06-01

We hypothesised that men and women who engage in extreme or high-risk sports would score higher on standardised measures of bipolarity and impulsivity compared to age and gender matched controls. Four-hundred and eighty extreme or high-risk athletes (255 males and 225 females) and 235 age-matched control persons (107 males and 128 females) were enrolled into the web-based case-control study. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) were administered to screen for bipolarity and impulsive behaviours, respectively. Results indicated that extreme or high-risk athletes had significantly higher scores of bipolarity and impulsivity, and lower scores on cognitive complexity of the BIS-11, compared to controls. Further, there were positive correlations between the MDQ and BIS-11 scores. These results showed greater rates of bipolarity and impulsivity, in the extreme or high-risk athletes, suggesting these measures are sensitive to high-risk behaviours.

Optical effects of regolith processes on S asteroids as simulated by laser impulse alteration of ordinary chondrite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moroz, L. V.; Fisenko, A. V.; Semjonova, L. F.; Pieters, C. M.

1993-01-01

The spectral properties of some powdered chondrites and minerals altered by Isser impulse are studied in order to estimate possible optical effects of regolith processes (micrometeoritic bombardment). Gradual reduction of overall reflectance and spectral contrast, the increase of continuum slope, the increase of spectrally derived olivine/pyroxene ratio and Fs content of orthopyroxene with increasing alteration degree show that regolith processes could affect optical properties of surface material more heavily than has been previously appreciated. Ordinary chondrites (OC's) are known to account for 80 percent of observed meteorite falls, but so far no main belt parent bodies have been identified for these meteorites. S-asteroids resemble OC's spectrally, but are characterized by a steeper red continuum unlike that of OC's and their spectrally derived mineralogies are far outside OC range. Attempts were made to explain the spectral mismatch between OC's and S asteroids by some process, which alters optical properties of uppermost regolith. However, the spectral studies of shocked (black) OC's, gas-rich OC's, melted OC's and synthetic metal-rich regoliths derived from OC's demonstrate that such altered OC materials darken, but do not redden.

Altered affective response in marijuana smokers: an FMRI study.

PubMed

Gruber, Staci A; Rogowska, Jadwiga; Yurgelun-Todd, Deborah A

2009-11-01

More than 94 million Americans have tried marijuana, and it remains the most widely used illicit drug in the nation. Investigations of the cognitive effects of marijuana report alterations in brain function during tasks requiring executive control, including inhibition and decision-making. Endogenous cannabinoids regulate a variety of emotional responses, including anxiety, mood control, and aggression; nevertheless, little is known about smokers' responses to affective stimuli. The anterior cingulate and amygdala play key roles in the inhibition of impulsive behavior and affective regulation, and studies using PET and fMRI have demonstrated changes within these regions in marijuana smokers. Given alterations in mood and perception often observed in smokers, we hypothesized altered fMRI patterns of response in 15 chronic heavy marijuana smokers relative to 15 non-marijuana smoking control subjects during the viewing of masked happy and fearful faces. Despite no between-group differences on clinical or demographic measures, smokers demonstrated a relative decrease in both anterior cingulate and amygdalar activity during masked affective stimuli compared to controls, who showed relative increases in activation within these regions during the viewing of masked faces. Findings indicate that chronic heavy marijuana smokers demonstrate altered activation of frontal and limbic systems while viewing masked faces, consistent with autoradiographic studies reporting high CB-1 receptor density in these regions. These data suggest differences in affective processing in chronic smokers, even when stimuli are presented below the level of conscious processing, and underscore the likelihood that marijuana smokers process emotional information differently from those who do not smoke, which may result in negative consequences.

Minimal Time Problem with Impulsive Controls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kunisch, Karl, E-mail: karl.kunisch@uni-graz.at; Rao, Zhiping, E-mail: zhiping.rao@ricam.oeaw.ac.at

Time optimal control problems for systems with impulsive controls are investigated. Sufficient conditions for the existence of time optimal controls are given. A dynamical programming principle is derived and Lipschitz continuity of an appropriately defined value functional is established. The value functional satisfies a Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation in the viscosity sense. A numerical example for a rider-swing system is presented and it is shown that the reachable set is enlargered by allowing for impulsive controls, when compared to nonimpulsive controls.

The Moderating Effect of Social Support on the Relationship Between Impulsivity and Suicide in Rural China.

PubMed

Zhang, Jie; Lin, Lin

2015-07-01

This study was to investigate the relationship among social support, impulsivity, and suicide, so as to test the hypothesis that social support moderates the effect of impulsivity on suicide for the rural young suicides in China. Subjects were 392 consecutively recruited suicides aged 15-34 years and 416 community controls of the same age range sampled in China. The case-control data were obtained using psychological autopsy. The results showed that high social support had the protective effect among individuals with low impulsivity. It can be concluded that impulsivity is a potential area for further study of suicidal behavior. The suicide prevention efforts in rural China may address impulsivity.

Interacting Mechanisms of Impulsivity in Bipolar Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder

PubMed Central

Swann, Alan C.; Lijffijt, Marijn; Lane, Scott D.; Steinberg, Joel L.; Moeller, F. Gerard

2011-01-01

Background Bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) overlap in clinical characteristics and behavioral consequences. Impulsivity is prominent in both, but there is little information on how specific mechanisms of impulsivity differentiate, bridge, or underlie the disorders. Methods Subjects, all males, were controls (n=46), bipolar disorder without cluster B personality disorder (n=21), ASPD without bipolar disorder (n=50), and bipolar disorder with ASPD (n=16). Impulsivity measures were the Immediate Memory Task (IMT), a continuous performance test of response inhibition measuring ability to evaluate a stimulus before responding, and the Two Choice Impulsivity Paradigm (TCIP), a choice between smaller-sooner and larger-later reward. Data were analyzed using general linear models analysis. Results Subjects with bipolar disorder had fewer IMT correct detections and slower reaction times than controls. Reaction times were faster with combined diagnoses than in bipolar disorder alone. TCIP responding in either diagnosis alone resembled controls, but was more impulsive in combined disorders. These differences persisted after correction for age and education, which had significant independent effects. In combined ASPD and bipolar disorder, increased reaction speed, impulsive response bias, and reward-delay impulsivity occurred independent of substance-use disorder history. Conclusions Impulsivity was increased in the combined disorders over either disorder alone. Results were consistent with at least partially distinct mechanisms of impulsivity in ASPD and bipolar disorder. Compensatory mechanisms for impulsivity in uncomplicated ASPD or bipolar disorder appear to be compromised or lost when the disorders are combined. PMID:21719028

Depression, Impulse Control Disorder, and Life Style According to Smartphone Addiction.

PubMed

Kim, E Y; Joo, S W; Han, S J; Kim, M J; Choi, S Y

2017-01-01

We examined depression, impulse control disorder, and life style by degree of smartphone addiction. Chi-square tests and ANOVA were used to identify significant variables. CART was used to generate a decision making diagram of variables affecting smartphone addiction. The severe smartphone addiction group had rates of depression and impulse control disorder than the initial smartphone group.

On impulsive controls for almost periodic solutions of a nonlinear delay integral equation of epidemiological modeling interest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De la Sen, Manuel; Garrido, Aitor J.

2016-11-01

This paper investigates sufficient conditions of almost periodic solutions of an epidemiological model under impulsive controls. Such impulsive controls are either vaccination actions or abrupt variations of the infected population due to infected immigration or lost of infective numbers due to either vaccination or lost of infected population by out-migration.

Dissociable frontostriatal white matter connectivity underlies reward and motor impulsivity.

PubMed

Hampton, William H; Alm, Kylie H; Venkatraman, Vinod; Nugiel, Tehila; Olson, Ingrid R

2017-04-15

Dysfunction of cognitive control often leads to impulsive decision-making in clinical and healthy populations. Some research suggests that a generalized cognitive control mechanism underlies the ability to modulate various types of impulsive behavior, while other evidence suggests different forms of impulsivity are dissociable, and rely on distinct neural circuitry. Past research consistently implicates several brain regions, such as the striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex, in impulsive behavior. However the ventral and dorsal striatum are distinct in regards to function and connectivity. Nascent evidence points to the importance of frontostriatal white matter connectivity in impulsivity, yet it remains unclear whether particular tracts relate to different control behaviors. Here we used probabilistic tractography of diffusion imaging data to relate ventral and dorsal frontostriatal connectivity to reward and motor impulsivity measures. We found a double dissociation such that individual differences in white matter connectivity between the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with reward impulsivity, as measured by delay discounting, whereas connectivity between dorsal striatum and supplementary motor area was associated with motor impulsivity, but not vice versa. Our findings suggest that (a) structural connectivity can is associated with a large amount of behavioral variation; (b) different types of impulsivity are driven by dissociable frontostriatal neural circuitry. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Separate and Cumulative Effects of TBI and PTSD on Cognitive Function and Emotional Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-01

Veteran control subjects. Finally, participants completed 3 standardized questionnaires: the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), the PTSD Checklist...impulsivity on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) did not correlate with performance in the 50% Go condition (p=.12) or in the 90% Go condition...Normative data and a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. (2007). Int J Neurosci. 117(3):359-68. Swick D, Ashley V, Turken AU. (2008

Case Control Study of Impulsivity, Aggression, Pesticide Exposure and Suicide Attempts Using Pesticides among Farmers.

PubMed

Lyu, Chun Ping; Pei, Jian Ru; Beseler, L Cheryl; Li, Yu Ling; Li, Jian Hui; Ren, Ming; Stallones, Lorann; Ren, Shu Ping

2018-03-01

A case-control study was conducted to investigate associations between organophosphate pesticide (OP) exposure, aggression, impulsivity, and attempted suicide. Questionnaires were used to collect information; impulsivity and aggression were measured by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and the Aggression Inventory (AI). A greater number of OP symptoms was associated with an increased odds of a suicide attempt after adjusting for marital status and income (OR = 1.45; CI 1.14-1.86). Attempted suicide was significantly associated with high impulsivity scores (means: 72.4 vs. 60.6, P < 0.0001) and high aggression scores (means: 38.5 vs. 26.1, P < 0.0001). Suicide attempters had a higher number of OP exposure symptoms than controls and scored higher on scales of impulsivity and aggression. Copyright © 2018 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.

Dissociable effects of cocaine and yohimbine on impulsive action and relapse to cocaine seeking.

PubMed

Broos, Nienke; van Mourik, Yvar; Schetters, Dustin; De Vries, Taco J; Pattij, Tommy

2017-11-01

A strong association has been demonstrated between various forms of impulsivity and addiction-like behavior in both humans and rats. In this study, we investigated how impulsive action, as measured in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), is affected during various stages of cocaine taking and seeking and by relapse-provoking stimuli in animals that were trained both in an intravenous cocaine self-administration paradigm and in the 5-CSRTT. Rats were concurrently trained in the 5-CSRTT and cocaine self-administration protocol, and subsequently, the effects of cocaine (7.5 mg/kg) and the pharmacological stressor yohimbine (1.25 mg/kg) were tested in both paradigms. Cocaine self-administration (5 h/day) transiently altered impulsive action and increased errors of omission in the 5-CSRTT. Pharmacological challenges with cocaine and yohimbine induced increments in impulsive action and reinstated cocaine-seeking responses within the same animals. Further analyses revealed that the effects of cocaine and yohimbine on impulsive action did not correlate with their effects on reinstatement of cocaine seeking. These data suggest that although impulsive action and relapse can be pharmacologically modulated in the same direction within individuals, these effects appear not to be directly coupled.

Impulsivity and related neuropsychological features in regular and addictive first person shooter gaming.

PubMed

Metcalf, Olivia; Pammer, Kristen

2014-03-01

Putative cyber addictions are of significant interest. There remains little experimental research into excessive use of first person shooter (FPS) games, despite their global popularity. Moreover, the role between excessive gaming and impulsivity remains unclear, with previous research showing conflicting findings. The current study investigated performances on a number of neuropsychological tasks (go/no-go, continuous performance task, Iowa gambling task) and a trait measure of impulsivity for a group of regular FPS gamers (n=25), addicted FPS gamers (n=22), and controls (n=22). Gamers were classified using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire. Addicted FPS gamers had significantly higher levels of trait impulsivity on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale compared to controls. Addicted FPS gamers also had significantly higher levels of disinhibition in a go/no-go task and inattention in a continuous performance task compared to controls, whereas the regular FPS gamers had better decision making on the Iowa gambling task compared to controls. The results indicate impulsivity is associated with FPS gaming addiction, comparable to pathological gambling. The relationship between impulsivity and excessive gaming may be unique to the FPS genre. Furthermore, regular FPS gaming may improve decision making ability.

Increased self-reported impulsivity in methamphetamine users maintaining drug abstinence.

PubMed

Jones, Hannah W; Dean, Andy C; Price, Kimberly A; London, Edythe D

2016-09-01

Impulsivity has been proposed as an important factor in the initiation and maintenance of addiction. Indirect evidence suggests that some methamphetamine users report less impulsivity when they are using methamphetamine compared to when abstaining from drug use, but this hypothesis has not been directly tested. In this study, self-reports of impulsivity were obtained from 32 methamphetamine-dependent (DSM-IV) research participants and 41 healthy control subjects, using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11. The methamphetamine users were assessed during an active period of methamphetamine use, as determined through urinalysis, and again after approximately 1 week of confirmed abstinence. Control subjects likewise completed two assessments. A subset of participants also completed serial assessments of the Beck Depression Inventory (Methamphetamine Group, N = 17, Control Group, N = 38) and the Methamphetamine Withdrawal Questionnaire (Methamphetamine Group, N = 12). There was a significant interaction of group with time on impulsivity (p = 0.044), reflecting a significant increase from the first to the second assessment in the methamphetamine users (p = 0.013), but no change among healthy control subjects. In contrast, depressive and withdrawal symptoms significantly decreased between the first and second assessments in the methamphetamine users (ps ≤0.01). Change in impulsivity in methamphetamine users was not significantly correlated with change in withdrawal or depression (ps >0.05). These findings suggest that methamphetamine users report more impulsivity when abstaining from drug use, an effect that is not significantly related to methamphetamine withdrawal. Attenuation of impulsivity may reinforce continued methamphetamine use in these individuals.

A negative relationship between ventral striatal loss anticipation response and impulsivity in borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Herbort, Maike C; Soch, Joram; Wüstenberg, Torsten; Krauel, Kerstin; Pujara, Maia; Koenigs, Michael; Gallinat, Jürgen; Walter, Henrik; Roepke, Stefan; Schott, Björn H

2016-01-01

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently exhibit impulsive behavior, and self-reported impulsivity is typically higher in BPD patients when compared to healthy controls. Previous functional neuroimaging studies have suggested a link between impulsivity, the ventral striatal response to reward anticipation, and prediction errors. Here we investigated the striatal neural response to monetary gain and loss anticipation and their relationship with impulsivity in 21 female BPD patients and 23 age-matched female healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants performed a delayed monetary incentive task in which three categories of objects predicted a potential gain, loss, or neutral outcome. Impulsivity was assessed using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Compared to healthy controls, BPD patients exhibited significantly reduced fMRI responses of the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (VS/NAcc) to both reward-predicting and loss-predicting cues. BIS-11 scores showed a significant positive correlation with the VS/NAcc reward anticipation responses in healthy controls, and this correlation, while also nominally positive, failed to reach significance in BPD patients. BPD patients, on the other hand, exhibited a significantly negative correlation between ventral striatal loss anticipation responses and BIS-11 scores, whereas this correlation was significantly positive in healthy controls. Our results suggest that patients with BPD show attenuated anticipation responses in the VS/NAcc and, furthermore, that higher impulsivity in BPD patients might be related to impaired prediction of aversive outcomes.

Impulsivity, Mental Disorder, and Suicide in Rural China.

PubMed

Lin, Lin; Zhang, Jie

2017-01-02

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among impulsivity, mental disorder, and suicide with a sample of rural young Chinese. Subjects were 392 consecutively recruited male and female suicides aged 15-34 years and 416 community male and female controls of the same age range sampled in rural China. The case-control data were obtained using psychological autopsy with structured and semi-structured instruments. Dysfunctional impulsivity was a significant risk factor regardless of mental disorder in rural China. Dysfunctional impulsivity is a potential area for further study of suicidal behavior. The suicide prevention efforts in rural China may address impulsivity.

Genetic determinants of aggression and impulsivity in humans.

PubMed

Pavlov, Konstantin A; Chistiakov, Dimitry A; Chekhonin, Vladimir P

2012-02-01

Human aggression/impulsivity-related traits have a complex background that is greatly influenced by genetic and non-genetic factors. The relationship between aggression and anxiety is regulated by highly conserved brain regions including amygdala, which controls neural circuits triggering defensive, aggressive, or avoidant behavioral models. The dysfunction of neural circuits responsible for emotional control was shown to represent an etiological factor of violent behavior. In addition to the amygdala, these circuits also involve the anterior cingulated cortex and regions of the prefrontal cortex. Excessive reactivity in the amygdala coupled with inadequate prefrontal regulation serves to increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Developmental alterations in prefrontal-subcortical circuitry as well as neuromodulatory and hormonal abnormality appear to play a role. Imbalance in testosterone/serotonin and testosterone/cortisol ratios (e.g., increased testosterone levels and reduced cortisol levels) increases the propensity toward aggression because of reduced activation of the neural circuitry of impulse control and self-regulation. Serotonin facilitates prefrontal inhibition, and thus insufficient serotonergic activity can enhance aggression. Genetic predisposition to aggression appears to be deeply affected by the polymorphic genetic variants of the serotoninergic system that influences serotonin levels in the central and peripheral nervous system, biological effects of this hormone, and rate of serotonin production, synaptic release and degradation. Among these variants, functional polymorphisms in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) may be of particular importance due to the relationship between these polymorphic variants and anatomical changes in the limbic system of aggressive people. Furthermore, functional variants of MAOA and 5-HTT are capable of mediating the influence of environmental factors on aggression-related traits. In this review, we consider genetic determinants of human aggression, with special emphasis on genes involved in serotonin and dopamine metabolism and function.

The Risky Business of Dopamine Agonists in Parkinson Disease and Impulse Control Disorders

PubMed Central

Claassen, Daniel O.; van den Wildenberg, Wery P.M.; Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Jessup, Charles K.; Harrison, Madaline B.; Wooten, G. Frederick; Wylie, Scott A.

2011-01-01

Risk-taking behavior is characterized by pursuit of reward in spite of potential negative consequences. Dopamine neurotransmission along the mesocorticolimbic pathway is a potential modulator of risk behavior. In patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD), impulse control disorder (ICD) can result from dopaminergic medication use, particularly Dopamine Agonists (DAA). Behaviors associated with ICD include hypersexuality as well as compulsive gambling, shopping, and eating, and are potentially linked to alterations to risk processing. Using the Balloon Analogue Risk task, we assessed the role of agonist therapy on risk-taking behavior in PD patients with (n=22) and without (n=19) active ICD symptoms. Patients performed the task both ‘on’ and ‘off’ DAA. DAA increased risk-taking in PD patients with active ICD symptoms, but did not affect risk behavior of PD controls. DAA dose was also important in explaining risk behavior. Both groups similarly reduced their risk-taking in high compared to low risk conditions and following the occurrence of a negative consequence, suggesting that ICD patients do not necessarily differ in their ability to process and adjust to some aspects of negative consequences. Our findings suggest dopaminergic augmentation of risk-taking behavior as a potential contributing mechanism for the emergence of ICD in PD patients. PMID:21604834

Associations between regional brain physiology and trait impulsivity, motor inhibition, and impaired control over drinking

PubMed Central

Weafer, Jessica; Dzemidzic, Mario; Eiler, William; Oberlin, Brandon G.; Wang, Yang; Kareken, David A.

2015-01-01

Trait impulsivity and poor inhibitory control are well-established risk factors for alcohol misuse, yet little is known about the associated neurobiological endophenotypes. Here we examined correlations among brain physiology and self-reported trait impulsive behavior, impaired control over drinking, and a behavioral measure of response inhibition. A sample of healthy drinkers (n=117) completed a pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) scan to quantify resting regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and measures of self-reported impulsivity (Eysenck I7 Impulsivity scale) and impaired control over drinking. A subset of subjects (n=40) performed a stop signal task during blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain regions involved in response inhibition. Eysenck I7 scores were inversely related to blood flow in the right precentral gyrus. Significant BOLD activation during response inhibition occurred in an overlapping right frontal motor/premotor region. Moreover, impaired control over drinking was associated with reduced BOLD response in the same region. These findings suggest that impulsive personality and impaired control over drinking are associated with brain physiology in areas implicated in response inhibition. This is consistent with the idea that difficulty controlling behavior is due in part to impairment in motor restraint systems. PMID:26065376

Imaging addiction: D2 receptors and dopamine signaling in the striatum as biomarkers for impulsivity

PubMed Central

Trifilieff, Pierre; Martinez, Diana

2014-01-01

Dependence to drugs of abuse is closely associated with impulsivity, or the propensity to choose a lower, but immediate, reward over a delayed, but more valuable outcome. Here, we review clinical and preclinical studies showing that striatal dopamine signaling and D2 receptor levels – which have been shown to be decreased in addiction - directly impact impulsivity, which is itself predictive of drug self-administration. Based on these studies, we propose that the alterations in D2 receptor binding and dopamine release seen in imaging studies of addiction constitute neurobiological markers of impulsivity. Recent studies in animals also show that higher striatal dopamine signaling at the D2 receptor is associated with a greater willingness to expend effort to reach goals, and we propose that this same relationship applies to humans, particularly with respect to recovery from addiction. PMID:23851257

The Effects of Group Relaxation Training/Large Muscle Exercise, and Parental Involvement on Attention to Task, Impulsivity, and Locus of Control among Hyperactive Boys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Sally S.; Omizo, Michael M.

1984-01-01

The study examined the effects of group relaxation training/large muscle exercise and parental involvement on attention to task, impulsivity, and locus of control among 34 hyperactive boys. Following treatment both experimental groups recorded significantly higher attention to task, lower impulsivity, and lower locus of control scores. (Author/CL)

Inhibitory Control and Impulsivity Levels in Women Crack Users.

PubMed

Hess, Adriana Raquel Binsfeld; Menezes, Carolina B; de Almeida, Rosa Maria Martins

2018-05-12

investigate impulsivity levels and inhibitory control in women crack users and explore the relationships between impulsivity and inhibitory control. 52 healthy women (M = 32.83 years; SD = 9.54) and 46 crack cocaine users (M = 31.02 years; SD = 7.73), in abstinence, performed the assessment protocol included a Sociodemographic Data Questionnaire, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a GO/No-Go Task and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11). It was a quantitative research with cross-sectional design and control group. crack group showed higher levels of impulsivity in all domains when compared to the control group (crack group M = 76.39, SD = 11.39, control group M = 58.53, SD = 10.76, p <.01). Participants from the crack group presented a significantly higher total reaction time in the Go-NoGo task (F(1,93) = 9.93, p =.002; effect size =.09, observed power =.87) and significantly more commission (F(1,93) = 7.20, p =.009; effect size =.07, observed power =.75) and omission errors (F(1,93) = 6.04, p =.01; effect size =.06, observed power =.68), in Go/NoGo Task. Groups did also significantly differ on total standard deviations suggesting that variability in total reaction time was significantly greater in the crack group. Results showed that only in the crack group there were significant correlations between Go-NoGo parameters and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Our findings are consistent that impulsivity and inhibitory control are closely linked to crack use in women. Future studies should consider to evaluate crack users in different withdrawal times, controlling the impact of abstinence time in the variables studied.

The horizontal computerized rotational impulse test.

PubMed

Furman, Joseph M; Shirey, Ian; Roxberg, Jillyn; Kiderman, Alexander

2016-01-01

Whole-body impulsive rotations were used to overcome several limitations associated with manual head impulse testing. A computer-controlled rotational chair delivered brief, whole-body, earth-vertical axis yaw impulsive rotations while eye movements were measured using video-oculography. Results from an unselected group of 20 patients with dizziness and a group of 22 control subjects indicated that the horizontal computerized rotational head impulse test (crHIT) is well-tolerated and provides an estimate of unidirectional vestibulo-ocular reflex gain comparable to results from caloric testing. This study demonstrates that the horizontal crHIT is a new assessment tool that overcomes many of the limitations of manual head impulse testing and provides a reliable laboratory-based measure of unilateral horizontal semicircular canal function.

A new approach to assess gambling-like behavior in laboratory rats: using intracranial self-stimulation as a positive reinforcer

PubMed Central

Tedford, Stephanie E.; Holtz, Nathan A.; Persons, Amanda L.; Napier, T. Celeste

2014-01-01

Pathological gambling is one manifestation of impulse control disorders. The biological underpinnings of these disorders remain elusive and treatment is far from ideal. Animal models of impulse control disorders are a critical research tool for understanding this condition and for medication development. Modeling such complex behaviors is daunting, but by its deconstruction, scientists have recapitulated in animals critical aspects of gambling. One aspect of gambling is cost/benefit decision-making wherein one weighs the anticipated costs and expected benefits of a course of action. Risk/reward, delay-based and effort-based decision-making all represent cost/benefit choices. These features are studied in humans and have been translated to animal protocols to measure decision-making processes. Traditionally, the positive reinforcer used in animal studies is food. Here, we describe how intracranial self-stimulation can be used for cost/benefit decision-making tasks and overview our recent studies showing how pharmacological therapies alter these behaviors in laboratory rats. We propose that these models may have value in screening new compounds for the ability to promote and prevent aspects of gambling behavior. PMID:24966822

Mobile technology habits: patterns of association among device usage, intertemporal preference, impulse control, and reward sensitivity.

PubMed

Wilmer, Henry H; Chein, Jason M

2016-10-01

Mobile electronic devices are playing an increasingly pervasive role in our daily activities. Yet, there has been very little empirical research investigating how mobile technology habits might relate to individual differences in cognition and affect. The research presented in this paper provides evidence that heavier investment in mobile devices is correlated with a relatively weaker tendency to delay gratification (as measured by a delay discounting task) and a greater inclination toward impulsive behavior (i.e., weaker impulse control, assessed behaviorally and through self-report) but is not related to individual differences in sensitivity to reward. Analyses further demonstrated that individual variation in impulse control mediates the relationship between mobile technology usage and delay of gratification. Although based on correlational results, these findings lend some backing to concerns that increased use of portable electronic devices could have negative impacts on impulse control and the ability to appropriately valuate delayed rewards.

Dopaminergic Therapy Increases Go Timeouts in the Go/No-Go Task in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Yang, Xue Q.; Lauzon, Brian; Seergobin, Ken N.; MacDonald, Penny A.

2018-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by resting tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. Dopaminergic medications such as L-dopa treat these motor symptoms, but can have complex effects on cognition. Impulse control is an essential cognitive function. Impulsivity is multifaceted in nature. Motor impulsivity involves the inability to withhold pre-potent, automatic, erroneous responses. In contrast, cognitive impulsivity refers to improper risk-reward assessment guiding behavior. Informed by our previous research, we anticipated that dopaminergic therapy would decrease motor impulsivity though it is well known to enhance cognitive impulsivity. We employed the Go/No-go paradigm to assess motor impulsivity in PD. Patients with PD were tested using a Go/No-go task on and off their normal dopaminergic medication. Participants completed cognitive, mood, and physiological measures. PD patients on medication had a significantly higher proportion of Go trial Timeouts (i.e., trials in which Go responses were not completed prior to a deadline of 750 ms) compared to off medication (p = 0.01). No significant ON-OFF differences were found for Go trial or No-go trial response times (RTs), or for number of No-go errors. We interpret that dopaminergic therapy induces a more conservative response set, reflected in Go trial Timeouts in PD patients. In this way, dopaminergic therapy decreased motor impulsivity in PD patients. This is in contrast to the widely recognized effects of dopaminergic therapy on cognitive impulsivity leading in some patients to impulse control disorders. Understanding the nuanced effects of dopaminergic treatment in PD on cognitive functions such as impulse control will clarify therapeutic decisions. PMID:29354045

Personality differences in the susceptibility to stress-eating: The influence of emotional control and impulsivity.

PubMed

Van Blyderveen, Sherry; Lafrance, Adele; Emond, Michael; Kosmerly, Stacey; O'Connor, Megan; Chang, Felicia

2016-12-01

Stress has been associated with deviations from typical eating patterns, with respect to both food choice and overall caloric intake. Both increases and decreases in dietary intake have been previously noted in response to stress. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the affect regulation strategies of emotional control and impulsivity predict susceptibility to eating in response to stress. Specifically, it was anticipated that emotional suppression would predict decreases in caloric intake, whereas impulsivity would predict increases in caloric intake, in response to a stressor. Participants were randomly assigned to view either a video designed to elicit stress or a control video. Food was provided during the video and the amount and type of food consumed was measured. Participants' nutritional intake was greater in the stress condition than in the control condition. One aspect of affect regulation, impulsivity, moderated this relationship, with a tendency for greater impulsivity to be associated with greater caloric intake in the stress condition. The degree of negative affect that participants experienced in the stress condition predicted food choice and overall caloric intake. Both emotional control and impulsivity moderated the relationship between negative affect and both food choice and caloric intake in the stress condition. The present study highlights the importance of considering the personality attributes of both impulsivity and emotional suppression in understanding stress eating. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Impulse control disorders in advanced Parkinson's disease with dyskinesia: The ALTHEA study.

PubMed

Biundo, Roberta; Weis, Luca; Abbruzzese, Giovanni; Calandra-Buonaura, Giovanna; Cortelli, Pietro; Jori, Maria Cristina; Lopiano, Leonardo; Marconi, Roberto; Matinella, Angela; Morgante, Francesca; Nicoletti, Alessandra; Tamburini, Tiziano; Tinazzi, Michele; Zappia, Mario; Vorovenci, Ruxandra Julia; Antonini, Angelo

2017-11-01

Impulse control disorders and dyskinesia are common and disabling complications of dopaminergic treatment in Parkinson's disease. They may coexist and are possibly related. The objectives of this study were to assess the frequency and severity of impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease patients with dyskinesia. The ALTHEA study enrolled 251 Parkinson's disease patients with various degrees of dyskinesia severity from 11 movement disorders centers in Italy. Each patient underwent a comprehensive assessment including Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale and the Questionnaire for Impulsive Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson Disease-Rating Scale. There was an overall 55% frequency of impulse control disorder and related behaviors (36% were clinically significant). The positive patients were younger at disease diagnosis and onset and had higher Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale historical and total score (P = 0.001 and P = 0.02, respectively, vs negative). There was an increased frequency of clinically significant impulse control disorders in patients with severe dyskinesia (P = 0.013), a positive correlation between the questionnaire total score and dopamine agonist dose (P = 0.018), and a trend with levodopa dose. More than half of Parkinson's disease patients with dyskinesia have impulse control disorders and related behaviors, which are frequently clinically significant. Dopaminergic therapy total dose is associated with their severity. Clinicians should carefully assess patients with maladaptive behaviors and dyskinesia because they do not properly evaluate their motor and nonmotor status. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

An experimental analysis of acquired impulse control among adult humans intolerant to alcohol

PubMed Central

Wang, Jianxin; Rao, Yulei; Houser, Daniel E.

2017-01-01

The ability to control tempting impulses impacts health, education, and general socioeconomic outcomes among people at all ages. Consequently, whether and how impulse control develops in adult populations is a topic of enduring interest. Although past research has shed important light on this question using controlled intervention studies, here we take advantage of a natural experiment in China, where males but not females encounter substantial social pressure to consume alcohol. One-third of our sample, all of whom are Han Chinese, is intolerant to alcohol, whereas the remaining control sample is observationally identical but alcohol tolerant. Consistent with previous literature, we find that intolerant males are significantly more likely to exercise willpower to limit their alcohol consumption than alcohol-tolerant males. In view of the strength model of self-control, we hypothesize that this enables improved impulse control in other contexts as well. To investigate this hypothesis, we compare decisions in laboratory games of self-control between the tolerant and intolerant groups. We find that males intolerant to alcohol and who regularly encounter drinking environments control their selfish impulses significantly better than their tolerant counterparts. On the other hand, we find that female Han Chinese intolerant to alcohol do not use self-control to limit alcohol consumption more than tolerant females, nor do the tolerant and intolerant females exhibit differences in self-control behaviors. Our research indicates that impulse control can be developed in adult populations as a result of self-control behaviors in natural environments, and shows that this skill has generalizable benefits across behavioral domains. PMID:28119501

An experimental analysis of acquired impulse control among adult humans intolerant to alcohol.

PubMed

Wang, Jianxin; Rao, Yulei; Houser, Daniel E

2017-02-07

The ability to control tempting impulses impacts health, education, and general socioeconomic outcomes among people at all ages. Consequently, whether and how impulse control develops in adult populations is a topic of enduring interest. Although past research has shed important light on this question using controlled intervention studies, here we take advantage of a natural experiment in China, where males but not females encounter substantial social pressure to consume alcohol. One-third of our sample, all of whom are Han Chinese, is intolerant to alcohol, whereas the remaining control sample is observationally identical but alcohol tolerant. Consistent with previous literature, we find that intolerant males are significantly more likely to exercise willpower to limit their alcohol consumption than alcohol-tolerant males. In view of the strength model of self-control, we hypothesize that this enables improved impulse control in other contexts as well. To investigate this hypothesis, we compare decisions in laboratory games of self-control between the tolerant and intolerant groups. We find that males intolerant to alcohol and who regularly encounter drinking environments control their selfish impulses significantly better than their tolerant counterparts. On the other hand, we find that female Han Chinese intolerant to alcohol do not use self-control to limit alcohol consumption more than tolerant females, nor do the tolerant and intolerant females exhibit differences in self-control behaviors. Our research indicates that impulse control can be developed in adult populations as a result of self-control behaviors in natural environments, and shows that this skill has generalizable benefits across behavioral domains.

Assessing personal financial management in patients with bipolar disorder and its relation to impulsivity and response inhibition.

PubMed

Cheema, Marvi K; MacQueen, Glenda M; Hassel, Stefanie

2015-01-01

Impulsivity and risk-taking behaviours are reported in bipolar disorder (BD). We examined whether financial management skills are related to impulsivity in patients with BD. We assessed financial management skills using the Executive Personal Finance Scale (EPFS), impulsivity using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and response inhibition using an emotional go/no-go task in bipolar individuals (N = 21) and healthy controls (HC; N = 23). Patients had fewer financial management skills and higher levels of impulsivity than HC. In patients and controls, increased impulsivity was associated with poorer personal financial management. Patients and HC performed equally on the emotional go/no-go task. Higher BIS scores were associated with faster reaction times in HC. In patients, however, higher BIS scores were associated with slower reaction times, possibly indicating compensatory cognitive strategies to counter increased impulsivity. Patients with BD may have reduced abilities to manage personal finances, when compared against healthy participants. Difficulty with personal finance management may arise in part as a result of increased levels of impulsivity. Patients may learn to compensate for increased impulsivity by modulating response times in our experimental situations although whether such compensatory strategies generalize to real-world situations is unknown.

Impulsive behavior in adults with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder: characterization of attentional, motor and cognitive impulsiveness.

PubMed

Malloy-Diniz, L; Fuentes, D; Leite, W Borges; Correa, H; Bechara, A

2007-07-01

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. Impulsivity persists in adults with ADHD and might be the basis of much of the impairment observed in the daily lives of such individuals. The objective of this study was to address the presence, and more importantly, the three dimensions of impulsivity: attentional, non-planning and motor, in how they may relate to neuropsychological mechanisms of impulse control. We studied a sample of 50 adults with ADHD and 51 healthy comparison controls using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale Version 11 (BIS), and neuropsychological tasks, namely the Continuous Performance Task (CPT-II) and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The ADHD group showed more signs of impulsivity on the three dimensions of BIS, committed more errors of omission and commission on the CPT-II, and made more disadvantageous choices on the IGT. These results support the existence of deficits related to three components of impulsivity: motor, cognitive, and attentional among adults with ADHD. Most importantly, this study also highlights the complementary nature of self-report questionnaires and neuropsychological tasks in the assessment of impulsivity in ADHD adults.

Deficient neural activity subserving decision-making during reward waiting time in intertemporal choice in adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Todokoro, Ayako; Tanaka, Saori C; Kawakubo, Yuki; Yahata, Noriaki; Ishii-Takahashi, Ayaka; Nishimura, Yukika; Kano, Yukiko; Ohtake, Fumio; Kasai, Kiyoto

2018-04-24

Impulsivity, which significantly affects social adaptation, is an important target behavioral characteristic in interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Typically, people are willing to wait longer to acquire greater rewards. Impulsivity in ADHD may be associated with brain dysfunction in decision-making involving waiting behavior under such situations. We tested the hypothesis that brain circuitry during a period of waiting (i.e., prior to the acquisition of reward) is altered in adults with ADHD. The participants included 14 medication-free adults with ADHD and 16 healthy controls matched for age, sex, IQ, and handedness. The behavioral task had participants choose between a delayed, larger monetary reward and an immediate, smaller monetary reward, where the reward waiting time actually occurred during functional magnetic resonance imaging measurement. We tested for group differences in the contrast values of blood-oxygen-level dependent signals associated with the length of waiting time, calculated using the parametric modulation method. While the two groups did not differ in the time discounting rate, the delay-sensitive contrast values were significantly lower in the caudate and visual cortex in individuals with ADHD. The higher impulsivity scores were significantly associated with lower delay-sensitive contrast values in the caudate and visual cortex. These results suggest that deficient neural activity affects decision-making involving reward waiting time during intertemporal choice tasks, and provide an explanation for the basis of impulsivity in adult ADHD. © 2018 The Author. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2018 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Impulsivity in patients with panic disorder-agoraphobia: the role of cyclothymia.

PubMed

Del Carlo, Alessandra; Benvenuti, Marzia; Toni, Cristina; Dell'osso, Liliana; Perugi, Giulio

2013-10-01

The relationship between Panic Disorder (PD) and impulsivity is not well explored. The present investigation aims to compare impulsivity, measured by different rating tools, in PD patients vs. healthy controls and to explore the influence of co-morbid Cyclothymic Disorder (CD) on the relationship between PD and impulsivity. Sixty-four subjects with PD and 44 matched controls underwent a diagnostic and symptomatological evaluations by the Mini Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) Plus 5.0; the Bech-Rafaelsen Depression and Mania Scale (BRDMS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Hypomania Check List (HCL-32) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI); the Questionnaire for the Affective and Anxious Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-Modified (TEMPS-M), the Separation Anxiety Sensitivity Index (SASI), the Interpersonal Sensitivity Symptoms Inventory (ISSI). Finally, psychometric and neurocognitive evaluations of impulsivity was carried out using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task (IMT/DMT). Subjects with PD were more impulsive than the controls in all the explored measures, reporting higher scores in symptomatological and temperamental scales. The comparison between PD patients with (Cyclo+) and without (Cyclo-) comorbid CD and controls showed that Cyclo+ are the most impulsive subjects in all the investigated measures and are characterized by the greatest symptomatological impairment, the highest scores in temperamental scales, and the highest levels of interpersonal sensitivity and separation anxiety. In our patients with PD, without lifetime comorbidity with major mood episodes, trait and state impulsivity may be related to the presence of comorbid cyclothymic mood instability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Switched impulsive control of the endocrine disruptor diethylstilbestrol singular model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zamani, Iman; Shafiee, Masoud; Ibeas, Asier; de la Sen, M.

2014-12-01

In this work, a switched and impulsive controller is designed to control the Endocrine Disruptor Diethylstilbestrol mechanism which is usually modeled as a singular system. Then the exponential stabilization property of the proposed switched and impulsive singular model is discussed under matrix inequalities. A design algorithm is given and applied for the physiological process of endocrine disruptor diethylstilbestrol model to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.

The impact of junk foods on the adolescent brain.

PubMed

Reichelt, Amy C; Rank, Michelle M

2017-12-01

Adolescence is a significant period of physical, social, and emotional development, and is characterized by prominent neurobiological changes in the brain. The maturational processes that occur in brain regions responsible for cognitive control and reward seeking may underpin excessive consumption of palatable high fat and high sugar "junk" foods during adolescence. Recent studies have highlighted the negative impact of these foods on brain function, resulting in cognitive impairments and altered reward processing. The increased neuroplasticity during adolescence may render the brain vulnerable to the negative effects of these foods on cognition and behavior. In this review, we describe the mechanisms by which junk food diets influence neurodevelopment during adolescence. Diet can lead to alterations in dopamine-mediated reward signaling, and inhibitory neurotransmission controlled by γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), two major neurotransmitter systems that are under construction across adolescence. We propose that poor dietary choices may derail the normal adolescent maturation process and influence neurodevelopmental trajectories, which can predispose individuals to dysregulated eating and impulsive behaviors. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Impulsivity in bipolar disorder: relationships with neurocognitive dysfunction and substance use history

PubMed Central

Powers, Robyn L; Russo, Manuela; Mahon, Katie; Brand, Jesse; Braga, Raphael J; Malhotra, Anil K; Burdick, Katherine E

2013-01-01

Objectives Impulsivity is a core feature in bipolar disorder. Although mood symptoms exacerbate impulsivity, self-reports of impulsivity are elevated even during euthymia. Neurocognitive processes linked to impulsivity (e.g., attention, inhibition) are also impaired in patients with bipolar disorder and a high frequency of comorbidities associated with impulsivity, such as substance use disorders, further highlight the clinical relevance of this dimension of the illness. Our objective was to assess the relationship between impulsivity and cognition in bipolar disorder. Methods We evaluated impulsivity in 98 patients with bipolar disorder and its relationship with symptoms, cognition, and substance use history. We assessed self reports of trait-impulsivity [Barrett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS)] and impulsive behaviors on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). A comprehensive clinical and neurocognitive battery was also completed. Patients were compared with 95 healthy controls. Results Patients with bipolar disorder had higher scores versus healthy controls on all BIS scales. Performance on the IGT was significantly impaired and patients showed a tendency toward more erratic choices. Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with trait-impulsivity and with an increased tendency to attend more readily to losses versus gains on the IGT. We found no significant associations between impulsivity and neurocognition in the full bipolar sample; however, when sub-grouped based on substance abuse history, significant relationships were revealed only in subjects without a substance abuse history. Discussion Our data support prior reports of increased trait-impulsivity and impairment on behavioral tasks of impulsiveness in bipolar disorder and suggest a differential relationship between these illness features that is dependent upon history of substance abuse. PMID:24028391

Impulsivity across the psychosis spectrum: Correlates of cortical volume, suicidal history, and social and global function.

PubMed

Nanda, Pranav; Tandon, Neeraj; Mathew, Ian T; Padmanabhan, Jaya L; Clementz, Brett A; Pearlson, Godfrey D; Sweeney, John A; Tamminga, Carol A; Keshavan, Matcheri S

2016-01-01

Patients with psychotic disorders appear to exhibit greater impulsivity-related behaviors relative to healthy controls. However, the neural underpinning of this impulsivity remains uncertain. Furthermore, it remains unclear how impulsivity might differ or be conserved between psychotic disorder diagnoses in mechanism and manifestation. In this study, self-reported impulsivity, measured by Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), was compared between 305 controls (HC), 139 patients with schizophrenia (SZ), 100 with schizoaffective disorder (SZA), and 125 with psychotic bipolar disorder (PBP). In each proband group, impulsivity was associated with regional cortical volumes (using FreeSurfer analysis of T1 MRI scans), suicide attempt history, Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), and Social Functioning Scale (SFS). BIS scores were found to differ significantly between participant groups, with SZA and PBP exhibiting significantly higher impulsivity than SZ, which exhibited significantly higher impulsivity than HC. BIS scores were significantly related to suicide attempt history, and they were inversely associated with GAF, SFS, and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volume in both SZA and PBP, but not SZ. These findings indicate that psychotic disorders, particularly those with prominent affective symptoms, are characterized by elevated self-reported impulsivity measures. Impulsivity's correlations with suicide attempt history, GAF, and SFS suggest that impulsivity may be a mediator of clinical outcome. The observed impulsivity-OFC correlations corroborate the importance of OFC deficits in impulsivity. These correlations' presence in SZA and PBP but not in SZ suggests that impulsivity may have different underlying mechanisms in affective and non-affective psychotic disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity, Mental Disorder, and Suicide in Rural China

PubMed Central

Lin, Lin; Zhang, Jie

2017-01-01

Aims The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among impulsivity, mental disorder, and suicide with a sample of rural young Chinese. Methods Subjects were 392 consecutively recruited male and female suicides aged 15–34 years and 416 community male and female controls of the same age range sampled in rural China. The case-control data were obtained using psychological autopsy method with structured and semi-structured instruments. Results Dysfunctional impulsivity was a significant risk factor regardless of mental disorder in rural China. Conclusions Dysfunctional impulsivity is a potential area for further study of suicidal behavior. The suicide prevention efforts in rural China may address impulsivity. PMID:25764273

Fixed-time stabilization of impulsive Cohen-Grossberg BAM neural networks.

PubMed

Li, Hongfei; Li, Chuandong; Huang, Tingwen; Zhang, Wanli

2018-02-01

This article is concerned with the fixed-time stabilization for impulsive Cohen-Grossberg BAM neural networks via two different controllers. By using a novel constructive approach based on some comparison techniques for differential inequalities, an improvement theorem of fixed-time stability for impulsive dynamical systems is established. In addition, based on the fixed-time stability theorem of impulsive dynamical systems, two different control protocols are designed to ensure the fixed-time stabilization of impulsive Cohen-Grossberg BAM neural networks, which include and extend the earlier works. Finally, two simulations examples are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed theoretical results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Methylphenidate and Atomoxetine-Responsive Prefrontal Cortical Genetic Overlaps in "Impulsive" SHR/NCrl and Wistar Rats.

PubMed

Dela Peña, Ike; Dela Peña, Irene Joy; de la Peña, June Bryan; Kim, Hee Jin; Shin, Chan Young; Han, Doug Hyun; Kim, Bung-Nyun; Ryu, Jong Hoon; Cheong, Jae Hoon

2017-09-01

Impulsivity, the predisposition to act prematurely without foresight, is associated with a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Identifying genetic underpinnings of impulsive behavior may help decipher the complex etiology and neurobiological factors of disorders marked by impulsivity. To identify potential genetic factors of impulsivity, we examined common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of adolescent SHR/NCrl and Wistar rats, which showed marked decrease in preference for the large but delayed reward, compared with WKY/NCrl rats, in the delay discounting task. Of these DEGs, we examined drug-responsive transcripts whose mRNA levels were altered following treatment (in SHR/NCrl and Wistar rats) with drugs that alleviate impulsivity, namely, the ADHD medications methylphenidate and atomoxetine. Prefrontal cortical genetic overlaps between SHR/NCrl and Wistar rats in comparison with WKY/NCrl included genes associated with transcription (e.g., Btg2, Fos, Nr4a2), synaptic plasticity (e.g., Arc, Homer2), and neuron apoptosis (Grik2, Nmnat1). Treatment with methylphenidate and/or atomoxetine increased choice of the large, delayed reward in SHR/NCrl and Wistar rats and changed, in varying degrees, mRNA levels of Nr4a2, Btg2, and Homer2, genes with previously described roles in neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by impulsivity. While further studies are required, we dissected potential genetic factors that may influence impulsivity by identifying genetic overlaps in the PFC of "impulsive" SHR/NCrl and Wistar rats. Notably, these are also drug-responsive transcripts which may be studied further as biomarkers to predict response to ADHD drugs, and as potential targets for the development of treatments to improve impulsivity.

Association of ventral striatum monoamine oxidase-A binding and functional connectivity in antisocial personality disorder with high impulsivity: A positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

PubMed

Kolla, Nathan J; Dunlop, Katharine; Downar, Jonathan; Links, Paul; Bagby, R Michael; Wilson, Alan A; Houle, Sylvain; Rasquinha, Fawn; Simpson, Alexander I; Meyer, Jeffrey H

2016-04-01

Impulsivity is a core feature of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) associated with abnormal brain function and neurochemical alterations. The ventral striatum (VS) is a key region of the neural circuitry mediating impulsive behavior, and low monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) level in the VS has shown a specific relationship to the impulsivity of ASPD. Because it is currently unknown whether phenotypic MAO-A markers can influence brain function in ASPD, we investigated VS MAO-A level and the functional connectivity (FC) of two seed regions, superior and inferior VS (VSs, VSi). Nineteen impulsive ASPD males underwent [(11)C] harmine positron emission tomography scanning to measure VS MAO-A VT, an index of MAO-A density, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging that assessed the FC of bilateral seed regions in the VSi and VSs. Subjects also completed self-report impulsivity measures. Results revealed functional coupling of the VSs with bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) that was correlated with VS MAO-A VT (r=0.47, p=0.04), and functional coupling of the VSi with right hippocampus that was anti-correlated with VS MAO-A VT (r=-0.55, p=0.01). Additionally, VSs-DMPFC FC was negatively correlated with NEO Personality Inventory-Revised impulsivity (r=-0.49, p=0.03), as was VSi-hippocampus FC with Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 motor impulsiveness (r=-0.50, p=0.03). These preliminary results highlight an association of VS MAO-A level with the FC of striatal regions linked to impulsive behavior in ASPD and suggest that phenotype-based brain markers of ASPD have relevance to understanding brain function. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Delay discounting, impulsiveness, and addiction severity in opioid-dependent patients.

PubMed

Robles, Elias; Huang, B Emma; Simpson, Pippa M; McMillan, Donald E

2011-12-01

Individuals who abuse drugs show higher delay discounting (DD) rate and impulsiveness scores compared with controls; however, it is unclear if DD rate covaries with severity of the addiction or if an individual's discounting rate can be changed by effective substance abuse treatment. This study compared methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients (n = 30) who had not used illegal drugs for 2 years with drug-using MMT patients (n = 30) and controls (n = 25) in terms of addiction severity, DD rate, and impulsiveness. Methadone patients abstinent from illegal drugs scored significantly lower on a number of addiction severity measures than the drug-using methadone patients. In addition, both groups of MMT patients showed significantly higher rates of DD and impulsiveness than the control group; however, no differences in DD rate or impulsiveness were found between the groups of patients. Results suggest that DD rate and impulsiveness may not covary with indicators of addiction severity in MMT patients. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Impulse control disorder and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Bayard, Sophie; Dauvilliers, Yves; Yu, Huan; Croisier-Langenier, Muriel; Rossignol, Alexia; Charif, Mahmoud; Geny, Christian; Carlander, Bertrand; Cochen De Cock, Valérie

2014-12-01

The relationship between ICD and RBD is still not yet understood and the results from the current literature are contradictory in PD. We aimed to explore the association between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and impulse control disorder in Parkinson's disease. Ninety-eight non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease underwent one night of video-polysomnography recording. The diagnosis of RBD was established according to clinical and polysomnographic criteria. Impulse control disorders were determined by a gold standard, semi-structured diagnostic interview. Half of the patients (n = 49) reported clinical history of RBD while polysomnographic diagnosis of RBD was confirmed in 31.6% of the patients (n = 31). At least one impulse control disorder was identified in 21.4% of patients, 22.6% with RBD and 20.9% without. Logistic regression controlling for potential confounders indicated that both clinical RBD (OR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.07-1.48, P = 0.15) and polysomnographic confirmed RBD diagnoses (OR = 0.1.28, 95% CI = 0.31-5.33, P = 0.34) were not associated with impulse control disorder. In Parkinson's disease, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder is not associated with impulse control disorder. The results of our study do not support the notion that PSG-confirmed RBD and ICD share a common pathophysiology. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Management of impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: Controversies and future approaches.

PubMed

Samuel, Michael; Rodriguez-Oroz, Maria; Antonini, Angelo; Brotchie, Jonathan M; Ray Chaudhuri, Kallol; Brown, Richard G; Galpern, Wendy R; Nirenberg, Melissa J; Okun, Michael S; Lang, Anthony E

2015-02-01

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease are a group of impulsive behaviors most often associated with dopaminergic treatment. Presently, there is a lack of high quality evidence available to guide their management. This manuscript reviews current management strategies, before concentrating on the concept of dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome and its implications for the management of impulse control disorders. Further, we focus on controversies, including the role of more recently available anti-parkinsonian drugs, and potential future approaches involving routes of drug delivery, nonpharmacological treatments (such as cognitive behavioral therapy and deep brain stimulation), and other as yet experimental strategies. © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Impulse Control Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease:Management, Controversies, and Potential Approaches

PubMed Central

Samuel, M; Rodriguez-Oroz, M; Antonini, A; Brotchie, JM; Ray Chaudhuri, K; Brown, RG; Galpern, WR; Nirenberg, MJ; Okun, MS; Lang, AE

2016-01-01

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson’s disease are a group of impulsive behaviors most often associated with dopaminergic treatment. Presently, there is a lack of high quality evidence available to guide their management. This manuscript reviews current management strategies, before concentrating on the concept of dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome and its implications for the management of impulse control disorders. Further, we focus on controversies including the role of more recently available anti-parkinsonian drugs, and potential future approaches involving routes of drug delivery, non-pharmacological treatments (such as cognitive behaviour therapy and deep brain stimulation), and other as yet experimental strategies. PMID:25607799

The effects of trait impulsivity on proactive and reactive interference control.

PubMed

Xiang, Ling; Chen, Yan; Chen, Antao; Zhang, Fenghua; Xu, Fuming; Wang, Baoxi

2018-02-01

The current study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore whether self-reported trait impulsivity in healthy individuals might be differentially related to proactive and reactive interference control. Participants with high and low impulsivity (HI and LI, respectively) performed a modified version of the prime-target interference task. Proactive interference control was induced in the mostly incongruent (MI) context and reactive interference control was induced in the mostly congruent (MC) context. Although the behavioral data revealed no difference between HI and LI individuals in terms of the interference effects (incongruent - congruent) under both contexts, the ERP results showed that impulsivity has a different influence on the interference effects under different task contexts. In the MC context, the interference effects on the medial frontal negativity (MFN) and the negative sustained potential (N-SP) were greater, while that on the positive sustained potential (P-SP) were smaller in the HI compared to those in the LI group. This suggests that high levels of impulsivity might be associated with a reduced efficiency of the processes supporting reactive control to resolve interference when interference is not expected. In contrast, the three ERP indices (MFN, P-SP, and N-SP) of interference processing in the MI context were insensitive to variations in impulsivity. This suggests that HI individuals might be as effective as LI individuals in recruiting proactive control for sustained active maintenance of task goals to anticipate and prevent interference throughout the experimental blocks where interference occurs frequently. In conclusion, these results indicate that impulsivity has a more negative influence on reactive interference control than on proactive interference control. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Impulsive personality traits in male pedophiles versus healthy controls: is pedophilia an impulsive-aggressive disorder?

PubMed

Cohen, Lisa J; Gans, Sniezyna Watras; McGeoch, Pamela G; Poznansky, Olga; Itskovich, Yelena; Murphy, Sean; Klein, Erik; Cullen, Ken; Galynker, Igor I

2002-01-01

Pedophilia is characterized by sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Despite the extensive literature documenting the pervasive and pernicious effects of childhood sexual abuse, there is surprisingly little psychiatric literature on pedophilia and its etiology remains enigmatic. In recent years, the psychiatric literature on the phenomenology, neurobiology, and treatment of impulsive-aggressive disorders has grown significantly. As some investigators have conceptualized pedophilia as an impulsive-aggressive disorder, it is of interest whether recent advances in the study of impulsive-aggressive disorders might shed light on pathological mechanisms underlying pedophilia. In the following study, 20 male subjects with a DSM-IV diagnosis of pedophilia, heterosexual type were recruited from an outpatient facility for sexual offenders and compared to 24 demographically similar control subjects. Groups were compared on three personality instruments--the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Impairment-Questionnaire (DAPI-Q)--to assess for select impairment in impulsive-aggressive personality traits. Pedophiles showed severe and pervasive personality impairment relative to controls. Although there was evidence of impulsivity, the findings do not suggest a predominance of impulsive-aggressive traits, and in fact provide evidence of inhibition, passive-aggression, and harm avoidance. The notion of "compulsive-aggression" in pedophilia is proposed.

Improving Inhibitory Control Abilities (ImpulsE)-A Promising Approach to Treat Impulsive Eating?

PubMed

Preuss, Hanna; Pinnow, Marlies; Schnicker, Katja; Legenbauer, Tanja

2017-11-01

Although there is preliminary evidence that inhibitory control training improves impulsive eating, less is known about the effects on eating behaviour and weight loss in clinical samples. Sixty-nine treatment-seeking adults with obesity (binge-eating disorder 33.3%; other specific feeding and eating disorders 40.6%) were randomly blockwise allocated to ImpulsE, an intervention to improve inhibitory control and emotion regulation abilities or a guideline-appropriate cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-based treatment as usual. Self-reported and performance-based impulsivity, eating disorder pathology and BMI were compared at baseline (T1), post-treatment (T2) and 1- or 3-month follow-up. ImpulsE led to better food-specific inhibition performance (p = .004), but groups did not differ regarding improvements in global Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) score at T2. At 3-month follow-up, binge eaters benefited most from ImpulsE (p = .028) and completers of ImpulsE demonstrated a significantly greater weight reduction (p = .030). The current findings propose ImpulsE as a promising approach to treat obesity, illustrating acceptability and additional benefits for course of weight. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Effortful Control and Impulsivity as Concurrent and Longitudinal Predictors of Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valiente, Carlos; Eisenberg, Nancy; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Haugen, Rg; Thompson, Marilyn S.; Kupfer, Anne

2013-01-01

The goal of this study was to test if both effortful control (EC) and impulsivity, a reactive index of temperament, uniquely predict adolescents' academic achievement, concurrently and longitudinally (Time 1: "N" = 168, X-bar[subscript age] = 12 years). At Time 1, parents and teachers reported on students' EC and impulsivity.…

A Brief Experimental Analysis of Reinforcer and Response Dimensions Related to Self-Control in an Outpatient Clinic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falcomata, Terry S.; Cooper-Brown, Linda J.; Wacker, David P.; Gardner, Andrew W.; Boelter, Eric W.

2010-01-01

We conducted an assessment of self-control and impulsivity with 9 children referred to an outpatient clinic for impulsive, inattentive, and hyperactive behaviors. Each condition of the assessment consisted of a choice between 2 concurrently presented math or writing tasks, with 1 alternative reflecting impulsive responding and 1 alternative…

Impulsive Vaccination for an Epidemiology Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De la Sen, M.; Garrido, A. J.

2017-03-01

This paper investigates sufficient conditions of almost periodic sand periodic solutions of an integral model under impulsive controls. Since the model is of generic epidemiological interest, such impulsive controls are either vaccination actions or abrupt variations of the infected population due to infected immigration or lost of infective numbers due to either vaccination or lost of infected population by out-migration.

Brain stimulation reveals crucial role of overcoming self-centeredness in self-control

PubMed Central

Soutschek, Alexander; Ruff, Christian C.; Strombach, Tina; Kalenscher, Tobias; Tobler, Philippe N.

2016-01-01

Neurobiological models of self-control predominantly focus on the role of prefrontal brain mechanisms involved in emotion regulation and impulse control. We provide evidence for an entirely different neural mechanism that promotes self-control by overcoming bias for the present self, a mechanism previously thought to be mainly important for interpersonal decision-making. In two separate studies, we show that disruptive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the temporo-parietal junction—a brain region involved in overcoming one’s self-centered perspective—increases the discounting of delayed and prosocial rewards. This effect of TMS on temporal and social discounting is accompanied by deficits in perspective-taking and does not reflect altered spatial reorienting and number recognition. Our findings substantiate a fundamental commonality between the domains of self-control and social decision-making and highlight a novel aspect of the neurocognitive processes involved in self-control. PMID:27774513

Brain stimulation reveals crucial role of overcoming self-centeredness in self-control.

PubMed

Soutschek, Alexander; Ruff, Christian C; Strombach, Tina; Kalenscher, Tobias; Tobler, Philippe N

2016-10-01

Neurobiological models of self-control predominantly focus on the role of prefrontal brain mechanisms involved in emotion regulation and impulse control. We provide evidence for an entirely different neural mechanism that promotes self-control by overcoming bias for the present self, a mechanism previously thought to be mainly important for interpersonal decision-making. In two separate studies, we show that disruptive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the temporo-parietal junction-a brain region involved in overcoming one's self-centered perspective-increases the discounting of delayed and prosocial rewards. This effect of TMS on temporal and social discounting is accompanied by deficits in perspective-taking and does not reflect altered spatial reorienting and number recognition. Our findings substantiate a fundamental commonality between the domains of self-control and social decision-making and highlight a novel aspect of the neurocognitive processes involved in self-control.

Role of impulsivity and other personality dimensions in attempted suicide with self-poisoning among children and adolescents.

PubMed

Ghanem, Mohamed; Gamaluddin, Hany; Mansour, Mona; Samiee', Afaf Abdel; Shaker, Nermin Mahmoud; El Rafei, Heba

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to clarify the role of impulsivity and personality dimensions in attempted suicide among youth. The study included 120 youths who attempted suicide and 100 matched controls. Attempters of suicide had higher total scores and subscales of impulsivity than controls. They had higher novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence scores, lower scores on persistence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness. A total of 77.5% of suicide attempters had psychiatric disorders compared to 2% of controls. Main factors predicting the occurrence of suicidal attempts were the presence of psychiatric disorder, impulsivity, stressful life events, and high reward dependence of suicide attempters. The study supports that impulsivity and personality traits play an important role in youth suicide independently or as a part of other interacting factors.

Relationships between trait impulsivity and cognitive control: the effect of attention switching on response inhibition and conflict resolution.

PubMed

Leshem, Rotem

2016-02-01

This study examined the relationship between trait impulsivity and cognitive control, as measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and a focused attention dichotic listening to words task, respectively. In the task, attention was manipulated in two attention conditions differing in their cognitive control demands: one in which attention was directed to one ear at a time for a whole block of trials (blocked condition) and another in which attention was switched pseudo-randomly between the two ears from trial to trial (mixed condition). Results showed that high impulsivity participants exhibited more false alarm and intrusion errors as well as a lesser ability to distinguish between stimuli in the mixed condition, as compared to low impulsivity participants. In the blocked condition, the performance levels of the two groups were comparable with respect to these measures. In addition, total BIS scores were correlated with intrusions and laterality index in the mixed but not the blocked condition. The findings suggest that high impulsivity individuals may be less prone to attentional difficulties when cognitive load is relatively low. In contrast, when attention switching is involved, high impulsivity is associated with greater difficulty in inhibiting responses and resolving cognitive conflict than is low impulsivity, as reflected in error-prone information processing. The conclusion is that trait impulsivity in a non-clinical population is manifested more strongly when attention switching is required than during maintained attention. This may have important implications for the conceptualization and treatment of impulsivity in both non-clinical and clinical populations.

Frontal Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats Causes Long-Lasting Impairments in Impulse Control That Are Differentially Sensitive to Pharmacotherapeutics and Associated with Chronic Neuroinflammation.

PubMed

Vonder Haar, Cole; Lam, Frederick C W; Adams, Wendy K; Riparip, Lara-Kirstie; Kaur, Sukhbir; Muthukrishna, Michael; Rosi, Susanna; Winstanley, Catharine A

2016-11-16

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects millions yearly, and is increasingly associated with chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms. We assessed the long-term effects of different bilateral frontal controlled cortical impact injury severities (mild, moderate, and severe) on the five-choice serial reaction time task, a paradigm with relatively independent measurements of attention, motor impulsivity, and motivation. Moderately- and severely injured animals exhibited impairments across all cognitive domains that were still evident 14 weeks postinjury, while mild-injured animals only demonstrated persistent deficits in impulse control. However, recovery of function varied considerably between subjects such that some showed no impairment ("TBI-resilient"), some demonstrated initial deficits that recovered ("TBI-vulnerable"), and some never recovered ("chronically-impaired"). Three clinically relevant treatments for impulse-control or TBI, amphetamine, atomoxetine, and amantadine, were assessed for efficacy in treating injury-induced deficits. Susceptibility to TBI affected the response to pharmacological challenge with amphetamine. Whereas sham and TBI-resilient animals showed characteristic impairments in impulse control at higher doses, amphetamine had the opposite effect in chronically impaired rats, improving task performance. In contrast, atomoxetine and amantadine reduced premature responding but increased omissions, suggesting psychomotor slowing. Analysis of brain tissue revealed that generalized neuroinflammation was associated with impulsivity even when accounting for the degree of brain damage. This is one of the first studies to characterize psychiatric-like symptoms in experimental TBI. Our data highlight the importance of testing pharmacotherapies in TBI models in order to predict efficacy, and suggest that neuroinflammation may represent a treatment target for impulse control problems following injury.

Personality Disorders, Impulsiveness, and Novelty Seeking in Persons with DSM-IV Pathological Gambling and Their First-Degree Relatives.

PubMed

Black, Donald W; Coryell, William H; Crowe, Raymond R; Shaw, Martha; McCormick, Brett; Allen, Jeff

2015-12-01

This study investigates the presence of personality disorders, impulsiveness, and novelty seeking in probands with DSM-IV pathological gambling (PG), controls, and their respective first-degree relatives using a blind family study methodology. Ninety-three probands with DSM-IV PG, 91 controls, and their 395 first-degree relatives were evaluated for the presence of personality disorder with the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality. Impulsiveness was assessed with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Novelty seeking was evaluated using questions from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Results were analyzed using logistic regression by the method of generalized estimating equations to account for within family correlations. PG probands had a significantly higher prevalence of personality disorders than controls (41 vs. 7 %, OR = 9.0, P < 0.001), along with higher levels of impulsiveness and novelty seeking. PG probands with a personality disorder had more severe gambling symptoms; earlier age at PG onset; more suicide attempts; greater psychiatric comorbidity; and a greater family history of psychiatric illness than PG probands without a personality disorder. PG relatives had a significantly higher prevalence of personality disorder than relatives of controls (24 vs. 9%, OR = 3.2, P < 0.001) and higher levels of impulsiveness. Risk for PG in relatives is associated with the presence of personality disorder and increases along with rising BIS Non-Planning and Total scale scores. Personality disorders, impulsiveness, and novelty seeking are common in people with PG and their first-degree relatives. The presence of a personality disorder appears to be a marker of PG severity and earlier age of onset. Risk for PG in relatives is associated with the presence of personality disorder and trait impulsiveness. These findings suggest that personality disorder and impulsiveness may contribute to a familial diathesis for PG.

Brain Structural Differences between Normal and Obese Adults and their Links with Lack of Perseverance, Negative Urgency, and Sensation Seeking.

PubMed

Wang, Haifeng; Wen, Baohong; Cheng, Jingliang; Li, Hongpeng

2017-01-16

In order to examine the difference in brain structure between obese and normal weight individuals, and to explore the relationship between the neuroanatomical changes and impulsivity traits, this study used a voxel-based morphometry method to examine gray matter (GM) volume alterations related to impulsive personality traits in obese individuals relative to normal weight. Eighty adults that completed the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale were analyzed. Possible GM volume alterations were first analyzed at the whole brain level, and then the relationship between regional GM volume differences and UPPS-P scores were examined in selected regions of interest. Reduced GM volumes were found in the frontal and limbic regions in the obese group compared to normal weight individuals. In the normal weight group, lack of perseverance was negatively correlated with GM volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, and negative urgency was negatively correlated with GM volume in the insula. In the obese group, sensation seeking was negatively correlated with GM volume in the left amygdala and right pallidum. These findings might improve our understanding of the relationship between lack of perseverance, negative urgency, and sensation seeking and body weight fluctuations.

Brain Structural Differences between Normal and Obese Adults and their Links with Lack of Perseverance, Negative Urgency, and Sensation Seeking

PubMed Central

Wang, Haifeng; Wen, Baohong; Cheng, Jingliang; Li, Hongpeng

2017-01-01

In order to examine the difference in brain structure between obese and normal weight individuals, and to explore the relationship between the neuroanatomical changes and impulsivity traits, this study used a voxel-based morphometry method to examine gray matter (GM) volume alterations related to impulsive personality traits in obese individuals relative to normal weight. Eighty adults that completed the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale were analyzed. Possible GM volume alterations were first analyzed at the whole brain level, and then the relationship between regional GM volume differences and UPPS-P scores were examined in selected regions of interest. Reduced GM volumes were found in the frontal and limbic regions in the obese group compared to normal weight individuals. In the normal weight group, lack of perseverance was negatively correlated with GM volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, and negative urgency was negatively correlated with GM volume in the insula. In the obese group, sensation seeking was negatively correlated with GM volume in the left amygdala and right pallidum. These findings might improve our understanding of the relationship between lack of perseverance, negative urgency, and sensation seeking and body weight fluctuations. PMID:28091559

The effects of dorso-lumbar motion restriction on the ground reaction force components during running.

PubMed

Morley, Joseph J; Traum, Edward

2016-04-01

The effects of restricting dorso-lumbar spine mobility on ground reaction forces in runners was measured and assessed. A semi-rigid cast was used to restrict spinal motion during running. Subjects ran across a force platform at 3.6 m/s, planting the right foot on the platform. Data was collected from ten running trials with the cast and ten without the cast and analysed. Casted running showed that the initial vertical heel strike maximum was increased (p < .02) and that the anterior-posterior deceleration impulse was increased (p < .01). The maximum vertical ground reaction force was decreased in casted running (p < .01), as was the anterior-posterior acceleration impulse (p < .02). There was a trend for increased medial-lateral impulse in the uncasted state, but this was not statistically significant. Spinal mobility and fascia contribute to load transfer between joints and body segments. Experimentally restricting spinal motion during running results in measurable and repeatable alterations in ground reaction force components. Alterations in load transfer due to decreased spinal motion may be a factor contributing to selected injuries in runners. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Correlates of Impulsivity in Healthy Males and Females with Family Histories of Alcoholism

PubMed Central

DeVito, Elise E; Meda, Shashwath A; Jiantonio, Rachel; Potenza, Marc N; Krystal, John H; Pearlson, Godfrey D

2013-01-01

Individuals family-history positive (FHP) for alcoholism have increased risk for the disorder, which may be mediated by intermediate behavioral traits such as impulsivity. Given the sex differences in the risk for and clinical presentation of addictive disorders, risk for addiction may be differentially mediated by impulsivity within FHP males and females. FHP (N=28) and family-history negative (FHN, N=31) healthy, non-substance-abusing adults completed an fMRI Go/No-Go task and were assessed on impulsivity and alcohol use. Effects of family history and sex were investigated as were associations between neural correlates of impulse control and out-of-scanner measures of impulsivity and alcohol use. FHP individuals showed greater activation in the left anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus during successful inhibitions, an effect that was driven primarily by FHP males. Higher self-reported impulsivity and behavioral discounting impulsivity, but not alcohol use measures, were associated with greater BOLD signal in the region that differentiated the FHP and FHN groups. Impulsivity factors were associated with alcohol use measures across the FHP and FHN groups. These findings are consistent with increased risk for addiction among FHP individuals being conferred through disrupted function within neural systems important for impulse control. PMID:23584260

Sex differences in the developmental trajectories of impulse control and sensation-seeking from early adolescence to early adulthood.

PubMed

Shulman, Elizabeth P; Harden, K Paige; Chein, Jason M; Steinberg, Laurence

2015-01-01

It has been proposed that high rates of risk-taking in adolescence are partly attributable to patterns of neurobiological development that promote an increase in sensation-seeking tendencies at a time when impulse control is still developing. It is not known, however, whether this pattern is the same for males and females. The present study investigates sex differences in the developmental trajectories of self-reported impulse control and sensation-seeking between the ages of 10 and 25 using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 Child and Young Adult Survey (N = 8,270; 49% female; 33% Black, 22% Hispanic, 45% Non-Black, Non-Hispanic). Prior work has found that, consistent with the dual-systems model of adolescent neurobiological development, sensation-seeking rises and falls across this age span, whereas impulse control increases into the 20s. In the present study, we find that this same general pattern holds for both males and females, but with some key differences. As expected, males exhibit higher levels of sensation-seeking and lower levels of impulse control than females. Differences also emerged in the shapes of the developmental trajectories. Females reach peak levels of sensation-seeking earlier than males (consistent with the idea that sensation-seeking is linked to pubertal development) and decline in sensation-seeking more rapidly thereafter. Also, males increase in impulse control more gradually than females. Consequently, sex differences in both impulse control and sensation-seeking increase with age. The findings suggest that the window of heightened vulnerability to risk-taking during adolescence may be greater in magnitude and more protracted for males than for females.

Analysis of a predator-prey model with Holling II functional response concerning impulsive control strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Bing; Teng, Zhidong; Chen, Lansun

2006-08-01

According to biological and chemical control strategy for pest control, we investigate the dynamic behavior of a Holling II functional response predator-prey system concerning impulsive control strategy-periodic releasing natural enemies and spraying pesticide at different fixed times. By using Floquet theorem and small amplitude perturbation method, we prove that there exists a stable pest-eradication periodic solution when the impulsive period is less than some critical value. Further, the condition for the permanence of the system is also given. Numerical results show that the system we consider can take on various kinds of periodic fluctuations and several types of attractor coexistence and is dominated by periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic solutions, which implies that the presence of pulses makes the dynamic behavior more complex. Finally, we conclude that our impulsive control strategy is more effective than the classical one if we take chemical control efficiently.

Impulsivity and cognitive distortions in pathological gamblers attending the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic: a preliminary report.

PubMed

Michalczuk, R; Bowden-Jones, H; Verdejo-Garcia, A; Clark, L

2011-12-01

Pathological gambling (PG) is a form of behavioural addiction that has been associated with elevated impulsivity and also cognitive distortions in the processing of chance, probability and skill. We sought to assess the relationship between the level of cognitive distortions and state and trait measures of impulsivity in treatment-seeking pathological gamblers. Thirty pathological gamblers attending the National Problem Gambling Clinic, the first National Health Service clinic for gambling problems in the UK, were compared with 30 healthy controls in a case-control design. Cognitive distortions were assessed using the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS). Trait impulsivity was assessed using the UPPS-P, which includes scales of urgency, the tendency to be impulsive in positive or negative mood states. Delay discounting rates were taken as a state measure of impulsive choice. Pathological gamblers had elevated impulsivity on several UPPS-P subscales but effect sizes were largest (Cohen's d>1.4) for positive and negative urgency. The pathological gamblers also displayed higher levels of gambling distortions, and elevated preference for immediate rewards, compared to controls. Within the pathological gamblers, there was a strong relationship between the preference for immediate rewards and the level of cognitive distortions (R2=0.41). Impulsive choice in the gamblers was correlated with the level of gambling distortions, and we hypothesize that an impulsive decision-making style may increase the acceptance of erroneous beliefs during gambling play.

Coordination of fractional-order nonlinear multi-agent systems via distributed impulsive control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Tiedong; Li, Teng; Cui, Bing

2018-01-01

The coordination of fractional-order nonlinear multi-agent systems via distributed impulsive control method is studied in this paper. Based on the theory of impulsive differential equations, algebraic graph theory, Lyapunov stability theory and Mittag-Leffler function, two novel sufficient conditions for achieving the cooperative control of a class of fractional-order nonlinear multi-agent systems are derived. Finally, two numerical simulations are verified to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.

Differential relationships of impulsivity or antisocial symptoms on P50, N100, or P200 auditory sensory gating in controls and antisocial personality disorder

PubMed Central

Lijffijt, Marijn; Cox, Blake; Acas, Michelle D.; Lane, Scott D.; Moeller, F. Gerard; Swann, Alan C.

2013-01-01

Limited information is available on the relationship between antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and early filtering, or gating, of information, even though this could contribute to the repeatedly reported impairment in ASPD of higher-order information processing. In order to investigate early filtering in ASPD, we compared electrophysiological measures of auditory sensory gating assessed by the paired-click paradigm in males with ASPD (n = 37) to healthy controls (n = 28). Stimulus encoding was measured by P50, N100, and P200 auditory evoked potentials; auditory sensory gating (ASG) was measured by a reduction in amplitude of evoked potentials following click repetition. Effects were studied of co-existing past alcohol or drug use disorders, ASPD symptom counts, and trait impulsivity. Controls and ASPD did not differ in P50, N100, or P200 amplitude or ASG. Past alcohol or drug use disorders had no effect. In controls, impulsivity related to improved P50 and P200 gating. In ASPD, P50 or N100 gating was impaired with more symptoms or increased impulsivity, respectively, suggesting impaired early filtering of irrelevant information. In controls the relationship between P50 and P200 gating and impulsivity was reversed, suggesting better gating with higher impulsivity scores. This could reflect different roles of ASG in behavioral regulation in controls versus ASPD. PMID:22464943

Genetics Home Reference: Alport syndrome

MedlinePlus

... particularly the organ of Corti, that transform sound waves into nerve impulses for the brain. Alterations in type IV collagen often result in abnormal inner ear function, which can lead to hearing loss. In the ...

Hip Biomechanics Are Altered in Male Runners with Achilles Tendinopathy.

PubMed

Creaby, Mark W; Honeywill, Conor; Franettovich Smith, Melinda M; Schache, Anthony G; Crossley, Kay M

2017-03-01

Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a prevalent injury in running sports. Understanding the biomechanical factors associated with AT will assist in its management and prevention. The purpose of this study was to compare hip and ankle kinematics and kinetics in runners with and without AT. Fourteen male runners with AT and 11 healthy male runners (CTRL) ran over ground while lower-limb joint motion and ground reaction force data were synchronously captured. Hip and ankle joint angles, moments, and impulses in all three planes (sagittal, transverse, and frontal) were extracted for analysis. Independent t-tests were used to compare the differences between the AT and the CTRL groups for the biomechanical variables of interest. After Bonferroni adjustment, an alpha level of 0.0026 was set for all analyses. The AT group exhibited an increased peak hip external rotation moment (P = 0.001), hip external rotation impulse (P < 0.001), and hip adduction impulse (P < 0.001) compared with the CTRL group. No significant differences in ankle biomechanics were observed. This study presents preliminary evidence indicating that male runners with AT display altered hip biomechanics with respect to their healthy counterparts. Because of the retrospective design of the study, it is unknown whether these alterations are a predisposing factor for the disorder, a result of the condition, or a combination of both. The results of this study suggest that optimizing hip joint function should be considered in the rehabilitation of runners with AT.

Mood instability and impulsivity as trait predictors of suicidal thoughts.

PubMed

Peters, Evyn M; Balbuena, Lloyd; Marwaha, Steven; Baetz, Marilyn; Bowen, Rudy

2016-12-01

Impulsivity, the tendency to act quickly without adequate planning or concern for consequences, is a commonly cited risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviour. There are many definitions of impulsivity and how it relates to suicidality is not well understood. Mood instability, which describes frequent fluctuations of mood over time, is a concept related to impulsivity that may help explain this relationship. The purpose of this study was to determine whether impulsivity could predict suicidal thoughts after controlling for mood instability. This study utilized longitudinal data from the 2000 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (N = 2,406). There was a time interval of 18 months between the two waves of the study. Trait impulsivity and mood instability were measured with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders. Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate baseline impulsivity and mood instability as predictors of future suicidal thoughts. Impulsivity significantly predicted the presence of suicidal thoughts, but this effect became non-significant with mood instability included in the same model. Impulsivity may be a redundant concept when predicting future suicidal thoughts if mood instability is considered. The significance is that research and therapy focusing on mood instability along with impulsivity may be useful in treating the suicidal patient. Mood instability and impulsivity both predict future suicidal thoughts. Impulsivity does not predict suicidal thoughts after controlling for mood instability. Assessing and treating mood instability could be important aspects of suicide prevention and risk management. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Altered functional connectivity in default mode network in Internet gaming disorder: Influence of childhood ADHD.

PubMed

Lee, Deokjong; Lee, Junghan; Lee, Jung Eun; Jung, Young-Chul

2017-04-03

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a type of behavioral addiction characterized by abnormal executive control, leading to loss of control over excessive gaming. Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common comorbid disorders in IGD, involving delayed development of the executive control system, which could predispose individuals to gaming addiction. We investigated the influence of childhood ADHD on neural network features of IGD. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis was performed on 44 young, male IGD subjects with and without childhood ADHD and 19 age-matched, healthy male controls. Posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-seeded connectivity was evaluated to assess abnormalities in default mode network (DMN) connectivity, which is associated with deficits in executive control. IGD subjects without childhood ADHD showed expanded functional connectivity (FC) between DMN-related regions (PCC, medial prefrontal cortex, thalamus) compared with controls. These subjects also exhibited expanded FC between the PCC and brain regions implicated in salience processing (anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex) compared with IGD subjects with childhood ADHD. IGD subjects with childhood ADHD showed expanded FC between the PCC and cerebellum (crus II), a region involved in executive control. The strength of connectivity between the PCC and cerebellum (crus II) was positively correlated with self-reporting scales reflecting impulsiveness. Individuals with IGD showed altered PCC-based FC, the characteristics of which might be dependent upon history of childhood ADHD. Our findings suggest that altered neural networks for executive control in ADHD would be a predisposition for developing IGD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Does Drinking to Cope Explain Links Between Emotion-Driven Impulse Control Difficulties and Hazardous Drinking? A Longitudinal Test

PubMed Central

Watkins, Laura E.; Franz, Molly R.; DiLillo, David; Gratz, Kim L.; Messman-Moore, Terri L.

2016-01-01

Difficulty controlling impulsive behaviors when experiencing negative emotions is a prominent risk factor for hazardous alcohol use, and prior research suggests that drinking to cope may mediate this association. The present study examines this possibility prospectively in a sample of 490 young adult women between the ages of 18 and 25. Participants completed measures of emotion-driven impulse control difficulties, drinking to cope, and hazardous alcohol use at six time points over the course of approximately 20 months (i.e., one assessment every four months). Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that drinking to cope fully mediated the relationship between emotion-driven impulse control difficulties and hazardous alcohol use when examining these relationships between individuals and partially mediated this relation when examining these relationships within individuals. These findings suggest that drinking to cope is a key mechanism in the relationship between emotion-driven impulse control difficulties and hazardous drinking. Results highlight the importance of targeting both emotion dysregulation and drinking to cope when treating young women for alcohol use problems. PMID:26502334

Are self-injurers impulsive?:Results from two behavioral laboratory studies

PubMed Central

Janis, Irene Belle; Nock, Matthew K.

2009-01-01

Common clinical wisdom suggests that people who engage in self-injury are impulsive. However, virtually all prior work in this area has relied on individuals’ self-report of impulsiveness, despite evidence that people are limited in their ability to accurately report on cognitive processes that occur outside awareness. To address this knowledge gap, we used performance-based measures of several dimensions of impulsiveness to assess whether people engaging in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) demonstrate greater impulsiveness than non-injurers. In Study 1, we compared adolescent self-injurers (n=64) to age, sex, and race/ethnicity matched, non-injurious controls (n=30) on self-report impulsiveness (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children, Present and Lifetime Version, Kaufman et al., 1997), and on performance-based measures of two dimensions of impulsiveness: behavioral disinhibition (Conners’ Continuous Performance Test, Connors, 1995) and risky decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task, Bechara et al., 1994). In Study 2, we compared adult female self-injurers (n=20) to age and race/ethnicity matched, non-injurious controls (n=20) on self-report impulsiveness (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11, Patton et al., 1995), and performance-based measures of behavioral disinhibition, risky decision-making, and two measures of delay discounting (Kirby et al., 1999; Richards et al., 1999). In both studies, self-injurers reported greater impulsiveness; however, performance-based measures of impulsiveness failed to detect any between-group differences. We propose several potential explanations for the discrepancies observed between self-report and performance-based measures of impulsiveness and discuss directions for future research on impulsiveness and self-injury. PMID:19758706

Developments in impulse control behaviours of Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Zurowski, Mateusz; O'Brien, Jonathan Darcy

2015-08-01

Impulse control behaviours (ICBs) are a frequent comorbidity for patients with Parkinson's disease. They consist of impulse control disorders, dopamine dysregulation syndrome, and punding. The field continues to evolve in the understanding of impulsivity and assessment of risk factors in the development of these behaviours and their appropriate management in patients with Parkinson's disease. Impulsivity is a multifaceted concept that is surprisingly common in untreated patients with Parkinson's disease. The incidence of ICBs increases with demographic, clinical, and biochemical risk factors. Treatments rely on reduction of dopamine agonists with exception of cognitive behavioural therapy and possibly repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Reduction of dopamine agonist dose is the mainstay of treatment of ICBs. Other forms of dopaminergic treatment such as deep brain stimulation or jejunal infusion are alternative treatments but may be complicated by dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome. Other therapies show promise but data are insufficient to suggest their regular use.

Suicidality in Bipolar Disorder: The Role of Emotion-Triggered Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Johnson, Sheri L.; Carver, Charles S.; Tharp, Jordan A.

2018-01-01

A growing body of research suggests that impulsive responses to emotion more robustly predict suicidality than do other forms of impulsivity. This issue has not yet been examined within bipolar disorder, however. Participants diagnosed with bipolar I disorder (n = 133) and control participants (n = 110) diagnosed with no mood or psychotic disorder completed self-report measures of emotion-triggered impulsivity (Negative and Positive Urgency Scales) and interviews concerning lifetime suicidality. Analyses examined the effects of emotion-triggered impulsivity alone and in combination with gender, age of onset, depression severity, comorbid anxiety, comorbid substance use, and medication. A history of suicide ideation and attempts, as well as self-harm, were significantly more common in the bipolar disorder group compared with the control group. Impulsive responses to positive emotions related to suicide ideation, attempts, and self-harm within the bipolar group. Findings extend research on the importance of emotion-triggered impulsivity to a broad range of key outcomes within bipolar disorder. The discussion focuses on limitations and potential clinical implications. PMID:27406282

Impulsive stabilization and impulsive synchronization of discrete-time delayed neural networks.

PubMed

Chen, Wu-Hua; Lu, Xiaomei; Zheng, Wei Xing

2015-04-01

This paper investigates the problems of impulsive stabilization and impulsive synchronization of discrete-time delayed neural networks (DDNNs). Two types of DDNNs with stabilizing impulses are studied. By introducing the time-varying Lyapunov functional to capture the dynamical characteristics of discrete-time impulsive delayed neural networks (DIDNNs) and by using a convex combination technique, new exponential stability criteria are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. The stability criteria for DIDNNs are independent of the size of time delay but rely on the lengths of impulsive intervals. With the newly obtained stability results, sufficient conditions on the existence of linear-state feedback impulsive controllers are derived. Moreover, a novel impulsive synchronization scheme for two identical DDNNs is proposed. The novel impulsive synchronization scheme allows synchronizing two identical DDNNs with unknown delays. Simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed criteria of impulsive stabilization and impulsive synchronization of DDNNs. Finally, an application of the obtained impulsive synchronization result for two identical chaotic DDNNs to a secure communication scheme is presented.

Parental monitoring may protect impulsive children from overeating.

PubMed

Bennett, C; Blissett, J

2017-10-01

Research has highlighted links between impulsivity and weight in children and adults. Nevertheless, little is known about the nature of this link in very young children or about the underlying mechanism by which impulsivity leads to greater adiposity. The present study aimed to explore relationships between impulsivity, weight and eating behaviour in a sample of 95 2 to 4-year-olds. Parent-child dyads visited the laboratory and consumed a meal after which parents completed measures of child impulsivity, eating behaviour and parental feeding, whilst children completed impulsivity tasks measuring the impulsivity facet delay of gratification (Snack Delay task), motor impulsivity (Line Walking task) and inhibitory control (Tower task). Pearson's correlations showed that girls with greater motor impulsivity were heavier. Additionally, monitoring moderated the relationship between impulsivity and food approach behaviour, indicating that monitoring may protect more impulsive children from displaying problematic eating behaviours. The motor impulsivity facet appears particularly relevant to child weight; parents can modulate the impact of impulsivity on child eating behaviour through their feeding style. © 2016 World Obesity Federation.

Detection and visualization of storm hydrograph changes under urbanization: an impulse response approach.

PubMed

Farahmand, Touraj; Fleming, Sean W; Quilty, Edward J

2007-10-01

Urbanization often alters catchment storm responses, with a broad range of potentially significant environmental and engineering consequences. At a practical, site-specific management level, efficient and effective assessment and control of such downstream impacts requires a technical capability to rapidly identify development-induced storm hydrograph changes. The method should also speak specifically to alteration of internal watershed dynamics, require few resources to implement, and provide results that are intuitively accessible to all watershed stakeholders. In this short paper, we propose a potential method which might satisfy these criteria. Our emphasis lies upon the integration of existing concepts to provide tools for pragmatic, relatively low-cost environmental monitoring and management. The procedure involves calibration of rainfall-runoff time-series models in each of several successive time windows, which sample varying degrees of watershed urbanization. As implemented here, only precipitation and stream discharge or stage data are required. The readily generated unit impulse response functions of these time-series models might then provide a mathematically formal, yet visually based and intuitive, representation of changes in watershed storm response. Nominally, the empirical response functions capture such changes as soon as they occur, and the assessments of storm hydrograph alteration are independent of variability in meteorological forcing. We provide a preliminary example of how the technique may be applied using a low-order linear ARX model. The technique may offer a fresh perspective on such watershed management issues, and potentially also several advantages over existing approaches. Substantial further testing is required before attempting to apply the concept as a practical environmental management technique; some possible directions for additional work are suggested.

Sweet taste liking is associated with impulsive behaviors in humans

PubMed Central

Weafer, Jessica; Burkhardt, Anne; de Wit, Harriet

2014-01-01

Evidence from both human and animal studies suggests that sensitivity to rewarding stimuli is positively associated with impulsive behaviors, including both impulsive decision making and inhibitory control. The current study examined associations between the hedonic value of a sweet taste and two forms of impulsivity (impulsive choice and impulsive action) in healthy young adults (N = 100). Participants completed a sweet taste test in which they rated their liking of various sweetness concentrations. Subjects also completed measures of impulsive choice (delay discounting), and impulsive action (go/no-go task). Subjects who discounted more steeply (i.e., greater impulsive choice) liked the high sweetness concentration solutions more. By contrast, sweet liking was not related to impulsive action. These findings indicate that impulsive choice may be associated with heightened sensitivity to the hedonic value of a rewarding stimulus, and that these constructs might share common underlying neurobiological mechanisms. PMID:24987343

Linking Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat loci to human male impulsive aggression.

PubMed

Yang, Chun; Ba, Huajie; Cao, Yin; Dong, Guoying; Zhang, Shuyou; Gao, Zhiqin; Zhao, Hanqing; Zhou, Xianju

2017-11-01

Men are more susceptible to impulsive behavior than women. Epidemiological studies revealed that the impulsive aggressive behavior is affected by genetic factors, and the male-specific Y chromosome plays an important role in this behavior. In this study, we investigated the association between the impulsive aggressive behavior and Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) loci. The collected biologic samples from 271 offenders with impulsive aggressive behavior and 492 healthy individuals without impulsive aggressive behavior were amplified by PowerPlex R Y23 PCR System and the resultant products were separated by electrophoresis and further genotyped. Then, comparisons in allele and haplotype frequencies of the selected 22 Y-STRs were made in the two groups. Our results showed that there were significant differences in allele frequencies at DYS448 and DYS456 between offenders and controls ( p  < .05). Univariate analysis further revealed significant frequency differences for alleles 18 and 22 at DYS448 (0.18 vs 0.27, compared to the controls, p  = .003, OR=0.57,95% CI=0.39-0.82; 0.03 vs 0.01, compared to the controls, p  = .003, OR=7.45, 95% CI=1.57-35.35, respectively) and for allele 17 at DYS456 (0.07 vs 0.14, compared to the controls, p  = .006, OR=0.48, 95% CI =0.28-0.82) between two groups. Interestingly, the frequency of haploid haplotype 22-15 on the DYS448-DYS456 (DYS448-DYS456-22-15) was significantly higher in offenders than in controls (0.033 vs 0.004, compared to the control, p  = .001, OR = 8.42, 95%CI =1.81-39.24). Moreover, there were no significant differences in allele frequencies of other Y-STRs loci between two groups. Furthermore, the unconditional logistic regression analysis confirmed that alleles 18 and 22 at DYS448 and allele 17 at DYS456 are associated with male impulsive aggression. However, the DYS448-DYS456-22-15 is less related to impulsive aggression. Our results suggest a link between Y-chromosomal allele types and male impulsive aggression.

Reduced step length reduces knee joint contact forces during running following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction but does not alter inter-limb asymmetry.

PubMed

Bowersock, Collin D; Willy, Richard W; DeVita, Paul; Willson, John D

2017-03-01

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is associated with early onset knee osteoarthritis. Running is a typical activity following this surgery, but elevated knee joint contact forces are thought to contribute to osteoarthritis degenerative processes. It is therefore clinically relevant to identify interventions to reduce contact forces during running among individuals after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of reducing step length during running on patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joint contact forces among people with a history of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Inter limb knee joint contact force differences during running were also examined. 18 individuals at an average of 54.8months after unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ran in 3 step length conditions (preferred, -5%, -10%). Bilateral patellofemoral, tibiofemoral, and medial tibiofemoral compartment peak force, loading rate, impulse, and impulse per kilometer were evaluated between step length conditions and limbs using separate 2 factor analyses of variance. Reducing step length 5% decreased patellofemoral, tibiofemoral, and medial tibiofemoral compartment peak force, impulse, and impulse per kilometer bilaterally. A 10% step length reduction further decreased peak forces and force impulses, but did not further reduce force impulses per kilometer. Tibiofemoral joint impulse, impulse per kilometer, and patellofemoral joint loading rate were lower in the previously injured limb compared to the contralateral limb. Running with a shorter step length is a feasible clinical intervention to reduce knee joint contact forces during running among people with a history of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in impulsivity and brain morphometry in methamphetamine users

PubMed Central

Kogachi, Shannon; Chang, Linda; Alicata, Daniel; Cunningham, Eric; Ernst, Thomas

2016-01-01

Methamphetamine (METH) is an addictive stimulant, and METH users have abnormal brain structures and function. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between impulsivity, brain structures, and possible sex-specific differences between METH users and non-drug using Controls. Structural MRI and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) questionnaire were completed in 124 subjects: 62 METH (ages 41.2 ± 1.4 years, 34 males) and 62 Controls (ages 43.3 ± 2.3 years, 36 males). Independent and interactive effects of METH use status and sex were evaluated. Relationships between METH usage characteristics, brain morphometry, and impulsivity scores were examined. METH users had higher impulsivity scores, on both the Cognitive and Behavioral Factors from the BIS (p < 0.0001–0.0001). Compared with same-sex Controls, male METH users had larger, while female METH users had smaller, right superior frontal cortex (interaction-p = 0.0005). The male METH users with larger frontal volumes and female METH users with smaller or thinner frontal cortices had greater Cognitive impulsivity (interaction-p ≤ 0.05). Only female METH users showed relatively larger nucleus accumbens (interaction-p = 0.03). Greater impulsivity and thinner frontal cortices in METH users are validated. Larger superior frontal cortex in male METH users with greater cognitive impulsivity suggest decreased dendritic pruning during adolescence might have contributed to their impulsive and drug use behaviors. In the female METH users, smaller frontal cortices and the associated greater impulsivity suggest greater neurotoxicity to these brain regions, while their relatively larger nucleus accumbens suggest an estrogen-mediated neuroprotective glial response. Men and women may be affected differently by METH use. PMID:27095357

Sex differences in impulsivity and brain morphometry in methamphetamine users.

PubMed

Kogachi, Shannon; Chang, Linda; Alicata, Daniel; Cunningham, Eric; Ernst, Thomas

2017-01-01

Methamphetamine (METH) is an addictive stimulant, and METH users have abnormal brain structures and function. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between impulsivity, brain structures, and possible sex-specific differences between METH users and non-drug using Controls. Structural MRI and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) questionnaire were completed in 124 subjects: 62 METH (ages 41.2 ± 1.4 years, 34 males) and 62 Controls (ages 43.3 ± 2.3 years, 36 males). Independent and interactive effects of METH use status and sex were evaluated. Relationships between METH usage characteristics, brain morphometry, and impulsivity scores were examined. METH users had higher impulsivity scores, on both the Cognitive and Behavioral Factors from the BIS (p < 0.0001-0.0001). Compared with same-sex Controls, male METH users had larger, while female METH users had smaller, right superior frontal cortex (interaction-p = 0.0005). The male METH users with larger frontal volumes and female METH users with smaller or thinner frontal cortices had greater Cognitive impulsivity (interaction-p ≤ 0.05). Only female METH users showed relatively larger nucleus accumbens (interaction-p = 0.03). Greater impulsivity and thinner frontal cortices in METH users are validated. Larger superior frontal cortex in male METH users with greater cognitive impulsivity suggest decreased dendritic pruning during adolescence might have contributed to their impulsive and drug use behaviors. In the female METH users, smaller frontal cortices and the associated greater impulsivity suggest greater neurotoxicity to these brain regions, while their relatively larger nucleus accumbens suggest an estrogen-mediated neuroprotective glial response. Men and women may be affected differently by METH use.

Altering impulsive decision making with an acceptance-based procedure.

PubMed

Morrison, Kate L; Madden, Gregory J; Odum, Amy L; Friedel, Jonathan E; Twohig, Michael P

2014-09-01

Delay discounting is one facet of impulsive decision making and involves subjectively devaluing a delayed outcome. Steeply discounting delayed rewards is correlated with substance abuse and other problematic behaviors. To the extent that steep delay discounting underlies these clinical disorders, it would be advantageous to find psychosocial avenues for reducing delay discounting. Acceptance-based interventions may prove useful as they may help to decrease the distress that arises while waiting for a delayed outcome. The current study was conducted to determine if a 60-90 minute acceptance-based training would change delay discounting rates among 30 undergraduate university students in comparison to a waitlist control. Measures given at pre- and posttraining included a hypothetical monetary delay discounting task, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Distress Tolerance Scale. Those assigned to the treatment group decreased their discounting of delayed money, but not distress intolerance or psychological inflexibility when compared to the waitlist control group. After the waiting period, the control group received the intervention. Combining all participants' pre- to posttreatment data, the acceptance-based treatment significantly decreased discounting of monetary rewards and increased distress tolerance. The difference in AAQ-II approached significance. Acceptance-based treatments may be a worthwhile option for decreasing delay discounting rates and, consequently, affecting the choices that underlie addiction and other problematic behaviors. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

[Neuropsychological subtypes of the inattention and hyperactivity syndrome].

PubMed

Etchepareborda, M C

1999-02-01

One of the commonest neurological development disorders is the syndrome of inattention with hyperactivity, ADHD. The complex neurobiological network which intervenes in paying attention permits us to maintain a basal state of alertness, to focalize and maintain attention for long periods, select the stimulus-signal required and analyze its components, and also to simultaneously carry out processes of input-output and performance (tutorial, controlling). Damage to the various systems participating in 'paying attention' leads to a syndrome of inattention, with or without hyperactivity. The distinction into clinical sub-types (combined, mainly lacking attention or mainly hyperactive and impulsive) gives a primary differentiation of the syndrome. However, from the neuropsychological point of view, some degree of heterogeneity within the groups which defines academic behaviour and conduct may also be recognized. This type of study permits a more specific neuro-cognitive and pharmacological approach. Some clinical characteristics of the syndrome of inattention improve with different drugs, such as the state of alterness (methylphenidate), impulsivity (pipamperone) and selective attention (tiapride). However, this treatment is symptomatic and in most cases is useful to accompany the ultimate biological development of the neocortical control mechanisms. A neuro-cognitive approach which permits acquisition of habits of control, functional strategies, sequential planning of activities and per- and post-functional surveillance is fundamental. The EFE programme for training executive functions is directed towards working with the damaged processing mechanisms in each neuropsychological subtype.

Impulsive Choice and Altruistic Punishment Are Correlated and Increase in Tandem With Serotonin Depletion

PubMed Central

Crockett, Molly J.; Clark, Luke; Lieberman, Matthew D.; Tabibnia, Golnaz; Robbins, Trevor W.

2010-01-01

Human cooperation may partly depend on the presence of individuals willing to incur personal costs to punish noncooperators. The psychological factors that motivate such 'altruistic punishment' are not fully understood; some have argued that altruistic punishment is a deliberate act of norm enforcement that requires self-control, while others claim that it is an impulsive act driven primarily by emotion. In the current study, we addressed this question by examining the relationship between impulsive choice and altruistic punishment in the ultimatum game. As the neurotransmitter serotonin has been implicated in both impulsive choice and altruistic punishment, we investigated the effects of manipulating serotonin on both measures. Across individuals, impulsive choice and altruistic punishment were correlated and increased following serotonin depletion. These findings imply that altruistic punishment reflects the absence rather than the presence of self control, and suggest that impulsive choice and altruistic punishment share common neural mechanisms. PMID:21171757

Flyby Geometry Optimization Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karlgaard, Christopher D.

2007-01-01

The Flyby Geometry Optimization Tool is a computer program for computing trajectories and trajectory-altering impulsive maneuvers for spacecraft used in radio relay of scientific data to Earth from an exploratory airplane flying in the atmosphere of Mars.

Resting-state beta and gamma activity in Internet addiction.

PubMed

Choi, Jung-Seok; Park, Su Mi; Lee, Jaewon; Hwang, Jae Yeon; Jung, Hee Yeon; Choi, Sam-Wook; Kim, Dai Jin; Oh, Sohee; Lee, Jun-Young

2013-09-01

Internet addiction is the inability to control one's use of the Internet and is related to impulsivity. Although a few studies have examined neurophysiological activity as individuals with Internet addiction engage in cognitive processing, no information on spontaneous EEG activity in the eyes-closed resting-state is available. We investigated resting-state EEG activities in beta and gamma bands and examined their relationships with impulsivity among individuals with Internet addiction and healthy controls. Twenty-one drug-naïve patients with Internet addiction (age: 23.33 ± 3.50 years) and 20 age-, sex-, and IQ-matched healthy controls (age: 22.40 ± 2.33 years) were enrolled in this study. Severity of Internet addiction was identified by the total score on Young's Internet Addiction Test. Impulsivity was measured with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 and a stop-signal task. Resting-state EEG during eyes closed was recorded, and the absolute/relative power of beta and gamma bands was analyzed. The Internet addiction group showed high impulsivity and impaired inhibitory control. The generalized estimating equation showed that the Internet-addiction group showed lower absolute power on the beta band than did the control group (estimate = -3.370, p < 0.01). On the other hand, the Internet-addiction group showed higher absolute power on the gamma band than did the control group (estimate = 0.434, p < 0.01). These EEG activities were significantly associated with the severity of Internet addiction as well as with the extent of impulsivity. The present study suggests that resting-state fast-wave brain activity is related to the impulsivity characterizing Internet addiction. These differences may be neurobiological markers for the pathophysiology of Internet addiction. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Midbrain functional connectivity and ventral striatal dopamine D2-type receptors: Link to impulsivity in methamphetamine users

PubMed Central

Kohno, Milky; Okita, Kyoji; Morales, Angelica M.; Robertson, Chelsea; Dean, Andy C.; Ghahremani, Dara G.; Sabb, Fred; Mandelkern, Mark A.; Bilder, Robert M.; London, Edythe D.

2015-01-01

Stimulant use disorders are associated with deficits in striatal dopamine receptor availability, abnormalities in mesocorticolimbic resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC), and impulsivity. In methamphetamine-dependent research participants, impulsivity is correlated negatively with striatal D2-type receptor availability, and mesocorticolimbic RSFC is stronger than in controls. The extent to which these features of methamphetamine dependence are interrelated, however, is unknown. This question was addressed in two studies. In Study 1, 19 methamphetamine-dependent and 26 healthy control subjects underwent [18F]fallypride positron emission tomography to measure ventral striatal dopamine D2-type receptor availability, indexed by binding potential (BPND), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess mesocorticolimbic RSFC, using a midbrain seed. In Study 2, an independent sample of 20 methamphetamine-dependent and 18 control subjects completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in addition to fMRI. Study 1 showed a significant group by ventral striatal BPND interaction effect on RSFC, reflecting a negative relationship between ventral striatal BPND and RSFC between midbrain and striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula in methamphetamine-dependent participants but a positive relationship in the control group. In Study 2, an interaction of group with RSFC on impulsivity was observed. Methamphetamine-dependent participants users exhibited a positive relationship of midbrain RSFC to the left ventral striatum with cognitive impulsivity, whereas a negative relationship was observed in healthy controls. The results indicate that ventral striatal D2-type receptor signaling may affect system-level activity within the mesocorticolimbic system, providing a functional link that may help explain high impulsivity in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. PMID:26830141

Infinite horizon optimal impulsive control with applications to Internet congestion control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avrachenkov, Konstantin; Habachi, Oussama; Piunovskiy, Alexey; Zhang, Yi

2015-04-01

We investigate infinite-horizon deterministic optimal control problems with both gradual and impulsive controls, where any finitely many impulses are allowed simultaneously. Both discounted and long-run time-average criteria are considered. We establish very general and at the same time natural conditions, under which the dynamic programming approach results in an optimal feedback policy. The established theoretical results are applied to the Internet congestion control, and by solving analytically and nontrivially the underlying optimal control problems, we obtain a simple threshold-based active queue management scheme, which takes into account the main parameters of the transmission control protocols, and improves the fairness among the connections in a given network.

Integrative Understanding of Familial Impulsivity, Early Adversity and Suicide Risk.

PubMed

Lima, Isabela M M; Malloy-Diniz, Leandro F; de Miranda, Débora M; Da Silva, Antônio G; Neves, Fernando S; Johnson, Sheri L

2017-01-01

Introduction: Impulsivity is a core characteristic of bipolar disorder and it was observed as elevated in individuals with the disorder and in their relatives. Both impulsivity and history of maltreatment are risk factors for suicide attempts, however, these two key variables may not be independent, given the fact that parental impulsivity and associated social context could increase the risk of child maltreatment. In this study it was examined the association between the impulsivity of relatives and child maltreatment taking into consideration the conjoint and unique effects of these two variables on the risk of suicide attempts among the patients. Materials and Methods: Participants of the study consisted of 117 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and 25 first-degree relatives. Linear regression model was conducted to describe associations between facets of impulsivity of relatives and levels of child maltreatment reported by patients. The independent associations of suicide attempt history with the dimensions of impulsivity of the patient and maltreatment were tested by multinomial logistic regression. Results: Impulsivity of relatives and, more specifically, inhibitory control can predict the maltreatment of the patient. Inhibitory control and emotional abuse were related, conjointly, to a greater likelihood of having a history of more than one suicide attempt. Discussion: Considering that the impulsivity of relatives predicts child maltreatment, it is possible that a genetically shared impulsivity is an underlying feature associated with the history of multiple suicide attempts. These findings highlight the importance of considering child maltreatment, impulsivity and suicide attempt history in integrative models.

Integrative Understanding of Familial Impulsivity, Early Adversity and Suicide Risk

PubMed Central

Lima, Isabela M. M.; Malloy-Diniz, Leandro F.; de Miranda, Débora M.; Da Silva, Antônio G.; Neves, Fernando S.; Johnson, Sheri L.

2017-01-01

Introduction: Impulsivity is a core characteristic of bipolar disorder and it was observed as elevated in individuals with the disorder and in their relatives. Both impulsivity and history of maltreatment are risk factors for suicide attempts, however, these two key variables may not be independent, given the fact that parental impulsivity and associated social context could increase the risk of child maltreatment. In this study it was examined the association between the impulsivity of relatives and child maltreatment taking into consideration the conjoint and unique effects of these two variables on the risk of suicide attempts among the patients. Materials and Methods: Participants of the study consisted of 117 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and 25 first-degree relatives. Linear regression model was conducted to describe associations between facets of impulsivity of relatives and levels of child maltreatment reported by patients. The independent associations of suicide attempt history with the dimensions of impulsivity of the patient and maltreatment were tested by multinomial logistic regression. Results: Impulsivity of relatives and, more specifically, inhibitory control can predict the maltreatment of the patient. Inhibitory control and emotional abuse were related, conjointly, to a greater likelihood of having a history of more than one suicide attempt. Discussion: Considering that the impulsivity of relatives predicts child maltreatment, it is possible that a genetically shared impulsivity is an underlying feature associated with the history of multiple suicide attempts. These findings highlight the importance of considering child maltreatment, impulsivity and suicide attempt history in integrative models. PMID:29312082

Mid-latency evoked potentials in self-reported impulsive aggression.

PubMed

Houston, R J; Stanford, M S

2001-02-01

The present study was conducted to examine psychophysiological differences in arousability among individuals who display impulsive aggressive outbursts. Amplitude and latency for the mid-latency evoked potentials (P1, N1 and P2) were obtained at scalp electrode sites. The evoking stimuli were three intensities (low, medium, high) of photic stimulation. Compared to non-aggressive controls, impulsive aggressive subjects showed significantly reduced P1 amplitude, which is indicative of an inefficient sensory gating mechanism. In addition, these subjects exhibited significantly larger N1 amplitude implying an enhanced orienting of attention to stimuli. Impulsive aggressive subjects also exhibited shorter P1, N1 and P2 peak latency. These results suggest that impulsive aggressive individuals may display quicker orienting and processing of stimuli in an attempt to compensate for low resting arousal levels. Finally, impulsive aggressive subjects augmented the P1-N1 component more frequently than controls, which is consistent with previous studies examining impulsivity and sensation seeking. Together, these findings extend previous work concerning the underlying physiology of impulsive aggression. It has been suggested that impulsive aggressive individuals may attempt to compensate for low resting arousal levels by engaging in stimulus seeking behaviors. Accordingly, the present findings imply similar physiological compensatory responses as demonstrated by heightened orienting of attention, processing and arousability. In addition, a compromised sensory gating system in impulsive aggressors may exacerbate such circumstances, and lead to later cognitive processing deficits.

Probing Compulsive and Impulsive Behaviors, from Animal Models to Endophenotypes: A Narrative Review

PubMed Central

Fineberg, Naomi A; Potenza, Marc N; Chamberlain, Samuel R; Berlin, Heather A; Menzies, Lara; Bechara, Antoine; Sahakian, Barbara J; Robbins, Trevor W; Bullmore, Edward T; Hollander, Eric

2010-01-01

Failures in cortical control of fronto-striatal neural circuits may underpin impulsive and compulsive acts. In this narrative review, we explore these behaviors from the perspective of neural processes and consider how these behaviors and neural processes contribute to mental disorders such as obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, and impulse-control disorders such as trichotillomania and pathological gambling. We present findings from a broad range of data, comprising translational and human endophenotypes research and clinical treatment trials, focussing on the parallel, functionally segregated, cortico-striatal neural projections, from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to medial striatum (caudate nucleus), proposed to drive compulsive activity, and from the anterior cingulate/ventromedial prefrontal cortex to the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens shell), proposed to drive impulsive activity, and the interaction between them. We suggest that impulsivity and compulsivity each seem to be multidimensional. Impulsive or compulsive behaviors are mediated by overlapping as well as distinct neural substrates. Trichotillomania may stand apart as a disorder of motor-impulse control, whereas pathological gambling involves abnormal ventral reward circuitry that identifies it more closely with substance addiction. OCD shows motor impulsivity and compulsivity, probably mediated through disruption of OFC-caudate circuitry, as well as other frontal, cingulate, and parietal connections. Serotonin and dopamine interact across these circuits to modulate aspects of both impulsive and compulsive responding and as yet unidentified brain-based systems may also have important functions. Targeted application of neurocognitive tasks, receptor-specific neurochemical probes, and brain systems neuroimaging techniques have potential for future research in this field. PMID:19940844

Effects of smoking abstinence on impulsive behavior among smokers high and low in ADHD-like symptoms

PubMed Central

Hawk, Larry W.

2011-01-01

Rationale Impulsivity, a multifaceted construct that includes inhibitory control and heightened preference for immediate reward, is central to models of drug use and abuse. Within a self-medication framework, abstinence from smoking may lead to an increase in impulsive behavior and the likelihood of relapse, particularly among persons with disorders (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD) and personality traits (e.g., impulsivity) linked to impulsive behavior. Objectives This study aimed to examine the effects of smoking abstinence on multiple measures of impulsivity among a non-clinical sample of adult smokers selected for high and low levels of ADHD symptoms. Methods In a within-subjects design, participants selected for high or low levels of self-reported ADHD symptoms (N=56) completed sessions following overnight abstinence and when smoking as usual (order counterbalanced). Measures of impulsive behavior included response inhibition (i.e., stop signal task), interference control (i.e., attentional modification of prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle), and impulsive choice (i.e., hypothetical delay discounting). Results As hypothesized, abstinence decreased response inhibition and PPI. Although ADHD symptoms moderated abstinence effects on impulsive choice and response inhibition, the pattern was opposite to our predictions: the low-ADHD group responded more impulsively when abstinent, whereas the high-ADHD group was relatively unaffected by abstinence. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of utilizing multiple laboratory measures to examine a multifactorial construct such as impulsive behavior and raise questions about how best to assess symptoms of ADHD and impulsivity among non-abstinent smokers. PMID:21559802

A pilot genetic study of the continuum between compulsivity and impulsivity in females: the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism.

PubMed

Baca-García, Enrique; Salgado, Beatríz Rodríguez; Segal, Helen Dolengevich; Lorenzo, Concepción Vaquero; Acosta, Mercedes Navio; Romero, Manuel Arrojo; Hernández, Montserrat Díaz; Saiz-Ruiz, Jeronimo; Fernandez Piqueras, Jose; de Leon, Jose

2005-06-01

According to some authors the obsessive-compulsive (OC) spectrum includes on one extreme, the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and on the other extreme the most impulsive behaviors. This is a controversial idea and other authors define the OC spectrum in different ways. The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene is one of the main genes that control serotonergic function. A polymorphism in the promoter area of this gene classifies subjects with low expression as S individuals (s/s or s/l) and subjects with high expression as L individuals (l/l). This polymorphism was studied in female OCD patients (n = 24), non-impulsive controls (n = 112) and impulsive suicidal patients (n = 118) to support the OC spectrum hypothesis from a genetic perspective. A linear association exists among the serotonin transporter promoter functional genotypes (S versus L individuals) (chi2 linear by linear association = 8.9; df = 1; p = 0.003). The frequency of S individuals (s/l or s/s) was lowest in OCD (54%, 13/24); intermediate in non-impulsive controls (71%, 80/112) and highest in impulsive suicide attempters (82%, 96/117). More importantly, future studies need to consider that genetics may be related to behavioral dimensions (compulsivity to impulsivity) instead of to specific psychiatric disorders defined in clinical terms.

Mittag-Leffler synchronization of fractional neural networks with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms using impulsive and linear controllers.

PubMed

Stamova, Ivanka; Stamov, Gani

2017-12-01

In this paper, we propose a fractional-order neural network system with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms. We first develop a new Mittag-Leffler synchronization strategy for the controlled nodes via impulsive controllers. Using the fractional Lyapunov method sufficient conditions are given. We also study the global Mittag-Leffler synchronization of two identical fractional impulsive reaction-diffusion neural networks using linear controllers, which was an open problem even for integer-order models. Since the Mittag-Leffler stability notion is a generalization of the exponential stability concept for fractional-order systems, our results extend and improve the exponential impulsive control theory of neural network system with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms to the fractional-order case. The fractional-order derivatives allow us to model the long-term memory in the neural networks, and thus the present research provides with a conceptually straightforward mathematical representation of rather complex processes. Illustrative examples are presented to show the validity of the obtained results. We show that by means of appropriate impulsive controllers we can realize the stability goal and to control the qualitative behavior of the states. An image encryption scheme is extended using fractional derivatives. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in impulsivity: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Cross, Catharine P; Copping, Lee T; Campbell, Anne

2011-01-01

Men are overrepresented in socially problematic behaviors, such as aggression and criminal behavior, which have been linked to impulsivity. Our review of impulsivity is organized around the tripartite theoretical distinction between reward hypersensitivity, punishment hyposensitivity, and inadequate effortful control. Drawing on evolutionary, criminological, developmental, and personality theories, we predicted that sex differences would be most pronounced in risky activities with men demonstrating greater sensation seeking, greater reward sensitivity, and lower punishment sensitivity. We predicted a small female advantage in effortful control. We analyzed 741 effect sizes from 277 studies, including psychometric and behavioral measures. Women were consistently more punishment sensitive (d = -0.33), but men did not show greater reward sensitivity (d = 0.01). Men showed significantly higher sensation seeking on questionnaire measures (d = 0.41) and on a behavioral risk-taking task (d = 0.36). Questionnaire measures of deficits in effortful control showed a very modest effect size in the male direction (d = 0.08). Sex differences were not found on delay discounting or executive function tasks. The results indicate a stronger sex difference in motivational rather than effortful or executive forms of behavior control. Specifically, they support evolutionary and biological theories of risk taking predicated on sex differences in punishment sensitivity. A clearer understanding of sex differences in impulsivity depends upon recognizing important distinctions between sensation seeking and impulsivity, between executive and effortful forms of control, and between impulsivity as a deficit and as a trait.

Tetrahedron Formation Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petruzzo, Charles; Guzman, Jose

2004-01-01

This paper considers the preliminary development of a general optimization procedure for tetrahedron formation control. The maneuvers are assumed to be impulsive and a multi-stage optimization method is employed. The stages include (1) targeting to a fixed tetrahedron location and orientation, and (2) rotating and translating the tetrahedron. The number of impulsive maneuvers can also be varied. As the impulse locations and times change, new arcs are computed using a differential corrections scheme that varies the impulse magnitudes and directions. The result is a continuous trajectory with velocity discontinuities. The velocity discontinuities are then used to formulate the cost function. Direct optimization techniques are employed. The procedure is applied to the NASA Goddard Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) mission to compute preliminary formation control fuel requirements.

Neuropsychological performance, impulsivity, ADHD symptoms, and novelty seeking in compulsive buying disorder.

PubMed

Black, Donald Wayne; Shaw, Martha; McCormick, Brett; Bayless, John David; Allen, Jeff

2012-12-30

We examined the neuropsychological performance of people with compulsive buying disorder (CBD) and control subjects, along with trait impulsivity, symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and selected personality characteristics. Subjects received a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery, depression and ADHD symptom assessment, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and a version of the Temperament and Character Inventory. Persons with CBD (n=26) and controls (n=32) were comparable in terms of age, sex, and years of education. Subjects with CBD had a mean age of 36.3 years (S.D.=15.7) and an age at onset of 19.7 years (S.D.=7.0). Compulsive buyers had more lifetime mood, anxiety, and impulse control disorders. People with Compulsive buying performed significantly better on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence Picture Completion task, a test of visual perception; otherwise, there were no consistent differences in neuropsychological measures. They also had elevated levels of self-reported depression, ADHD symptoms, trait impulsivity, and novelty seeking. In conclusion, compulsive buyers have greater lifetime psychiatric comorbidity than controls, and higher levels of self-rated depression, ADHD symptoms, trait impulsivity, and novelty seeking. The present study does not support the notion that there is a pattern of neuropsychological deficits associated with CBD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unable or Unwilling to Exercise Self-control? The Impact of Neuroscience on Perceptions of Impulsive Offenders

PubMed Central

Blakey, Robert; Kremsmayer, Tobias P.

2018-01-01

In growing numbers of court cases, neuroscience is presented to document the mental state of the offender at the level of the brain. While a small body of research has documented the effects of describing the brain state of psychotic offenders, this study tested the impact of neuroscience that could apply to far more offenders; that is the neuroscience of impulse control. In this online vignette experiment, 759 participants sentenced a normally controlled or normally impulsive actor, who committed a violent offense on impulse, explained in either cognitive or neurobiological terms. Although participants considered the neurobiological actor less responsible for his impulsive disposition than the cognitive actor, the neuroscientific testimony did not affect attributions of choice, blame, dangerousness, or punishment for the criminal act. In fact, the neuroscientific testimony exacerbated the perception that the offender offended consciously and “really wanted” to offend. The described disposition of the actor was also influential: participants attributed more capacity for reform, more free choice and consequently, more blame to the normally controlled actor. Participants also attributed this actor's offending more to his social life experiences and less to his genes and brain. However, this shift in attributions was unable to explain the greater blame directed at this offender. Together, such findings suggest that even when neuroscience changes attributions for impulsive character, attributions for impulsive offending may remain unchanged. Hence this study casts doubt on the mitigating and aggravating potential of neuroscientific testimony in court. PMID:29354076

Effects of cumulative stress and impulsivity on smoking status.

PubMed

Ansell, Emily B; Gu, Peihua; Tuit, Keri; Sinha, Rajita

2012-03-01

The stress-vulnerability model of addiction predicts that environmental factors, such as cumulative stress, will result in individual adaptations that decrease self-control, increase impulsivity, and increase risk for addiction. Impulsivity and cumulative stress are risk factors for tobacco smoking that are rarely examined simultaneously in research. We examined the indirect and direct effects of cumulative adversity in a community sample consisting of 291 men and women who participated in an assessment of cumulative stress, self-reported impulsivity, and smoking history. Data were analyzed using bootstrapping techniques to estimate indirect effects of stress on smoking via impulsivity. Cumulative adversity is associated with smoking status via direct effects and indirect effects through impulsivity scores. Additional models examining specific types of stress indicate contributions of traumatic stress and recent life events as well as chronic relationship stressors. Overall, cumulative stress is associated with increased risk of smoking via increased impulsivity and via pathways independent of impulsivity. These findings support the stress-vulnerability model and highlight the utility of mediation models in assessing how, and for whom, cumulative stress increases risk of current cigarette smoking. Increasing self-control is a target for interventions with individuals who have experienced cumulative adversity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effects of cumulative stress and impulsivity on smoking status

PubMed Central

Ansell, Emily B.; Gu, Peihua; Tuit, Keri; Sinha, Rajita

2013-01-01

Objective The stress-vulnerability model of addiction predicts that environmental factors, such as cumulative stress, will result in individual adaptations that decrease self-control, increase impulsivity, and increase risk for addiction. Impulsivity and cumulative stress are risk factors for tobacco smoking that are rarely examined simultaneously in research. Methods We examined the indirect and direct effects of cumulative adversity in a community sample consisting of 291 men and women who participated in an assessment of cumulative stress, self-reported impulsivity, and smoking history. Data were analyzed using bootstrapping techniques to estimate indirect effects of stress on smoking via impulsivity. Results Cumulative adversity is associated with smoking status via direct effects and indirect effects through impulsivity scores. Additional models examining specific types of stress indicate contributions of traumatic stress and recent life events as well as chronic relationship stressors. Conclusions Overall, cumulative stress is associated with increased risk of smoking via increased impulsivity and via pathways independent of impulsivity. These findings support the stress-vulnerability model and highlight the utility of mediation models in assessing how, and for whom, cumulative stress increases risk of current cigarette smoking. Increasing self-control is a target for interventions with individuals who have experienced cumulative adversity. PMID:22389084

Lower limb ice application alters ground reaction force during gait initiation.

PubMed

Muniz, Thiago B; Moraes, Renato; Guirro, Rinaldo R J

2015-01-01

Cryotherapy is a widely used technique in physical therapy clinics and sports. However, the effects of cryotherapy on dynamic neuromuscular control are incompletely explained. To evaluate the effects of cryotherapy applied to the calf, ankle and sole of the foot in healthy young adults on ground reaction forces during gait initiation. This study evaluated the gait initiation forces, maximum propulsion, braking forces and impulses of 21 women volunteers through a force platform, which provided maximum and minimum ground reaction force values. To assess the effects of cooling, the task--gait initiation--was performed before ice application, immediately after and 30 minutes after removal of the ice pack. Ice was randomly applied on separate days to the calf, ankle and sole of the foot of the participants. It was demonstrated that ice application for 30 minutes to the sole of the foot and calf resulted in significant changes in the vertical force variables, which returned to their pre-application values 30 minutes after the removal of the ice pack. Ice application to the ankle only reduced propulsion impulse. These results suggest that although caution is necessary when performing activities that require good gait control, the application of ice to the ankle, sole of the foot or calf in 30-minute intervals may be safe even preceding such activities.

Post-error action control is neurobehaviorally modulated under conditions of constant speeded response.

PubMed

Soshi, Takahiro; Ando, Kumiko; Noda, Takamasa; Nakazawa, Kanako; Tsumura, Hideki; Okada, Takayuki

2014-01-01

Post-error slowing (PES) is an error recovery strategy that contributes to action control, and occurs after errors in order to prevent future behavioral flaws. Error recovery often malfunctions in clinical populations, but the relationship between behavioral traits and recovery from error is unclear in healthy populations. The present study investigated the relationship between impulsivity and error recovery by simulating a speeded response situation using a Go/No-go paradigm that forced the participants to constantly make accelerated responses prior to stimuli disappearance (stimulus duration: 250 ms). Neural correlates of post-error processing were examined using event-related potentials (ERPs). Impulsivity traits were measured with self-report questionnaires (BIS-11, BIS/BAS). Behavioral results demonstrated that the commission error for No-go trials was 15%, but PES did not take place immediately. Delayed PES was negatively correlated with error rates and impulsivity traits, showing that response slowing was associated with reduced error rates and changed with impulsivity. Response-locked error ERPs were clearly observed for the error trials. Contrary to previous studies, error ERPs were not significantly related to PES. Stimulus-locked N2 was negatively correlated with PES and positively correlated with impulsivity traits at the second post-error Go trial: larger N2 activity was associated with greater PES and less impulsivity. In summary, under constant speeded conditions, error monitoring was dissociated from post-error action control, and PES did not occur quickly. Furthermore, PES and its neural correlate (N2) were modulated by impulsivity traits. These findings suggest that there may be clinical and practical efficacy of maintaining cognitive control of actions during error recovery under common daily environments that frequently evoke impulsive behaviors.

Post-error action control is neurobehaviorally modulated under conditions of constant speeded response

PubMed Central

Soshi, Takahiro; Ando, Kumiko; Noda, Takamasa; Nakazawa, Kanako; Tsumura, Hideki; Okada, Takayuki

2015-01-01

Post-error slowing (PES) is an error recovery strategy that contributes to action control, and occurs after errors in order to prevent future behavioral flaws. Error recovery often malfunctions in clinical populations, but the relationship between behavioral traits and recovery from error is unclear in healthy populations. The present study investigated the relationship between impulsivity and error recovery by simulating a speeded response situation using a Go/No-go paradigm that forced the participants to constantly make accelerated responses prior to stimuli disappearance (stimulus duration: 250 ms). Neural correlates of post-error processing were examined using event-related potentials (ERPs). Impulsivity traits were measured with self-report questionnaires (BIS-11, BIS/BAS). Behavioral results demonstrated that the commission error for No-go trials was 15%, but PES did not take place immediately. Delayed PES was negatively correlated with error rates and impulsivity traits, showing that response slowing was associated with reduced error rates and changed with impulsivity. Response-locked error ERPs were clearly observed for the error trials. Contrary to previous studies, error ERPs were not significantly related to PES. Stimulus-locked N2 was negatively correlated with PES and positively correlated with impulsivity traits at the second post-error Go trial: larger N2 activity was associated with greater PES and less impulsivity. In summary, under constant speeded conditions, error monitoring was dissociated from post-error action control, and PES did not occur quickly. Furthermore, PES and its neural correlate (N2) were modulated by impulsivity traits. These findings suggest that there may be clinical and practical efficacy of maintaining cognitive control of actions during error recovery under common daily environments that frequently evoke impulsive behaviors. PMID:25674058

Relations of Effortful Control, Reactive Undercontrol, and Anger to Chinese Children’s Adjustment

PubMed Central

Eisenberg, Nancy; Ma, Yue; Chang, Lei; Zhou, Qing; West, Stephen G.; Aiken, Leona

2006-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the zero-order and unique relations of effortful attentional and behavioral regulation, reactive impulsivity, and anger/frustration to Chinese first and second graders’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as the prediction of adjustment from the interaction of anger/frustration and effortful control or impulsivity. A parent and teacher reported on children’s anger/frustration, effortful control, and impulsivity; parents reported on children’s internalizing symptoms; and teachers and peers reported on children’s externalizing symptoms. Children were classified as relatively high on externalizing (or comorbid), internalizing, or nondisordered. High impulsivity and teacher-reported anger/frustration, and low effortful control, were associated with externalizing problems whereas low effortful control and high parent-reported anger were predictive of internalizing problems. Unique prediction from effortful and reactive control was obtained and these predictors (especially when reported by teachers) often interacted with anger/frustration when predicting problem behavior classification. PMID:17459176

Abnormal Striatal BOLD Responses to Reward Anticipation and Reward Delivery in ADHD

PubMed Central

Furukawa, Emi; Bado, Patricia; Tripp, Gail; Mattos, Paulo; Wickens, Jeff R.; Bramati, Ivanei E.; Alsop, Brent; Ferreira, Fernanda Meireles; Lima, Debora; Tovar-Moll, Fernanda; Sergeant, Joseph A.; Moll, Jorge

2014-01-01

Altered reward processing has been proposed to contribute to the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The neurobiological mechanism underlying this alteration remains unclear. We hypothesize that the transfer of dopamine release from reward to reward-predicting cues, as normally observed in animal studies, may be deficient in ADHD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate striatal responses to reward-predicting cues and reward delivery in a classical conditioning paradigm. Data from 14 high-functioning and stimulant-naïve young adults with elevated lifetime symptoms of ADHD (8 males, 6 females) and 15 well-matched controls (8 males, 7 females) were included in the analyses. During reward anticipation, increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the right ventral and left dorsal striatum were observed in controls, but not in the ADHD group. The opposite pattern was observed in response to reward delivery; the ADHD group demonstrated significantly greater BOLD responses in the ventral striatum bilaterally and the left dorsal striatum relative to controls. In the ADHD group, the number of current hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms was inversely related to ventral striatal responses during reward anticipation and positively associated with responses to reward. The BOLD response patterns observed in the striatum are consistent with impaired predictive dopamine signaling in ADHD, which may explain altered reward-contingent behaviors and symptoms of ADHD. PMID:24586543

Relations of parenting style to Chinese children's effortful control, ego resilience, and maladjustment.

PubMed

Eisenberg, Nancy; Chang, Lei; Ma, Yue; Huang, Xiaorui

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of authoritative parenting and corporal punishment to Chinese first and second graders' effortful control (EC), impulsivity, ego resilience, and maladjustment, as well as mediating relations. A parent and teacher reported on children's EC, impulsivity, and ego resilience; parents reported on children's internalizing symptoms and their own parenting, and teachers and peers reported on children's externalizing symptoms. Authoritative parenting and low corporal punishment predicted high EC, and EC mediated the relation between parenting and externalizing problems. In addition, impulsivity mediated the relation of corporal punishment to externalizing problems. The relation of parenting to children's ego resilience was mediated by EC and/or impulsivity, and ego resilience mediated the relations of EC and impulsivity to internalizing problems.

Motor impulsivity differentiates between psychiatric inpatients with multiple versus single lifetime suicide attempts.

PubMed

Colborn, Victoria A; LaCroix, Jessica M; Neely, Laura L; Tucker, Jennifer; Perera, Kanchana; Daruwala, Samantha E; Grammer, Geoffrey; Weaver, Jennifer; Ghahramanlou-Holloway, Marjan

2017-07-01

A history of multiple suicide attempts conveys greater risk for suicide than a single attempt. Impulsivity may partially explain the association between multiple attempts and increased risk. We examined trait impulsivity, ability to engage in goal-directed behaviors, and impulse control among psychiatrically hospitalized United States military personnel and their dependents. Individuals with a history of multiple versus single attempts had significantly higher motor impulsivity, indicating spur of the moment action. Providers are encouraged to directly assess and treat motor impulsivity among suicidal individuals. Further research should explore whether motor impulsivity is a mechanism of change in psychosocial suicide prevention interventions. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Suicidality in Bipolar Disorder: The Role of Emotion-Triggered Impulsivity.

PubMed

Johnson, Sheri L; Carver, Charles S; Tharp, Jordan A

2017-04-01

A growing body of research suggests that impulsive responses to emotion more robustly predict suicidality than do other forms of impulsivity. This issue has not yet been examined within bipolar disorder, however. Participants diagnosed with bipolar I disorder (n = 133) and control participants (n = 110) diagnosed with no mood or psychotic disorder completed self-report measures of emotion-triggered impulsivity (Negative and Positive Urgency Scales) and interviews concerning lifetime suicidality. Analyses examined the effects of emotion-triggered impulsivity alone and in combination with gender, age of onset, depression severity, comorbid anxiety, comorbid substance use, and medication. A history of suicide ideation and attempts, as well as self-harm, were significantly more common in the bipolar disorder group compared with the control group. Impulsive responses to positive emotions related to suicide ideation, attempts, and self-harm within the bipolar group. Findings extend research on the importance of emotion-triggered impulsivity to a broad range of key outcomes within bipolar disorder. The discussion focuses on limitations and potential clinical implications. © 2016 The American Association of Suicidology.

Effects of acute buspirone administration on inhibitory control and sexual discounting in cocaine users.

PubMed

Strickland, Justin C; Bolin, B Levi; Romanelli, Michael R; Rush, Craig R; Stoops, William W

2017-01-01

Cocaine users display deficits in inhibitory control and make impulsive choices that may increase risky behavior. Buspirone is an anxiolytic that activates dopaminergic and serotonergic systems and improves impulsive choice (i.e., reduces sexual risk-taking intent) in cocaine users when administered chronically. We evaluated the effects of acutely administered buspirone on inhibitory control and impulsive choice. Eleven subjects with a recent history of cocaine use completed this within-subject, placebo-controlled study. Subjects performed two cued go/no-go and a sexual risk delay-discounting task following oral administration of buspirone (10 and 30 mg), triazolam (0.375 mg; positive control), and placebo (negative control). Physiological and psychomotor performance and subject-rated data were also collected. Buspirone failed to change inhibitory control or impulsive choice; however, slower reaction times were observed at the highest dose tested. Buspirone did not produce subject-rated drug effects but dose-dependently decreased diastolic blood pressure. Triazolam impaired psychomotor performance and increased ratings of positive subject-rated effects (e.g., Like Drug). These findings indicate that acutely administered buspirone has little impact on behavioral measures of inhibitory control and impulsive sexual decision-making. Considering previous findings with chronic dosing, these findings highlight that the behavioral effects of buspirone differ as a function of dosing conditions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sex-dependent impacts of low-level lead exposure and prenatal stress on impulsive choice behavior and associated biochemical and neurochemical manifestations.

PubMed

Weston, Hiromi I; Weston, Douglas D; Allen, Joshua L; Cory-Slechta, Deborah A

2014-09-01

A prior study demonstrated increased overall response rates on a fixed interval (FI) schedule of reward in female offspring that had been subjected to maternal lead (Pb) exposure, prenatal stress (PS) and offspring stress challenge relative to control, prenatal stress alone, lead alone and lead+prenatal stress alone (Virgolini et al., 2008). Response rates on FI schedules have been shown to directly relate to measures of self-control (impulsivity) in children and in infants (Darcheville et al., 1992, 1993). The current study sought to determine whether enhanced effects of Pb±PS would therefore be seen in a more direct measure of impulsive choice behavior, i.e., a delay discounting paradigm. Offspring of dams exposed to 0 or 50ppm Pb acetate from 2 to 3 months prior to breeding through lactation, with or without immobilization restraint stress (PS) on gestational days 16 and 17, were trained on a delay discounting paradigm that offered a choice between a large reward (three 45mg food pellets) after a long delay or a small reward (one 45mg food pellet) after a short delay, with the long delay value increased from 0s to 30s across sessions. Alterations in extinction of this performance, and its subsequent re-acquisition after reinforcement delivery was reinstated were also examined. Brains of littermates of behaviorally-trained offspring were utilized to examine corresponding changes in monoamines and in levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), the serotonin transporter (SERT) and the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) 2A in brain regions associated with impulsive choice behavior. Results showed that Pb±PS-induced changes in delay discounting occurred almost exclusively in males. In addition to increasing percent long delay responding at the indifference point (i.e., reduced impulsive choice behavior), Pb±PS slowed acquisition of delayed discounting performance, and increased numbers of both failures to and latencies to initiate trials. Overall, the profile of these alterations were more consistent with impaired learning/behavioral flexibility and/or with enhanced sensitivity to the downshift in reward opportunities imposed by the transition from delay discounting training conditions to delay discounting choice response contingencies. Consistent with these behavioral changes, Pb±PS treated males also showed reductions in brain serotonin function in all mesocorticolimbic regions, broad monoamine changes in nucleus accumbens, and reductions in both BDNF and NMDAR 2A levels and increases in SERT in frontal cortex, i.e., in regions and neurotransmitter systems known to mediate learning/behavioral flexibility, and which were of greater impact in males. The current findings do not fully support a generality of the enhancement of Pb effects by PS, as previously seen with FI performance in females (Virgolini et al., 2008), and suggest a dissociation of the behaviors controlled by FI and delay discounting paradigms, at least in response to Pb±PS in rats. Collectively, however, the findings remain consistent with sex-dependent differences in the impacts of both Pb and PS and with the need to understand both the role of contingencies of reinforcement and underlying neurobiological effects in these sex differences. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain Regions Related to Impulsivity Mediate the Effects of Early Adversity on Antisocial Behavior.

PubMed

Mackey, Scott; Chaarani, Bader; Kan, Kees-Jan; Spechler, Philip A; Orr, Catherine; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barker, Gareth; Bokde, Arun L W; Bromberg, Uli; Büchel, Christian; Cattrell, Anna; Conrod, Patricia J; Desrivières, Sylvane; Flor, Herta; Frouin, Vincent; Gallinat, Jürgen; Gowland, Penny; Heinz, Andreas; Ittermann, Bernd; Paillère Martinot, Marie-Laure; Artiges, Eric; Nees, Frauke; Papadopoulos-Orfanos, Dimitri; Poustka, Luise; Smolka, Michael N; Jurk, Sarah; Walter, Henrik; Whelan, Robert; Schumann, Gunter; Althoff, Robert R; Garavan, Hugh

2017-08-15

Individual differences in impulsivity and early adversity are known to be strong predictors of adolescent antisocial behavior. However, the neurobiological bases of impulsivity and their relation to antisocial behavior and adversity are poorly understood. Impulsivity was estimated with a temporal discounting task. Voxel-based morphometry was used to determine the brain structural correlates of temporal discounting in a large cohort (n = 1830) of 14- to 15-year-old children. Mediation analysis was then used to determine whether the volumes of brain regions associated with temporal discounting mediate the relation between adverse life events (e.g., family conflict, serious accidents) and antisocial behaviors (e.g., precocious sexual activity, bullying, illicit substance use). Greater temporal discounting (more impulsivity) was associated with 1) lower volume in frontomedial cortex and bilateral insula and 2) greater volume in a subcortical region encompassing the ventral striatum, hypothalamus and anterior thalamus. The volume ratio between these cortical and subcortical regions was found to partially mediate the relation between adverse life events and antisocial behavior. Temporal discounting is related to regions of the brain involved in reward processing and interoception. The results support a developmental imbalance model of impulsivity and are consistent with the idea that negative environmental factors can alter the developing brain in ways that promote antisocial behavior. Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Association between problematic Internet use and impulse control disorders among Iranian university students.

PubMed

Mazhari, Shahrzad

2012-05-01

Previous studies have examined the relationship between problematic Internet use (PIU) with pathological gambling and impulsivity. However, few studies have investigated the association between PIU and other impulse control disorders. This study aimed to assess whether PIU is related to compulsive buying, kleptomania, trichotillomania, intermittent explosive disorder, and pyromania, among a sample of Iranian university students. A cross-sectional study design was used among a random sample of (n=950) university students. Self-reported questionnaires, including demographic, Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) and Minnesota Impulse Disorders Interview were utilized. The prevalence of PIU was 21.2 percent. Students with diagnosis of either compulsive buying, or intermittent explosive disorder, or pyromania had significantly higher scores on PIUQ compared to the students without the diagnosis. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that in the male gender, the diagnosis of either compulsive buying or intermittent explosive disorder were significant predictors of the risk of the PIU. The results support the proposal that PIU should be considered as a spectrum of impulse control disorder.

Effect of a Mindfulness Training Program on the Impulsivity and Aggression Levels of Adolescents with Behavioral Problems in the Classroom.

PubMed

Franco, Clemente; Amutio, Alberto; López-González, Luís; Oriol, Xavier; Martínez-Taboada, Cristina

2016-01-01

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of a mindfulness training psycho-educative program on impulsivity and aggression levels in a sample of high school students. Methods: A randomized controlled trial with pre-test-post-test measurements was applied to an experimental group and a control group (waiting list). The Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) Patton et al. (1995) and the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss and Perry, 1992) were used. Results: Statistical analyses showed a significant decrease in the levels of impulsivity and aggressiveness in the experimental group compared with the control group. These results have important implications for improving the level of academic engagement and self-efficacy of students and for reducing school failure. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies showing the effectiveness of mindfulness training at reducing impulsive and aggressive behaviors in the classroom. The efficacy of mindfulness-based programs is emphasized.

Arbitration between controlled and impulsive choices

PubMed Central

Economides, M.; Guitart-Masip, M.; Kurth-Nelson, Z.; Dolan, R.J.

2015-01-01

The impulse to act for immediate reward often conflicts with more deliberate evaluations that support long-term benefit. The neural architecture that negotiates this conflict remains unclear. One account proposes a single neural circuit that evaluates both immediate and delayed outcomes, while another outlines separate impulsive and patient systems that compete for behavioral control. Here we designed a task in which a complex payout structure divorces the immediate value of acting from the overall long-term value, within the same outcome modality. Using model-based fMRI in humans, we demonstrate separate neural representations of immediate and long-term values, with the former tracked in the anterior caudate (AC) and the latter in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Crucially, when subjects' choices were compatible with long-run consequences, value signals in AC were down-weighted and those in vmPFC were enhanced, while the opposite occurred when choice was impulsive. Thus, our data implicate a trade-off in value representation between AC and vmPFC as underlying controlled versus impulsive choice. PMID:25573670

Effect of a Mindfulness Training Program on the Impulsivity and Aggression Levels of Adolescents with Behavioral Problems in the Classroom

PubMed Central

Franco, Clemente; Amutio, Alberto; López-González, Luís; Oriol, Xavier; Martínez-Taboada, Cristina

2016-01-01

Objective: The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of a mindfulness training psycho-educative program on impulsivity and aggression levels in a sample of high school students. Methods: A randomized controlled trial with pre-test–post-test measurements was applied to an experimental group and a control group (waiting list). The Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) Patton et al. (1995) and the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss and Perry, 1992) were used. Results: Statistical analyses showed a significant decrease in the levels of impulsivity and aggressiveness in the experimental group compared with the control group. These results have important implications for improving the level of academic engagement and self-efficacy of students and for reducing school failure. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies showing the effectiveness of mindfulness training at reducing impulsive and aggressive behaviors in the classroom. The efficacy of mindfulness-based programs is emphasized. PMID:27713709

Sex Differences in Impulsivity: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Catharine P.; Copping, Lee T.; Campbell, Anne

2011-01-01

Men are overrepresented in socially problematic behaviors, such as aggression and criminal behavior, which have been linked to impulsivity. Our review of impulsivity is organized around the tripartite theoretical distinction between reward hypersensitivity, punishment hyposensitivity, and inadequate effortful control. Drawing on evolutionary,…

College drinking behaviors: mediational links between parenting styles, impulse control, and alcohol-related outcomes.

PubMed

Patock-Peckham, Julie A; Morgan-Lopez, Antonio A

2006-06-01

Mediational links between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive), impulsiveness (general control), drinking control (specific control), and alcohol use and abuse were tested. A pattern-mixture approach (for modeling non-ignorable missing data) with multiple-group structural equation models with 421 (206 female, 215 male) college students was used. Gender was examined as a potential moderator of parenting styles on control processes related to drinking. Specifically, the parent-child gender match was found to have implications for increased levels of impulsiveness (a significant mediator of parenting effects on drinking control). These findings suggest that a parent with a permissive parenting style who is the same gender as the respondent can directly influence control processes and indirectly influence alcohol use and abuse.

Unique aspects of impulsive traits in substance use and overeating: specific contributions of common assessments of impulsivity.

PubMed

Beaton, Derek; Abdi, Hervé; Filbey, Francesca M

2014-11-01

Abstract Background: Impulsivity is a complex trait often studied in substance abuse and overeating disorders, but the exact nature of impulsivity traits and their contribution to these disorders are still debated. Thus, understanding how to measure impulsivity is essential for comprehending addictive behaviors. Identify unique impulsivity traits specific to substance use and overeating. Impulsive Sensation Seeking (ImpSS) and Barratt's Impulsivity scales (BIS) Scales were analyzed with a non-parametric factor analytic technique (discriminant correspondence analysis) to identify group-specific traits on 297 individuals from five groups: Marijuana (n = 88), Nicotine (n = 82), Overeaters (n = 27), Marijuauna + Nicotine (n = 63), and CONTROLs (n = 37). A significant overall factor structure revealed three components of impulsivity that explained respectively 50.19% (pperm < 0.0005), 24.18% (pperm < 0.0005), and 15.98% (pperm < 0.0005) of the variance. All groups were significantly different from one another. When analyzed together, the BIS and ImpSS produce a multi-factorial structure that identified the impulsivity traits specific to these groups. The group specific traits are (1) CONTROL: low impulse, avoids thrill-seeking behaviors; (2) Marijuana: seeks mild sensation, is focused and attentive; (3) Marijuana + Nicotine: pursues thrill-seeking, lacks focus and attention; (4) Nicotine: lacks focus and planning; (5) Overeating: lacks focus, but plans (short and long term). Our results reveal impulsivity traits specific to each group. This may provide better criteria to define spectrums and trajectories - instead of categories - of symptoms for substance use and eating disorders. Defining symptomatic spectrums could be an important step forward in diagnostic strategies.

Unique aspects of impulsive traits in substance use and overeating: specific contributions of common assessments of impulsivity

PubMed Central

Beaton, Derek; Abdi, Hervé; Filbey, Francesca M.

2015-01-01

Background Impulsivity is a complex trait often studied in substance abuse and overeating disorders, but the exact nature of impulsivity traits and their contribution to these disorders are still debated. Thus, understanding how to measure impulsivity is essential for comprehending addictive behaviors. Objectives Identify unique impulsivity traits specific to substance use and overeating. Methods Impulsive Sensation Seeking (ImpSS) and Barratt’s Impulsivity scales (BIS) Scales were analyzed with a non-parametric factor analytic technique (discriminant correspondence analysis) to identify group-specific traits on 297 individuals from five groups: Marijuana (n = 88), Nicotine (n = 82), Overeaters (n = 27), Marijuauna + Nicotine (n = 63), and Controls (n = 37). Results A significant overall factor structure revealed three components of impulsivity that explained respectively 50.19% (pperm<0.0005), 24.18% (pperm<0.0005), and 15.98% (pperm<0.0005) of the variance. All groups were significantly different from one another. When analyzed together, the BIS and ImpSS produce a multi-factorial structure that identified the impulsivity traits specific to these groups. The group specific traits are (1) Control: low impulse, avoids thrill-seeking behaviors; (2) Marijuana: seeks mild sensation, is focused and attentive; (3) Marijuana + Nicotine: pursues thrill-seeking, lacks focus and attention; (4) Nicotine: lacks focus and planning; (5) Overeating: lacks focus, but plans (short and long term). Conclusions Our results reveal impulsivity traits specific to each group. This may provide better criteria to define spectrums and trajectories – instead of categories – of symptoms for substance use and eating disorders. Defining symptomatic spectrums could be an important step forward in diagnostic strategies. PMID:25115831

Women with elevated food addiction symptoms show accelerated reactions, but no impaired inhibitory control, in response to pictures of high-calorie food-cues.

PubMed

Meule, Adrian; Lutz, Annika; Vögele, Claus; Kübler, Andrea

2012-12-01

Addictive behaviors are accompanied by a lack of inhibitory control, specifically when individuals are confronted with substance-related cues. Thus, we expected women with symptoms of food addiction to be impaired in inhibitory control, when confronted with palatable, high-calorie food-cues. Female college students (N=50) were divided in low and high food addiction groups based on the symptom count of the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Participants performed a Go/No-go-task with high-calorie food-cues or neutral pictures presented behind the targets. Self-reported impulsivity was also assessed. The high food addiction group had faster reaction times in response to food-cues as compared to neutral cues and reported higher attentional impulsivity than the low food addiction group. Commission and omission errors did not differ between groups or picture types. Hence, women with food addiction symptoms reported higher attentional impulsivity and reacted faster in response to food-cues, although neither increased self-reported motor impulsivity nor impaired behavioral inhibition was found. Food addiction symptoms seem to be related to attentional aspects of impulsivity but not other facets of impulsivity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Behavioral measures and self-report of impulsivity in bipolar disorder: no association between Stroop test and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale.

PubMed

Strasser, Elisa Sophie; Haffner, Paula; Fiebig, Jana; Quinlivan, Esther; Adli, Mazda; Stamm, Thomas Josef

2016-12-01

Impulsivity as a tendency to act quickly without considering future consequences has been proposed as a dimensional factor in bipolar disorder. It can be measured using behavioral tasks and self-report questionnaires. Previous findings revealed patients to show worse performance on at least one behavioral measure of impulsivity. Additionally, self-reported impulsivity seems to be higher among bipolar patients, both parameters being possibly associated with a more severe course of illness. In this study, our primary aim was to investigate the relationship between these two constructs of impulsivity among bipolar patients. A total of 40 euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (21 female, 22 Bipolar I) and 30 healthy controls were recruited for comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. To assess inhibition control as a behavioral measure of impulsivity, the Stroop Color and Word Test (Stroop) was used. Additionally, both groups completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) as a self-report of impulsivity. To compare the groups' performance on the Stroop and ratings on the BIS, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. Within the bipolar group, we additionally examined the possibility of an association between Stroop performance and BIS total scores using Pearson's Correlation r. Patients and controls differed significantly on the Stroop and BIS, with patients performing worse on the Stroop and scoring higher on the BIS. However, there was no association between the Stroop and BIS within the bipolar group. As an exploratory analysis, a positive correlation between Stroop performance and number of episodes was found. Further, we detected a statistical trend in the direction of poorer Stroop performance among patients treated with polypharmacy. Both difficulties with behavioral inhibition and self-reported impulsivity were observed to be higher in bipolar patients than controls in the current study. However, within the patient group we did not observe an association between patients' behavioral performance and self-report. This indicates that the parameters likely constitute distinct, dimensional factors of bipolar disorder. In future research, studies with larger samples should investigate which of the two markers constitutes the better marker for the illness and is more suitable to differentiate the most severe patients.

Active impulsive noise control using maximum correntropy with adaptive kernel size

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Lu; Zhao, Haiquan

2017-03-01

The active noise control (ANC) based on the principle of superposition is an attractive method to attenuate the noise signals. However, the impulsive noise in the ANC systems will degrade the performance of the controller. In this paper, a filtered-x recursive maximum correntropy (FxRMC) algorithm is proposed based on the maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) to reduce the effect of outliers. The proposed FxRMC algorithm does not requires any priori information of the noise characteristics and outperforms the filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS) algorithm for impulsive noise. Meanwhile, in order to adjust the kernel size of FxRMC algorithm online, a recursive approach is proposed through taking into account the past estimates of error signals over a sliding window. Simulation and experimental results in the context of active impulsive noise control demonstrate that the proposed algorithms achieve much better performance than the existing algorithms in various noise environments.

Cluster synchronization of community network with distributed time delays via impulsive control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leng, Hui; Wu, Zhao-Yan

2016-11-01

Cluster synchronization is an important dynamical behavior in community networks and deserves further investigations. A community network with distributed time delays is investigated in this paper. For achieving cluster synchronization, an impulsive control scheme is introduced to design proper controllers and an adaptive strategy is adopted to make the impulsive controllers unified for different networks. Through taking advantage of the linear matrix inequality technique and constructing Lyapunov functions, some synchronization criteria with respect to the impulsive gains, instants, and system parameters without adaptive strategy are obtained and generalized to the adaptive case. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61463022), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province, China (Grant No. 20161BAB201021), and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Educational Committee, China (Grant No. GJJ14273).

Structural alterations in the prefrontal cortex mediate the relationship between Internet gaming disorder and depressed mood.

PubMed

Choi, Jihye; Cho, Hyun; Kim, Jin-Young; Jung, Dong Jin; Ahn, Kook Jin; Kang, Hang-Bong; Choi, Jung-Seok; Chun, Ji-Won; Kim, Dai-Jin

2017-04-28

Adaptive gaming use has positive effects, whereas depression has been reported to be prevalent in Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, the neural correlates underlying the association between depression and Internet gaming remain unclear. Moreover, the neuroanatomical profile of the striatum in IGD is relatively less clear despite its important role in addiction. We found lower gray matter (GM) density in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the IGD group than in the Internet gaming control (IGC) group and non-gaming control (NGC) group, and the GM density was associated with lifetime usage of Internet gaming, depressed mood, craving, and impulsivity in the gaming users. Striatal volumetric analysis detected a significant reduction in the right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in the IGD group and its association with lifetime usage of gaming and depression. These findings suggest that alterations in the brain structures involved in the reward system are associated with IGD-related behavioral characteristics. Furthermore, the DLPFC, involved in cognitive control, was observed to serve as a mediator in the association between prolonged gaming and depressed mood. This finding may provide insight into an intervention strategy for treating IGD with comorbid depression.

Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

PubMed

Peña-Oliver, Yolanda; Giuliano, Chiara; Economidou, Daina; Goodlett, Charles R; Robbins, Trevor W; Dalley, Jeffrey W; Everitt, Barry J

2015-01-01

Drug addiction is often associated with impulsivity and altered behavioural responses to both primary and conditioned rewards. Here we investigated whether selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats show differential levels of impulsivity and conditioned behavioural responses to food incentives. P and NP rats were assessed for impulsivity in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), a widely used translational task in humans and other animals, as well as Pavlovian conditioned approach to measure sign- and goal-tracking behaviour. Drug-naïve P and NP rats showed similar levels of impulsivity on the 5-CSRTT, assessed by the number of premature, anticipatory responses, even when the waiting interval to respond was increased. However, unlike NP rats, P rats were faster to enter the food magazine and spent more time in this area. In addition, P rats showed higher levels of goal-tracking responses than NP rats, as measured by the number of magazine nose-pokes during the presentation of a food conditioned stimulus. By contrast, NP showed higher levels of sign-tracking behaviour than P rats. Following a 4-week exposure to intermittent alcohol we confirmed that P rats had a marked preference for, and consumed more alcohol than, NP rats, but were not more impulsive when re-tested in the 5-CSRTT. These findings indicate that high alcohol preferring and drinking P rats are neither intrinsically impulsive nor do they exhibit impulsivity after exposure to alcohol. However, P rats do show increased goal-directed behaviour to food incentives and this may be associated with their strong preference for alcohol.

Externalizing personality traits, empathy, and gray matter volume in healthy young drinkers

PubMed Central

Charpentier, Judith; Dzemidzic, Mario; West, John; Oberlin, Brandon G.; Eiler, William J.A.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Kareken, David A.

2016-01-01

Externalizing psychopathology has been linked to prefrontal abnormalities. While clinically diagnosed subjects show altered frontal gray matter, it is unknown if similar deficits relate to externalizing traits in non-clinical populations. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to retrospectively analyze the cerebral gray matter volume of 176 young adult social to heavy drinkers (mean age= 24.0 ± 2.9, male= 83.5%) from studies of alcoholism risk. We hypothesized that prefrontal gray matter volume and externalizing traits would be correlated. Externalizing personality trait components— Boredom Susceptibility-Impulsivity (BS/IMP) and Empathy/Low Antisocial Behaviors (EMP/LASB)— were tested for correlations with gray matter partial volume estimates (gmPVE). Significantly large clusters (pFWE < 0.05, family-wise whole-brain corrected) of gmPVE correlated with EMP/LASB in dorsolateral and medial prefrontal regions, and in occipital cortex. BS/IMP did not correlate with gmPVE, but one scale of impulsivity (Eysenck I7) correlated positively with bilateral inferior frontal/orbitofrontal, and anterior insula gmPVE. In this large sample of community-dwelling young adults, antisocial behavior/low empathy corresponded with reduced prefrontal and occipital gray matter, while impulsivity correlated with increased inferior frontal and anterior insula cortical volume. These findings add to a literature indicating that externalizing personality features involve altered frontal architecture. PMID:26778367

Early life adversity reduces stress reactivity and enhances impulsive behavior: Implications for health behaviors

PubMed Central

Lovallo, William R.

2012-01-01

Altered reactivity to stress, either in the direction of exaggerated reactivity or diminished reactivity, may signal a dysregulation of systems intended to maintain homeostasis and a state of good health. Evidence has accumulated that diminished reactivity to psychosocial stress may signal poor health outcomes. One source of diminished cortisol and autonomic reactivity is the experience of adverse rearing during childhood and adolescence. The Oklahoma Family Health Patterns Project has examined a cohort of 426 healthy young adults with and without a family history of alcoholism. Regardless of family history, persons who had experienced high degrees of adversity prior to age 16 had a constellation of changes including reduced cortisol and heart rate reactivity, diminished cognitive capacity, and unstable regulation of affect, leading to behavioral impulsivity and antisocial tendencies. We present a model whereby this constellation of physiological, cognitive, and affective tendencies is consistent with altered central dopaminergic activity leading to changes in brain function that may foster impulsive and risky behaviors. These in turn may promote greater use of alcohol other drugs along with adopting poor health behaviors. This model provides a pathway from early life adversity to low stress reactivity that forms a basis for risky behaviors and poor health outcomes. PMID:23085387

Trait impulsivity and impaired prefrontal impulse inhibition function in adolescents with internet gaming addiction revealed by a Go/No-Go fMRI study.

PubMed

Ding, Wei-na; Sun, Jin-hua; Sun, Ya-Wen; Chen, Xue; Zhou, Yan; Zhuang, Zhi-guo; Li, Lei; Zhang, Yong; Xu, Jian-rong; Du, Ya-song

2014-05-30

Recent studies suggest that Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is an impulse disorder, or is at least related to impulse control disorders. In the present study, we hypothesized that different facets of trait impulsivity may be specifically linked to the brain regions with impaired impulse inhibition function in IGA adolescents. Seventeen adolescents with IGA and seventeen healthy controls were scanned during performance of a response-inhibition Go/No-Go task using a 3.0 T MRI scanner. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS)-11 was used to assess impulsivity. There were no differences in the behavioral performance on the Go/No-Go task between the groups. However, the IGA group was significantly hyperactive during No-Go trials in the left superior medial frontal gyrus, right anterior cingulate cortex, right superior/middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, left precentral gyrus, and left precuneus and cuneus. Further, the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and right superior parietal lobule were significantly hypoactive during No-Go trials. Activation of the left superior medial frontal gyrus was positively associated with BIS-11 and Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) total score across IGA participants. Our data suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be involved in the circuit modulating impulsivity, while its impaired function may relate to high impulsivity in adolescents with IGA, which may contribute directly to the Internet addiction process.

Trait impulsivity and impaired prefrontal impulse inhibition function in adolescents with internet gaming addiction revealed by a Go/No-Go fMRI study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Recent studies suggest that Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is an impulse disorder, or is at least related to impulse control disorders. In the present study, we hypothesized that different facets of trait impulsivity may be specifically linked to the brain regions with impaired impulse inhibition function in IGA adolescents. Methods Seventeen adolescents with IGA and seventeen healthy controls were scanned during performance of a response-inhibition Go/No-Go task using a 3.0 T MRI scanner. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS)-11 was used to assess impulsivity. Results There were no differences in the behavioral performance on the Go/No-Go task between the groups. However, the IGA group was significantly hyperactive during No-Go trials in the left superior medial frontal gyrus, right anterior cingulate cortex, right superior/middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, left precentral gyrus, and left precuneus and cuneus. Further, the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and right superior parietal lobule were significantly hypoactive during No-Go trials. Activation of the left superior medial frontal gyrus was positively associated with BIS-11 and Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) total score across IGA participants. Conclusions Our data suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be involved in the circuit modulating impulsivity, while its impaired function may relate to high impulsivity in adolescents with IGA, which may contribute directly to the Internet addiction process. PMID:24885073

Impulsive Internet Game Play Is Associated With Increased Functional Connectivity Between the Default Mode and Salience Networks in Depressed Patients With Short Allele of Serotonin Transporter Gene.

PubMed

Hong, Ji Sun; Kim, Sun Mi; Bae, Sujin; Han, Doug Hyun

2018-01-01

Problematic Internet game play is often accompanied by major depressive disorder (MDD). Depression seems to be closely related to altered functional connectivity (FC) within (and between) the default mode network (DMN) and salience network. In addition, serotonergic neurotransmission may regulate the symptoms of depression, including impulsivity, potentially by modulating the DMN. We hypothesized that altered connectivity between the DMN and salience network could mediate an association between the 5HTTLPR genotype and impulsivity in patients with depression. A total of 54 participants with problematic Internet game play and MDD completed the research protocol. We genotyped for 5HTTLPR and assessed the DMN FC using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The severity of Internet game play, depressive symptoms, anxiety, attention and impulsivity, and behavioral inhibition and activation were assessed using the Young Internet Addiction Scale (YIAS), Beck Depressive Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Korean Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder scale, and the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales (BIS-BAS), respectively. The SS allele was associated with increased FC within the DMN, including the middle prefrontal cortex (MPFC) to the posterior cingulate cortex, and within the salience network, including the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) to the right rostral prefrontal cortex (RPFC), right anterior insular (AInsular) to right SMG, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to left RPFC, and left AInsular to right RPFC, and between the DMN and salience network, including the MPFC to the ACC. In addition, the FC from the MPFC to ACC positively correlated with the BIS and YIAS scores in the SS allele group. The SS allele of 5HTTLPR might modulate the FC within and between the DMN and salience network, which may ultimately be a risk factor for impulsive Internet game play in patients with MDD.

Impulsive Behaviors as an Emotion Regulation Strategy: Examining Associations between PTSD, Emotion Dysregulation, and Impulsive Behaviors among Substance Dependent Inpatients

PubMed Central

Weiss, Nicole H.; Tull, Matthew T.; Viana, Andres G.; Anestis, Michael D.; Gratz, Kim L.

2012-01-01

Recent investigations have demonstrated that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with a range of impulsive behaviors (e.g., risky sexual behavior and antisocial behavior). The purpose of the present study was to extend extant research by exploring whether emotion dysregulation explains the association between PTSD and impulsive behaviors. Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 206 substance use disorder (SUD) patients in residential substance abuse treatment. Results demonstrated an association between PTSD and impulsive behaviors, with SUD patients with PTSD reporting significantly more impulsive behaviors than SUD patients without PTSD (in general and when controlling for relevant covariates). Further, emotion dysregulation was found to fully mediate the relationship between PTSD and impulsive behaviors. Results highlight the relevance of emotion dysregulation to impulsive behaviors and suggest that treatments targeting emotion dysregulation may be useful in reducing impulsive behaviors among SUD patients with PTSD. PMID:22366447

Sex differences in dimensions of impulsivity in a non-clinical sample.

PubMed

Lage, Guilherme Menezes; Albuquerque, Maicon Rodrigues; Fuentes, Daniel; Corrêa, Humberto; Malloy-Diniz, Leandro Fernandes

2013-10-01

Impulsivity has been more closely associated with men than with women because men are more often involved in illegal behaviors. The few studies that have investigated sex differences in impulsivity have used self-report questionnaires and have obtained contradictory results. Two computerized behavioral tests were administered to 125 healthy undergraduate students (75 women, M age 23.8 yr.; 50 men, M age 25.0 yr.). Men exhibited higher scores on motor impulsivity, but there were no significant differences between men and women on attentional and non-planning impulsivity scores. These findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between impulsivity and low- and high-order control.

Time perception, impulsivity, emotionality, and personality in self-harming borderline personality disorder patients.

PubMed

Berlin, Heather A; Rolls, Edmund T

2004-08-01

To investigate how time perception may contribute to the symptoms of self-harming Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) patients, 19 self-harming BPD inpatients and 39 normal controls were given measures of time perception, impulsivity, personality, emotion, and BPD characteristics. A test sensitive to orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) function ("Frontal" Behavior Questionnaire) was also administered, as the OFC has been associated with impulsivity and time perception. BPD patients produced less time than controls, and this correlated with impulsiveness and other characteristics commonly associated with BPD. BPD patients were also less conscientious, extraverted, and open to experience, as well as more impulsive (self-report and behaviorally), emotional, neurotic, and reported more BPD characteristics, compared to controls. The results suggest that some of these core characteristics of BPD may be on a continuum with the normal population and, impulsivity in particular, may be related to time perception deficits (i.e., a faster subjective sense of time). Finally, BPD patients scored higher on the Frontal Behavior Questionnaire, suggesting that some symptoms of the BPD syndrome may be related to problems associated with the OFC. A control spatial working memory task (SWM) revealed that SWM deficits could not explain any of the BPD patients' poor performance. While impulsivity was correlated with time perception across all participants, emotionality, introversion, and lack of openness to experience were not. This suggests that different symptoms of the borderline personality syndrome may be separable, and therefore, related to different cognitive deficits, and potentially to different brain systems. This may have important implications for treatment strategies for BPD.

Striatal dopamine d2/d3 receptor availability is reduced in methamphetamine dependence and is linked to impulsivity.

PubMed

Lee, Buyean; London, Edythe D; Poldrack, Russell A; Farahi, Judah; Nacca, Angelo; Monterosso, John R; Mumford, Jeanette A; Bokarius, Andrew V; Dahlbom, Magnus; Mukherjee, Jogeshwar; Bilder, Robert M; Brody, Arthur L; Mandelkern, Mark A

2009-11-25

While methamphetamine addiction has been associated with both impulsivity and striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor deficits, human studies have not directly linked the latter two entities. We therefore compared methamphetamine-dependent and healthy control subjects using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (version 11, BIS-11) and positron emission tomography with [(18)F]fallypride to measure striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor availability. The methamphetamine-dependent subjects reported recent use of the drug 3.3 g per week, and a history of using methamphetamine, on average, for 12.5 years. They had higher scores than healthy control subjects on all BIS-11 impulsiveness subscales (p < 0.001). Volume-of-interest analysis found lower striatal D(2)/D(3) receptor availability in methamphetamine-dependent than in healthy control subjects (p < 0.01) and a negative relationship between impulsiveness and striatal D(2)/D(3) receptor availability in the caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens that reached statistical significance in methamphetamine-dependent subjects. Combining data from both groups, voxelwise analysis indicated that impulsiveness was related to D(2)/D(3) receptor availability in left caudate nucleus and right lateral putamen/claustrum (p < 0.05, determined by threshold-free cluster enhancement). In separate group analyses, correlations involving the head and body of the caudate and the putamen of methamphetamine-dependent subjects and the lateral putamen/claustrum of control subjects were observed at a weaker threshold (p < 0.12 corrected). The findings suggest that low striatal D(2)/D(3) receptor availability may mediate impulsive temperament and thereby influence addiction.

Relations of parenting style to Chinese children’s effortful control, ego resilience, and maladjustment

PubMed Central

EISENBERG, NANCY; CHANG, LEI; MA, YUE; HUANG, XIAORUI

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of authoritative parenting and corporal punishment to Chinese first and second graders’ effortful control (EC), impulsivity, ego resilience, and maladjustment, as well as mediating relations. A parent and teacher reported on children’s EC, impulsivity, and ego resilience; parents reported on children’s internalizing symptoms and their own parenting, and teachers and peers reported on children’s externalizing symptoms. Authoritative parenting and low corporal punishment predicted high EC, and EC mediated the relation between parenting and externalizing problems. In addition, impulsivity mediated the relation of corporal punishment to externalizing problems. The relation of parenting to children’s ego resilience was mediated by EC and/or impulsivity, and ego resilience mediated the relations of EC and impulsivity to internalizing problems. PMID:19338693

Current hypotheses on the mechanisms of alcoholism.

PubMed

Vetreno, R P; Crews, F T

2014-01-01

Chronic use of alcohol results in progressive changes to brain and behavior that often lead to the development of alcohol dependence and alcoholism. Although the mechanisms underlying the development of alcoholism remain to be fully elucidated, diminished executive functioning due to hypoactive prefrontal cortex executive control and hyperactive limbic system anxiety and negative emotion might contribute mechanistically to the shift from experimental use to alcoholism and dependence. In the chapter that follows, behavioral deficits associated with cortical dysfunction and neurodegeneration will be related to the behavioral characteristics of alcoholism (e.g., diminished executive function, impulsivity, altered limbic modulation). We will provide evidence that alterations in cyclic AMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB: neurotrophic) and NF-κB (neuroimmune) signaling contribute to the development and persistence of alcoholism. In addition, genetic predispositions and an earlier age of drinking onset will be discussed as contributing factors to the development of alcohol dependence and alcoholism. Overall chronic ethanol-induced neuroimmune gene induction is proposed to alter limbic and frontal neuronal networks contributing to the development and persistence of alcoholism. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Activity in the left auditory cortex is associated with individual impulsivity in time discounting.

PubMed

Han, Ruokang; Takahashi, Taiki; Miyazaki, Akane; Kadoya, Tomoka; Kato, Shinya; Yokosawa, Koichi

2015-01-01

Impulsivity dictates individual decision-making behavior. Therefore, it can reflect consumption behavior and risk of addiction and thus underlies social activities as well. Neuroscience has been applied to explain social activities; however, the brain function controlling impulsivity has remained unclear. It is known that impulsivity is related to individual time perception, i.e., a person who perceives a certain physical time as being longer is impulsive. Here we show that activity of the left auditory cortex is related to individual impulsivity. Individual impulsivity was evaluated by a self-answered questionnaire in twelve healthy right-handed adults, and activities of the auditory cortices of bilateral hemispheres when listening to continuous tones were recorded by magnetoencephalography. Sustained activity of the left auditory cortex was significantly correlated to impulsivity, that is, larger sustained activity indicated stronger impulsivity. The results suggest that the left auditory cortex represent time perception, probably because the area is involved in speech perception, and that it represents impulsivity indirectly.

Dimensions of impulsivity in relation to eating disorder recovery.

PubMed

Bardone-Cone, Anna M; Butler, Rachel M; Balk, Margaret R; Koller, Katherine A

2016-11-01

Impulsivity is associated with eating pathology, but different dimensions of impulsivity have not been extensively studied in the eating disorders. The current study examined the relationship between four facets of impulsivity and eating disorder recovery status. Females formerly seen for an eating disorder were categorized as having an eating disorder (n = 53), partially recovered (n = 15), or fully recovered (n = 20) based on a diagnostic interview and physical, behavioral, and psychological indices. These groups and non-eating disorder controls were compared on impulsivity facets from the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS): Urgency (negative urgency), Premeditation (lack of), Perseverance (lack of), and Sensation Seeking. Negative urgency (the tendency to engage in impulsive behavior to alleviate negative affect) was related to recovery. The fully recovered group and controls experienced significantly less negative urgency than those with a current eating disorder; the partially recovered group did not differ from the eating disorder group. Findings suggest that negative urgency may be a particularly important facet of impulsivity to target in therapeutic intervention for eating disorders, especially among those with a history of binge eating and/or purging. Future longitudinal work is needed to test a potential causal relationship between negative urgency and eating disorder recovery. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:1027-1031). © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Insight Into the Relationship Between Impulsivity and Substance Abuse From Studies Using Animal Models

PubMed Central

Winstanley, Catharine A.; Olausson, Peter; Taylor, Jane R.; Jentsch, J. David

2010-01-01

Drug use disorders are often accompanied by deficits in the capacity to efficiently process reward-related information and to monitor, suppress, or override reward-controlled behavior when goals are in conflict with aversive or immediate outcomes. This emerging deficit in behavioral flexibility and impulse control may be a central component of the progression to addiction, as behavior becomes increasingly driven by drugs and drug-associated cues at the expense of more advantageous activities. Understanding how neural mechanisms implicated in impulse control are affected by addictive drugs may therefore prove a useful strategy in the search for new treatment options. Animal models of impulsivity and addiction could make a significant contribution to this endeavor. Here, some of the more common behavioral paradigms used to measure different aspects of impulsivity across species are outlined, and the importance of the response to reward-paired cues in such paradigms is discussed. Naturally occurring differences in forms of impulsivity have been found to be predictive of future drug self-administration, but drug exposure can also increase impulsive responding. Such data are in keeping with the suggestion that impulsivity may contribute to multiple stages within the spiral of addiction. From a neurobiological perspective, converging evidence from rat, monkey, and human studies suggest that compromised functioning within the orbitofrontal cortex may critically contribute to the cognitive sequelae of drug abuse. Changes in gene transcription and protein expression within this region may provide insight into the mechanism underlying drug-induced cortical hypofunction, reflecting new molecular targets for the treatment of uncontrolled drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior. PMID:20491734

Impulsivity and decision-making in obsessive-compulsive disorder after effective deep brain stimulation or treatment as usual.

PubMed

Grassi, Giacomo; Figee, Martijn; Ooms, Pieter; Righi, Lorenzo; Nakamae, Takashi; Pallanti, Stefano; Schuurman, Rick; Denys, Damiaan

2018-06-04

Impulsivity and impaired decision-making have been proposed as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) endophenotypes, running in OCD and their healthy relatives independently of symptom severity and medication status. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeting the ventral limb of the internal capsule (vALIC) and the nucleus accumbens (Nacc) is an effective treatment strategy for treatment-refractory OCD. The effectiveness of vALIC-DBS for OCD has been linked to its effects on a frontostriatal network that is also implicated in reward, impulse control, and decision-making. While vALIC-DBS has been shown to restore reward dysfunction in OCD patients, little is known about the effects of vALIC-DBS on impulsivity and decision-making. The aim of the study was to compare cognitive impulsivity and decision-making between OCD patients undergoing effective vALIC-DBS or treatment as usual (TAU), and healthy controls. We used decision-making performances under ambiguity on the Iowa Gambling Task and reflection impulsivity on the Beads Task to compare 20 OCD patients effectively treated with vALIC-DBS, 40 matched OCD patients undergoing effective TAU (medication and/or cognitive behavioural therapy), and 40 healthy subjects. Effective treatment was defined as at least 35% improvement of OCD symptoms. OCD patients, irrespective of treatment modality (DBS or TAU), showed increased reflection impulsivity and impaired decision-making compared to healthy controls. No differences were observed between OCD patients treated with DBS or TAU. OCD patients effectively treated with vALIC-DBS or TAU display increased reflection impulsivity and impaired decision-making independent of the type of treatment.

Aspirations, Expectations and Delinquency: The Moderating Effect of Impulse Control.

PubMed

Mahler, Alissa; Simmons, Cortney; Frick, Paul J; Steinberg, Laurence; Cauffman, Elizabeth

2017-07-01

Although prior research finds a robust link between delinquent behavior and expectations, or an adolescent's perceived likelihood of obtaining one's future goals, fewer studies have evaluated aspirations, or the perceived importance of achieving one's goals. In addition, few studies consider how individual traits such as impulsivity affect the degree to which expectations and aspirations motivate or deter delinquent behavior. We contribute to this body of research by evaluating the independent effects of expectations and aspirations, and the aspiration-expectation gap (i.e., strain) on delinquent behavior during the year following an adolescent's first arrest using a large (N = 1117), racially/ethnically diverse sample of male adolescents (46.55% Latino, 35.81% Black, 14.95% White, and 2.69% Other race). In addition, we considered how impulse control interacts with expectations, aspirations, and strain to motivate behavior. Our results indicated that both aspirations, expectations and strain uniquely influence criminal behavior. Importantly, aspirations interacted with impulse control, such that aspirations affected delinquency only among youth with higher impulse control. Our findings suggest that aspirations may only influence behavior if youth also have the psychosocial capabilities to consider their future aspirations when behaving in the present.

Tumour chemotherapy strategy based on impulse control theory.

PubMed

Ren, Hai-Peng; Yang, Yan; Baptista, Murilo S; Grebogi, Celso

2017-03-06

Chemotherapy is a widely accepted method for tumour treatment. A medical doctor usually treats patients periodically with an amount of drug according to empirical medicine guides. From the point of view of cybernetics, this procedure is an impulse control system, where the amount and frequency of drug used can be determined analytically using the impulse control theory. In this paper, the stability of a chemotherapy treatment of a tumour is analysed applying the impulse control theory. The globally stable condition for prescription of a periodic oscillatory chemotherapeutic agent is derived. The permanence of the solution of the treatment process is verified using the Lyapunov function and the comparison theorem. Finally, we provide the values for the strength and the time interval that the chemotherapeutic agent needs to be applied such that the proposed impulse chemotherapy can eliminate the tumour cells and preserve the immune cells. The results given in the paper provide an analytical formula to guide medical doctors to choose the theoretical minimum amount of drug to treat the cancer and prevent harming the patients because of over-treating.This article is part of the themed issue 'Horizons of cybernetical physics'. © 2017 The Author(s).

[Gambling brain].

PubMed

Tsurumi, Kosuke; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2013-01-01

Pathological gambling (PG) is a chronic mental disorder, and patients cannot stop gambling despite severe negative consequences, such as huge debts, job loss, family break-up, and so on. It is said that PG is more prevalent in Japan than in Western countries. However, PG has not received much attention and has even been thought of as a lack of will to stop gambling rather than a mental disorder. PG has been classified under "Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified," along with compulsive stealing (kleptomania), starting fires (pyromania) and hair-pulling (trichotillomania), but accumulative evidence suggests that PG has many similarities with substance use disorders. Therefore, PG is being proposed to be classified under "Addiction and Related Disorders" in the DSM-5 draft. In this article, we review neuroimaging studies on PG on the basis of 4 dimensions - sensitivity to monetary reward and loss, craving and cue reactivity, impulsivity, and decision-making. In general, PG patients show reduced sensitivity to both monetary reward and loss, increased gamble-related cue reactivity, and increased impulsivity. In contrast, decision-making contains many elements, and hence, future neuroimaging studies on PG should focus on these individual elements. Some efforts have been made to combine molecular neuroimaging (positron emission tomography) with neuroeconomics to investigate the roles of neurotransmitters in altered decision-making in neuropsychiatric disorders. Understanding the molecular mechanism of extreme or impaired decision-making could contribute to the assessment and prevention of drug and gambling addictions and to the development of novel pharmacological therapies for these addictions.

Heroin addicts have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than non-drug-using controls.

PubMed

Kirby, K N; Petry, N M; Bickel, W K

1999-03-01

Fifty-six heroin addicts and 60 age-matched controls were offered choices between monetary rewards ($11-$80) available immediately and larger rewards ($25-$85) available after delays ranging from 1 week to 6 months. Participants had a 1-in-6 chance of winning a reward that they chose on one randomly selected trial. Delay-discounting rates were estimated from the pattern of participants' choices. The discounting model of impulsiveness (Ainslie, 1975) implies that delay-discounting rates are positively correlated with impulsiveness. On average, heroin addicts' discount rates were twice those of controls (p = .004), and discount rates were positively correlated with impulsivity as measured by self-report questionnaires (p < .05). The results lend external validity to the delay-discounting rate as a measure of impulsiveness, a characteristic associated with substance abuse.

Diet-induced obesity: dopamine transporter function, impulsivity and motivation.

PubMed

Narayanaswami, V; Thompson, A C; Cassis, L A; Bardo, M T; Dwoskin, L P

2013-08-01

A rat model of diet-induced obesity (DIO) was used to determine dopamine transporter (DAT) function, impulsivity and motivation as neurobehavioral outcomes and predictors of obesity. To evaluate neurobehavioral alterations following the development of DIO induced by an 8-week high-fat diet (HF) exposure, striatal D2-receptor density, DAT function and expression, extracellular dopamine concentrations, impulsivity, and motivation for high- and low-fat reinforcers were determined. To determine predictors of DIO, neurobehavioral antecedents including impulsivity, motivation for high-fat reinforcers, DAT function and extracellular dopamine were evaluated before the 8-week HF exposure. Striatal D2-receptor density was determined by in vitro kinetic analysis of [(3)H]raclopride binding. DAT function was determined using in vitro kinetic analysis of [(3)H]dopamine uptake, methamphetamine-evoked [(3)H]dopamine overflow and no-net flux in vivo microdialysis. DAT cell-surface expression was determined using biotinylation and western blotting. Impulsivity and food-motivated behavior were determined using a delay discounting task and progressive ratio schedule, respectively. Relative to obesity-resistant (OR) rats, obesity-prone (OP) rats exhibited 18% greater body weight following an 8-week HF-diet exposure, 42% lower striatal D2-receptor density, 30% lower total DAT expression, 40% lower in vitro and in vivo DAT function, 45% greater extracellular dopamine and twofold greater methamphetamine-evoked [(3)H]dopamine overflow. OP rats exhibited higher motivation for food, and surprisingly, were less impulsive relative to OR rats. Impulsivity, in vivo DAT function and extracellular dopamine concentration did not predict DIO. Importantly, motivation for high-fat reinforcers predicted the development of DIO. Human studies are limited by their ability to determine if impulsivity, motivation and DAT function are causes or consequences of DIO. The current animal model shows that motivation for high-fat food, but not impulsive behavior, predicts the development of obesity, whereas decreases in striatal DAT function are exhibited only after the development of obesity.

Early life stress is a risk factor for excessive alcohol drinking and impulsivity in adults and is mediated via a CRF/GABA(A) mechanism.

PubMed

Gondré-Lewis, Marjorie C; Warnock, Kaitlin T; Wang, Hong; June, Harry L; Bell, Kimberly A; Rabe, Holger; Tiruveedhula, Veera Venkata Naga Phani Babu; Cook, James; Lüddens, Hartmut; Aurelian, Laure; June, Harry L

2016-01-01

Childhood stress and trauma are associated with substance use disorders in adulthood, but the neurological changes that confer increased vulnerability are largely unknown. In this study, maternal separation (MS) stress, restricted to the pre-weaning period, was used as a model to study mechanisms of protracted effects of childhood stress/traumatic experiences on binge drinking and impulsivity. Using an operant self-administration model of binge drinking and a delay discounting assay to measure impulsive-like behavior, we report that early life stress due to MS facilitated acquisition of binge drinking and impulsivity during adulthood in rats. Previous studies have shown heightened levels of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) after MS, and here, we add that MS increased expression levels of GABA(A) α2 subunit in central stress circuits. To investigate the precise role of these circuits in regulating impulsivity and binge drinking, the CRF1 receptor antagonist antalarmin and the novel GABA(A) α2 subunit ligand 3-PBC were infused into the central amygdala (CeA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Antalarmin and 3-PBC at each site markedly reduced impulsivity and produced profound reductions on binge-motivated alcohol drinking, without altering responding for sucrose. Furthermore, whole-cell patch-clamp studies showed that low concentrations of 3-PBC directly reversed the effect of relatively high concentrations of ethanol on α2β3γ2 GABA(A) receptors, by a benzodiazepine site-independent mechanism. Together, our data provide strong evidence that maternal separation, i.e. early life stress, is a risk factor for binge drinking, and is linked to impulsivity, another key risk factor for excessive alcohol drinking. We further show that pharmacological manipulation of CRF and GABA receptor signaling is effective to reverse binge drinking and impulsive-like behavior in MS rats. These results provide novel insights into the role of the brain stress systems in the development of impulsivity and excessive alcohol consumption.

Diet-induced obesity: dopamine transporter function, impulsivity and motivation

PubMed Central

Narayanaswami, V; Thompson, AC; Cassis, LA; Bardo, MT; Dwoskin, LP

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE A rat model of diet-induced obesity (DIO) was used to determine dopamine transporter (DAT) function, impulsivity and motivation as neurobehavioral outcomes and predictors of obesity. DESIGN To evaluate neurobehavioral alterations following the development of DIO induced by an 8-week high-fat diet (HF) exposure, striatal D2-receptor density, DAT function and expression, extracellular dopamine concentrations, impulsivity, and motivation for high- and low-fat reinforcers were determined. To determine predictors of DIO, neurobehavioral antecedents including impulsivity, motivation for high-fat reinforcers, DAT function and extracellular dopamine were evaluated before the 8-week HF exposure. METHODS Striatal D2-receptor density was determined by in vitro kinetic analysis of [3H]raclopride binding. DAT function was determined using in vitro kinetic analysis of [3H]dopamine uptake, methamphetamine-evoked [3H]dopamine overflow and no-net flux in vivo microdialysis. DAT cell-surface expression was determined using biotinylation and western blotting. Impulsivity and food-motivated behavior were determined using a delay discounting task and progressive ratio schedule, respectively. RESULTS Relative to obesity-resistant (OR) rats, obesity-prone (OP) rats exhibited 18% greater body weight following an 8-week HF-diet exposure, 42% lower striatal D2-receptor density, 30% lower total DAT expression, 40% lower in vitro and in vivo DAT function, 45% greater extracellular dopamine and twofold greater methamphetamine-evoked [3H]dopamine overflow. OP rats exhibited higher motivation for food, and surprisingly, were less impulsive relative to OR rats. Impulsivity, in vivo DAT function and extracellular dopamine concentration did not predict DIO. Importantly, motivation for high-fat reinforcers predicted the development of DIO. CONCLUSION Human studies are limited by their ability to determine if impulsivity, motivation and DAT function are causes or consequences of DIO. The current animal model shows that motivation for high-fat food, but not impulsive behavior, predicts the development of obesity, whereas decreases in striatal DAT function are exhibited only after the development of obesity. PMID:23164701

Negative mood and interference control in nonsuicidal self-injury.

PubMed

Allen, Kenneth J D; Hooley, Jill M

2017-02-01

People who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) often report high levels of impulsivity. However, results from behavioral tasks measuring impulsivity have been mixed: those with a history of NSSI generally perform comparably to healthy controls. Recent research suggests, however, that people who self-injure have specific deficits in response inhibition to negative emotional stimuli. Here, we extend this work by testing whether negative mood impairs interference control in NSSI. 33 participants reporting a history of NSSI (approximately half in the past year) and 31 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed the multi-source interference task before and after a written negative mood induction designed to increase feelings of worthlessness, guilt, and shame. After the induction, the NSSI group reported increased negative mood but did not show worse interference control. In other words, increased negative mood did not correspond to increased behavioral impulsivity in participants reporting NSSI. Consistent with past research, the NSSI and healthy control groups showed equivalent task performance. This study adds to evidence that NSSI is not characterized by behavioral impulsivity, even in the context of negative mood. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Blocking serotonin but not dopamine reuptake alters neural processing during perceptual decision making.

PubMed

Costa, Vincent D; Kakalios, Laura C; Averbeck, Bruno B

2016-10-01

Dopamine and serotonin have opponent interactions on aspects of impulsivity. Therefore we wanted to test the hypothesis that dopamine and serotonin would have opposing effects on speed-accuracy trade offs in a perceptual decision making task. Unlike other behavioral measures of impulsivity, perceptual decision making allows us to determine whether decreasing premature responses, often interpreted as decreased impulsivity, corresponds to increased behavioral performance. We administered GBR-12909 (a dopamine transporter blocker), escitalopram (a serotonin transporter blocker), or saline in separate sessions to 3 rhesus macaques. We found that animals had slower reaction times (RTs) on escitalopram than on GBR-12909 or saline. However, they were also least accurate on escitalopram. Animals were faster, although nonsignificantly, on GBR than saline and had equivalent accuracy. Administration of GBR-12909 did cause animals to be faster in error trials than correct trials. Therefore, from the point of view of RTs the animals were less impulsive on escitalopram. However, the decreased accuracy of the monkeys shows that they were not able to make use of their slower response times to make more accurate decisions. Therefore, impulsivity was reduced on escitalopram, but at the expense of a slower information-processing rate in the perceptual inference task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Resting-state EEG, Impulsiveness, and Personality in Daily and Nondaily Smokers†

PubMed Central

Rass, Olga; Ahn, Woo-Young; O’Donnell, Brian F.

2015-01-01

Objectives Resting EEG is sensitive to transient, acute effects of nicotine administration and abstinence, but the chronic effects smoking on EEG are poorly characterized. This study measures the resting EEG profile of chronic smokers in a non-deprived, non-peak state to test whether differences in smoking behavior and personality traits affect pharmaco-EEG response. Methods Resting EEG, impulsiveness, and personality measures were collected from daily smokers (n=22), nondaily smokers (n=31), and non-smokers (n=30). Results Daily smokers had reduced resting delta and alpha EEG power and higher impulsiveness (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale) compared to nondaily smokers and non-smokers. Both daily and nondaily smokers discounted delayed rewards more steeply, reported lower conscientiousness (NEO-FFI) and reported greater disinhibition and experience seeking (Sensation Seeking Scale) than non-smokers. Nondaily smokers reported greater sensory hedonia than nonsmokers. Conclusions Altered resting EEG power in daily smokers demonstrates differences in neural signaling that correlated with greater smoking behavior and dependence. Although nondaily smokers share some characteristics with daily smokers that may predict smoking initiation and maintenance, they differ on measures of impulsiveness and resting EEG power. Significance Resting EEG in non-deprived chronic smokers provides a standard for comparison to peak and trough nicotine states and may serve as a biomarker for nicotine dependence, relapse risk, and recovery. PMID:26051750

Human ossicular-joint flexibility transforms the peak amplitude and width of impulsive acoustic stimulia)

PubMed Central

Gottlieb, Peter K.; Vaisbuch, Yona

2018-01-01

The role of the ossicular joints in the mammalian middle ear is still debated. This work tests the hypothesis that the two synovial joints filter potentially damaging impulsive stimuli by transforming both the peak amplitude and width of these impulses before they reach the cochlea. The three-dimensional (3D) velocity along the ossicular chain in unaltered cadaveric human temporal bones (N = 9), stimulated with acoustic impulses, is measured in the time domain using a Polytec (Waldbronn, Germany) CLV-3D laser Doppler vibrometer. The measurements are repeated after fusing one or both of the ossicular joints with dental cement. Sound transmission is characterized by measuring the amplitude, width, and delay of the impulsive velocity profile as it travels from the eardrum to the cochlea. On average, fusing both ossicular joints causes the stapes velocity amplitude and width to change by a factor of 1.77 (p = 0.0057) and 0.78 (p = 0.011), respectively. Fusing just the incudomalleolar joint has a larger effect on amplitude (a factor of 2.37), while fusing just the incudostapedial joint decreases the stapes velocity on average. The 3D motion of the ossicles is altered by fusing the joints. Finally, the ability of current computational models to predict this behavior is also evaluated.

Differential effects of the pharmacological stressor yohimbine on impulsive decision making and response inhibition.

PubMed

Schippers, M C; Schetters, D; De Vries, T J; Pattij, T

2016-07-01

High levels of impulsivity have been associated with psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and substance abuse. In addition, acute stress is known to exacerbate many psychiatric symptoms in impulse control disorders. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the acute effects of the pharmacological stressor yohimbine on response inhibition and impulsive choice. A group of male rats (n = 12) was trained in the delayed reward task (DRT) to assess impulsive choice. A separate group (n = 10) was trained in the stop-signal task (SST) to measure response inhibition. Upon stable responding, the effects of yohimbine (0, 1.25, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg i.p.) were tested in a Latin square design. Acute yohimbine significantly increased the preference for the large and delayed reinforcer in the DRT, indicating a decrease in impulsive choice. On the contrary, the effect size of 1.25 mg/kg yohimbine on stop-signal reaction times correlated negatively with baseline performance, suggesting a baseline-dependent effect on response inhibition as measured in the SST. The current data suggest that the effects of the pharmacological stressor yohimbine on impulse control strongly depend on the type of impulsive behavior. Pharmacological stress decreased impulsive decision making, an observation that is in line with previously published rodent studies. By contrast, the lowest dose of yohimbine revealed a baseline-dependent effect on response inhibition. As such, the effects of yohimbine are largely comparable to the effects of psychostimulants on impulsivity and may support the notion of cross sensitization of stress and psychostimulants.

Norepinephrine and impulsivity: Effects of acute yohimbine

PubMed Central

Swann, Alan C.; Lijffijt, Marijn; Lane, Scott D.; Cox, Blake; Steinberg, Joel L.; Moeller, F. Gerard

2013-01-01

Rationale Rapid-response impulsivity, characterized by inability to withhold response to a stimulus until it is adequately appraised, is associated with risky behavior and may be increased in a state-dependent manner by norepinephrine. Objective We assessed effects of yohimbine, which increases norepinephrine release by blocking alpha-2 noradrenergic receptors, on plasma catecholamine metabolites, blood pressure, subjective symptoms, and laboratory-measured rapid-response impulsivity. Methods Subjects were twenty-three healthy controls recruited from the community, with normal physical examination and ECG, and negative history for hypertension, cardiovascular illness, and Axis I or II disorder. Blood pressure, pulse, and behavioral measures were obtained before and periodically after 0.4 mg/kg oral yohimbine or placebo in a randomized, counterbalanced design. Metabolites of norepinephrine (3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, MHPG; vanillylmandelic acid, VMA) and dopamine (homovanillic acid, HVA) were measured by high pressure liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Rapid-response impulsivity was measured by commission errors and reaction times on the Immediate Memory Task (IMT), a continuous performance test designed to measure impulsivity and attention. Results Yohimbine increased plasma MHPG and VMA but not HVA. Yohimbine increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate. On the IMT, yohimbine increased impulsive errors and impulsive response bias and accelerated reaction times. Yohimbine-associated increase in plasma MHPG correlated with increased impulsive response rates. Time courses varied; effects on blood pressure generally preceded those on metabolites and test performance. Conclusions These effects are consistent with increased rapid-response impulsivity after pharmacological noradrenergic stimulation in healthy controls. Labile noradrenergic responses, or increased sensitivity to norepinephrine, may increase risk for impulsive behavior. PMID:23559222

The relationship of impulsivity and cortical thickness in depressed and non-depressed adolescents.

PubMed

Fradkin, Yuli; Khadka, Sabin; Bessette, Katie L; Stevens, Michael C

2017-10-01

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is recognized to be heterogeneous in terms of brain structure abnormality findings across studies, which might reflect previously unstudied traits that confer variability to neuroimaging measurements. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between different types of trait impulsivity and MDD diagnosis on adolescent brain structure. We predicted that adolescents with depression who were high on trait impulsivity would have more abnormal cortical structure than depressed patients or non-MDD who were low on impulsivity. We recruited 58 subjects, including 29 adolescents (ages 12-19) with a primary DSM-IV diagnosis of MDD and a history of suicide attempt and 29 demographically-matched healthy control participants. Our GLM-based analyses sought to describe differences in the linear relationships between cortical thickness and impulsivity trait levels. As hypothesized, we found significant moderation effects in rostral middle frontal gyrus and right paracentral lobule cortical thickness for different subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. However, although these brain-behavior relationships differed between diagnostic study groups, they were not simple additive effects as we had predicted. For the middle frontal gyrus, non-MDD participants showed a strong positive association between cortical thickness and BIS-11 Motor scores, while MDD-diagnosed participants showed a negative association. For Non-Planning Impulsiveness, paracentral lobule cortical thickness was observed with greater impulsivity in MDD, but no association was found for controls. In conclusion, the findings confirm that dimensions of impulsivity have discrete neural correlates, and show that relationships between impulsivity and brain structure are expressed differently in adolescents with MDD compared to non-MDD.

Middle Latency Auditory Evoked Potential (MLAEP) in Workers with and without Tinnitus who are Exposed to Occupational Noise.

PubMed

dos Santos Filha, Valdete Alves Valentins; Samelli, Alessandra Giannella; Matas, Carla Gentile

2015-09-11

Tinnitus is an important occupational health concern, but few studies have focused on the central auditory pathways of workers with a history of occupational noise exposure. Thus, we analyzed the central auditory pathways of workers with a history of occupational noise exposure who had normal hearing threshold, and compared middle latency auditory evoked potential in those with and without noise-induced tinnitus. Sixty individuals (30 with and 30 without tinnitus) underwent the following procedures: anamnesis, immittance measures, pure-tone air conduction thresholds at all frequencies between 0.25-8 kHz, and middle latency auditory evoked potentials. Quantitative analysis of latencies and amplitudes of middle latency auditory evoked potential showed no significant differences between the groups with and without tinnitus. In the qualitative analysis, we found that both groups showed increased middle latency auditory evoked potential latencies. The study group had more alterations of the "both" type regarding the Na-Pa amplitude, while the control group had more "electrode effect" alterations, but these alterations were not significantly different when compared to controls. Individuals with normal hearing with or without tinnitus who are exposed to occupational noise have altered middle latency auditory evoked potential, suggesting impairment of the auditory pathways in cortical and subcortical regions. Although differences did not reach significance, individuals with tinnitus seemed to have more abnormalities in components of the middle latency auditory evoked potential when compared to individuals without tinnitus, suggesting alterations in the generation and transmission of neuroelectrical impulses along the auditory pathway.

Impaired decision-making and impulse control in Internet gaming addicts: evidence from the comparison with recreational Internet game users.

PubMed

Wang, Yifan; Wu, Lingdan; Wang, Lingxiao; Zhang, Yifen; Du, Xiaoxia; Dong, Guangheng

2017-11-01

Although Internet games have been proven to be addictive, only a few game players develop online gaming addiction. A large number of players play online games recreationally without being addicted to it. These individuals are defined as recreational Internet gaming users (RGU). So far, no research has investigated decision-making and impulse control in RGU. In the current study, we used delay discounting (DD) task and probabilistic discounting (PD) task to examine decision-making and impulse control in 20 healthy controls, 20 subjects with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and 23 RGU during fMRI scanning. At the behavioral level, RGU showed lower DD rate and higher PD rate than subjects with IGD and there was no significant difference between RGU and healthy controls on the DD and PD rates. At the neural level, RGU showed increased neural response in the parahippocampal gyrus, the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial frontal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus as compared with subjects with IGD. These brain regions may play an important role in preventing RGU from developing addiction. The results suggest that the RGU are capable of inhibiting impulse due to additional cognitive endeavor and the subjects with IGD have deficit in decision-making and impulsive control, which are associated with brain dysfunction. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Think twice: Impulsivity and decision making in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Grassi, Giacomo; Pallanti, Stefano; Righi, Lorenzo; Figee, Martijn; Mantione, Mariska; Denys, Damiaan; Piccagliani, Daniele; Rossi, Alessandro; Stratta, Paolo

2015-12-01

Recent studies have challenged the anxiety-avoidance model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), linking OCD to impulsivity, risky-decision-making and reward-system dysfunction, which can also be found in addiction and might support the conceptualization of OCD as a behavioral addiction. Here, we conducted an exploratory investigation of the behavioral addiction model of OCD by assessing whether OCD patients are more impulsive, have impaired decision-making, and biased probabilistic reasoning, three core dimensions of addiction, in a sample of OCD patients and healthy controls. We assessed these dimensions on 38 OCD patients and 39 healthy controls with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Beads Task. OCD patients had significantly higher BIS-11 scores than controls, in particular on the cognitive subscales. They performed significantly worse than controls on the IGT preferring immediate reward despite negative future consequences, and did not learn from losses. Finally, OCD patients demonstrated biased probabilistic reasoning as reflected by significantly fewer draws to decision than controls on the Beads Task. OCD patients are more impulsive than controls and demonstrate risky decision-making and biased probabilistic reasoning. These results might suggest that other conceptualizations of OCD, such as the behavioral addiction model, may be more suitable than the anxiety-avoidance one. However, further studies directly comparing OCD and behavioral addiction patients are needed in order to scrutinize this model.

The Separate and Cumulative Effects of TBI and PTSD on Cognitive Function and Emotional Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

participants has been successful. Finally, subjects completed three standardized questionnaires: the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), the PTSD Checklist...function tasks. Self-rated impulsivity on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) showed a modest correlation with performance in the 90% Go...Normative data and a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. (2007). Int J Neurosci. 117(3):359-68. Swick D, Ashley V, Turken AU. (2008). Left

Self-Control and Impulsiveness in Nondieting Adult Human Females: Effects of Visual Food Cues and Food Deprivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forzano, Lori-Ann B.; Chelonis, John J.; Casey, Caitlin; Forward, Marion; Stachowiak, Jacqueline A.; Wood, Jennifer

2010-01-01

Self-control can be defined as the choice of a larger, more delayed reinforcer over a smaller, less delayed reinforcer, and impulsiveness as the opposite. Previous research suggests that exposure to visual food cues affects adult humans' self-control. Previous research also suggests that food deprivation decreases adult humans' self-control. The…

The role of emotional inhibitory control in specific internet addiction - an fMRI study.

PubMed

Dieter, Julia; Hoffmann, Sabine; Mier, Daniela; Reinhard, Iris; Beutel, Martin; Vollstädt-Klein, Sabine; Kiefer, Falk; Mann, Karl; Leménager, Tagrid

2017-05-01

Addicts to specific internet applications involving communication features showed increased social anxiety, emotional competence deficits and impaired prefrontal-related inhibitory control. The dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) likely plays an important role in cognitive control and negative affect (such as social exclusion, pain or anxiety). To assess (social) anxiety-related inhibitory control in specific internet addiction (addicted use of games and social networks) and its relation to altered dACC activation. N=44 controls and n=51 specific internet addicts completed an anxious words-based Affective Go/No-Go task (AGN). A subsample of n=23 healthy controls and n=25 specific internet addicts underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while completing an Emotional Stroop Task (EST) with socially anxious, positive, negative and neutral words. Subgroups of internet gaming and social network addicts were exploratively assessed. Psychometric measures of social anxiety, emotional competence and impulsivity were additionally explored. Specific internet addicts showed higher impulsivity, social anxiety and reduced emotional competence. Between-group differences in AGN and EST behavioral measures were not detected. No group differences were found in the dACC, but explorative analyses revealed decreased left middle and superior temporal gyrus activation during interference of socially anxious words in internet gaming and relative to social network addicts. Given the function of the left middle temporal gyrus in the retrieval of words or expressions during communication, our findings give a first hint that social words might be less retrievable in the semantic storage of internet gaming addicts, possibly indicating deficiencies in handling speech in social situations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulsive Control for Continuous-Time Markov Decision Processes: A Linear Programming Approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dufour, F., E-mail: dufour@math.u-bordeaux1.fr; Piunovskiy, A. B., E-mail: piunov@liv.ac.uk

2016-08-15

In this paper, we investigate an optimization problem for continuous-time Markov decision processes with both impulsive and continuous controls. We consider the so-called constrained problem where the objective of the controller is to minimize a total expected discounted optimality criterion associated with a cost rate function while keeping other performance criteria of the same form, but associated with different cost rate functions, below some given bounds. Our model allows multiple impulses at the same time moment. The main objective of this work is to study the associated linear program defined on a space of measures including the occupation measures ofmore » the controlled process and to provide sufficient conditions to ensure the existence of an optimal control.« less

[Impulsivity-focused Group Intervention to reduce Binge Eating Episodes in Patients with Binge Eating Disorder - A Group Training Program].

PubMed

Schag, Kathrin; Leehr, Elisabeth J; Skoda, Eva-Maria; Becker, Sandra; Zipfel, Stephan; Giel, Katrin E

2016-11-01

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is an eating disorder where cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could already show reliable efficacy. Relying on basic research, CBT interventions which especially focus on impulsivity could be effective, because binge eating episodes represent highly impulsive eating behaviour. For this reason, we developed a treatment concept about an impulsivity-focused behavioural group intervention for patients with BED, called IMPULS. The efficacy of IMPULS is currently investigated in a randomised controlled trial 1. IMPULS is drafted as a weekly group training programme with 5-6 participants per group. The essential interventions are food-related cue exposure with response prevention and the development of self-control strategies. These interventions are adapted onto the impulsivity concept from conventional treatment of addictive disorders and BED. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Subjective field study of response to impulsive helicopter noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powell, C. A.

1981-01-01

Subjects, located outdoors and indoors, judged the noisiness and other subjective noise characteristics of flyovers of two helicopters and a propeller driven airplane as part of a study of the effects of impulsiveness on the subjective response to helicopter noise. In the first experiment, the impulsive characteristics of one helicopter was controlled by varying the main rotor speed while maintaining a constant airspeed in level flight. The second experiment which utilized only the helicopters, included descent and level flight operations. The more impulsive helicopter was consistently judged less noisy than the less impulsive helicopter at equal effective perceived noise levels (EPNL). The ability of EPNL to predict noisiness was not improved by the addition of either of two proposed impulse corrections. A subjective measure of impulsiveness, however, which was not significantly related to the proposed impulse corrections, was found to improve the predictive ability of EPNL.

Impulsive Effects on Quasi-Synchronization of Neural Networks With Parameter Mismatches and Time-Varying Delay.

PubMed

Tang, Ze; Park, Ju H; Feng, Jianwen

2018-04-01

This paper is concerned with the exponential synchronization issue of nonidentically coupled neural networks with time-varying delay. Due to the parameter mismatch phenomena existed in neural networks, the problem of quasi-synchronization is thus discussed by applying some impulsive control strategies. Based on the definition of average impulsive interval and the extended comparison principle for impulsive systems, some criteria for achieving the quasi-synchronization of neural networks are derived. More extensive ranges of impulsive effects are discussed so that impulse could either play an effective role or play an adverse role in the final network synchronization. In addition, according to the extended formula for the variation of parameters with time-varying delay, precisely exponential convergence rates and quasi-synchronization errors are obtained, respectively, in view of different types impulsive effects. Finally, some numerical simulations with different types of impulsive effects are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical analysis.

The Effect of Implicit Preferences on Food Consumption: Moderating Role of Ego Depletion and Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Wang, Yan; Zhu, Jinglei; Hu, Yi; Fang, Yuan; Wang, Guosen; Cui, Xianghua; Wang, Lei

2016-01-01

Ego depletion has been found to moderate the effect of implicit preferences on food consumption, such that implicit preferences predict consumption only under a depleted state. The present study tested how trait impulsivity impacts the effect of implicit preferences on food consumption in a depleted condition. Trait impulsivity was measured by means of self-report and a stop signal task. Results showed that both self-reported impulsivity and behavioral impulsivity moderated the ‘depletion and then eating according to implicit preferences’ effect, albeit in different ways. Participants high in self-reported impulsivity and low in behavioral impulsivity were more vulnerable to the effect of depletion on eating. The implications of these results for extant theories are discussed. Future research is needed to verify whether or not trait impulsivity is associated with vulnerability to depletion across different self-control domains. PMID:27881966

Overweight in adolescent, psychiatric inpatients: A problem of general or food-specific impulsivity?

PubMed

Deux, Natalie; Schlarb, Angelika A; Martin, Franziska; Holtmann, Martin; Hebebrand, Johannes; Legenbauer, Tanja

2017-05-01

Adolescent psychiatric patients are vulnerable to weight problems and show an overrepresentation of overweight compared to the healthy population. One potential factor that can contribute to the etiology of overweight is higher impulsivity. As of yet, it is unclear whether it is a general impulse control deficit or weight-related aspects such as lower impulse control in response to food that have an impact on body weight. As this may have therapeutic implications, the current study investigated differences between overweight and non-overweight adolescent psychiatric inpatients (N = 98; aged 12-20) in relation to trait impulsivity and behavioral inhibition performance. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and two go/no-go paradigms with neutral and food-related stimulus materials were applied. Results indicated no significant differences concerning trait impulsivity, but revealed that overweight inpatients had significantly more difficulties in inhibition performance (i.e. they reacted more impulsively) in response to both food and neutral stimuli compared to non-overweight inpatients. Furthermore, no specific inhibition deficit for high-caloric vs. low-caloric food cues emerged in overweight inpatients, whereas non-overweight participants showed significantly lower inhibition skills in response to high-caloric than low-caloric food stimuli. The results highlight a rather general, non-food-specific reduced inhibition performance in an overweight adolescent psychiatric population. Further research is necessary to enhance the understanding of the role of impulsivity in terms of body weight status in this high-risk group of adolescent inpatients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interactions between bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder in trait impulsivity and severity of illness.

PubMed

Swann, A C; Lijffijt, M; Lane, S D; Steinberg, J L; Moeller, F G

2010-06-01

We investigated trait impulsivity in bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) with respect to severity and course of illness. Subjects included 78 controls, 34 ASPD, 61 bipolar disorder without Axis II disorder, and 24 bipolar disorder with ASPD, by Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (SCID-I and -II). Data were analyzed using general linear model and probit analysis. Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) scores were higher in ASPD (effect sizes 0.5-0.8) or bipolar disorder (effect size 1.45) than in controls. Subjects with both had more suicide attempts and previous episodes than bipolar disorder alone, and more substance-use disorders and suicide attempts than ASPD alone. BIS-11 scores were not related to severity of crimes. Impulsivity was higher in bipolar disorder with or without ASPD than in ASPD alone, and higher in ASPD than in controls. Adverse effects of bipolar disorder in ASPD, but not of ASPD in bipolar disorder, were accounted for by increased impulsivity.

Interaction between Family History of Alcoholism and Locus of Control in the Opioid Regulation of Impulsive Responding under the Influence of Alcohol

PubMed Central

Altamirano, Lee J.; Fields, Howard L.; D’Esposito, Mark; Boettiger, Charlotte A.

2011-01-01

Background Naltrexone (NTX) is an opioid antagonist indicated for the treatment of alcoholism, which is not universally effective. Thus, identifying individual predictors of NTX’s behavioral effects is critical to optimizing its therapeutic use. Moreover, given the high rate of relapse during treatment for alcoholism, understanding NTX’s behavioral effects when combined with moderate ethanol intake is important. Our previous study of abstinent alcoholics and control subjects showed that a more internal Locus of Control score predicted increased impulsive choice on NTX (Mitchell et al., 2007). Here we tested whether this predictive relationship remains in the context of moderate alcohol intake. Methods In the present study we tested the effect of acute NTX (50mg) on impulsive choice, motor inhibition, and attentional bias after ingestion of moderate ethanol (~0.3g/kg, n = 30 subjects). Subjects included those recruited from a pool of ~1200 UC Berkeley undergraduates on the basis of scores on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Results Impulsive choice was positively correlated with breath alcohol concentration in placebo sessions. Locus of Control was again the sole predictor of NTX’s effect on decision-making among subjects with a family history of alcoholism. We also found a weak interaction between BIS scores and NTX’s effect on impulsive choice. Conclusions Our results reinforce the predictive relationship between Locus of Control and NTX’s effect on decision-making in those with a family history of alcoholism, suggesting a possible biological basis to this relationship. PMID:21569055

Evidence for a dysfunctional prefrontal circuit in patients with an impulsive aggressive disorder

PubMed Central

Best, Mary; Williams, J. Michael; Coccaro, Emil F.

2002-01-01

Humans with lesions to the orbital/medial prefrontal cortex and interconnected areas display impulsive aggressive behavior. To examine further the relationship between impulsive aggression and orbital/medial prefrontal dysfunction, we measured the behavioral performance of psychiatric patients with a disorder characterized by impulsive aggression, Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). Presently, no evidence exists for a localized brain lesion in IED subjects. However, on the basis of the location of brain lesions that produce acquired impulsive aggression, we hypothesized that IED subjects would exhibit test performance similar to patients with lesions to the orbital/medial prefrontal cortex. Subjects with IED and controls were administered three tests sensitive to lesions of the orbital/medial prefrontal circuit: the Iowa Gambling Task, facial emotion recognition, and odor identification, and two control tests of working memory. On the gambling task, IED subjects continued to make disadvantageous decisions throughout the 100 trials, whereas controls learned to avoid disadvantageous decisions. On the facial recognition test, IED subjects were impaired at recognizing “anger,” “disgust,” and “surprise,” and they were biased to label neutral faces with “disgust” and “fear.” On odor identification, IED subjects were mildly anosmic and were impaired relative to controls. However, on the working memory control tests, both groups performed similarly. Across tests, the performance of IED subjects resembles the performance of patients with orbital/medial prefrontal lesions in previous studies. These results extend the link between dysfunction of the orbital/medial prefrontal circuit and impulsive aggressive behavior. PMID:12034876

Self-control and credit-card use among college students.

PubMed

Mansfield, Phylis M; Pinto, Mary Beth; Parente, Diane H

2003-06-01

This study assessed the relationship between self-control and credit-card use with a convenience sample of 165 traditional-age college students of whom 69 (42%) were women. Students' self-control was measured on Grasmick, et al.'s Self-control Scale, which has six subscales, one of which is Impulsivity. Comparisons were made between those students who paid their cards off each month, called convenience users, and those who carried a monthly balance forward on scores on total self-control and impulsivity, and number of credit cards possessed. A significant difference in self-control scores was found between these two groups and also for mean impulsivity scores. Significantly fewer credit cards were possessed by students who paid their cards off each month than by those who carried a monthly balance.

Ground Reaction Forces of the Lead and Trail Limbs when Stepping Over an Obstacle

PubMed Central

Bovonsunthonchai, Sunee; Khobkhun, Fuengfa; Vachalathiti, Roongtiwa

2015-01-01

Background Precise force generation and absorption during stepping over different obstacles need to be quantified for task accomplishment. This study aimed to quantify how the lead limb (LL) and trail limb (TL) generate and absorb forces while stepping over obstacle of various heights. Material/Methods Thirteen healthy young women participated in the study. Force data were collected from 2 force plates when participants stepped over obstacles. Two limbs (right LL and left TL) and 4 conditions of stepping (no obstacle, stepping over 5 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm obstacle heights) were tested for main effect and interaction effect by 2-way ANOVA. Paired t-test and 1-way repeated-measure ANOVA were used to compare differences of variables between limbs and among stepping conditions, respectively. The main effects on the limb were found in first peak vertical force, minimum vertical force, propulsive peak force, and propulsive impulse. Results Significant main effects of condition were found in time to minimum force, time to the second peak force, time to propulsive peak force, first peak vertical force, braking peak force, propulsive peak force, vertical impulse, braking impulse, and propulsive impulse. Interaction effects of limb and condition were found in first peak vertical force, propulsive peak force, braking impulse, and propulsive impulse. Conclusions Adaptations of force generation in the LL and TL were found to involve adaptability to altered external environment during stepping in healthy young adults. PMID:26169293

Sex-specific attenuation of impulsive action by progesterone in a Go/No-go task for cocaine in rats

PubMed Central

Swalve, Natashia; Smethells, John R.; Younk, Rebecca; Mitchell, Jared; Dougen, Ben; Carroll, Marilyn E.

2018-01-01

Rationale Previous work indicated that progesterone (PRO) reduced impulsive choice for cocaine in female but not male rats (Smethells et al. 2016). Impulsive action, typically measured by responding for a reinforcer during a signaled period of nonavailability of natural reinforcers, predicts initiation and escalation of drug use in animals and humans. The present study examined impulsive action for cocaine using progesterone (PRO) in male and female rats trained on a Go/No-go task. Objective Rats were trained on a Go/No-go task to respond for cocaine infusions (0.4 mg/kg/inf). During the “Go” component, responding was reinforced on a VI 30-s schedule; whereas, during the “No-Go” component withholding a response was reinforced on a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) 30-s schedule. A response during the No-go component reset the DRO timer and served as a measure of impulsive action. After baseline responding was established, rats were pretreated with vehicle (VEH) or PRO (0.5 mg/kg), and DRO resets and responding during the Go component for cocaine were compared in males vs. females. Results DRO resets were significantly lower following PRO treatment compared to VEH in female, but not male, rats. Response rates and overall infusions during the Go component were not significantly altered by PRO in either females or males. Conclusion Treatment with PRO resulted in a sex-specific reduction in impulsive action for cocaine, while not affecting cocaine self-administration. PMID:29018893

Cannabis and cocaine decrease cognitive impulse control and functional corticostriatal connectivity in drug users with low activity DBH genotypes.

PubMed

Ramaekers, J G; van Wel, J H; Spronk, D; Franke, B; Kenis, G; Toennes, S W; Kuypers, K P C; Theunissen, E L; Stiers, P; Verkes, R J

2016-12-01

The dopamine β-hydroxylase (DβH) enzyme transforms dopamine into noradrenaline. We hypothesized that individuals with low activity DBH genotypes (rs1611115 CT/TT) are more sensitive to the influence of cannabis and cocaine on cognitive impulse control and functional connectivity in the limbic 'reward' circuit because they experience a drug induced hyperdopaminergic state compared to individuals with high activity DBH genotypes (rs1611115 CC). Regular drug users (N = 122) received acute doses of cannabis (450 μg/kg THC), cocaine HCl 300 mg and placebo. Cognitive impulse control was assessed by means of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). Resting state fMRI was measured in a subset of participants to determine functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and (sub)cortical areas. The influence of cannabis and cocaine on impulsivity and functional connectivity significantly interacted with DBH genotype. Both drugs increased cognitive impulsivity in participants with CT/TT genotypes but not in CC participants. Both drugs also reduced functional connectivity between the NAc and the limbic lobe, prefrontal cortex, striatum and thalamus and primarily in individuals with CT/TT genotypes. Correlational analysis indicated a significant negative association between cognitive impulsivity and functional connectivity in subcortical areas of the brain. It is concluded that interference of cannabis and cocaine with cognitive impulse control and functional corticostriatal connectivity depends on DBH genotype. The present data provide a neural substrate and behavioral mechanism by which drug users can progress to drug seeking and may also offer a rationale for targeted pharmacotherapy in chronic drug users with high risk DBH genotypes.

Lipids, aggression, suicidality and impulsivity in drug-naïve/drug-free patients of schizophrenia.

PubMed

Kavoor, Anjana Rao; Mitra, Sayantanava; Kumar, Sudhir; Sisodia, Anil Kr; Jain, Rakesh

2017-06-01

Present study aimed at determining lipid profiles in acutely symptomatic drug-naïve/drug-free patients of schizophrenia, comparing them with healthy controls and exploring relationships between various lipid fractions, aggression, suicidality and impulsivity in this population. This was a cross-sectional hospital-based study, comparing patients with schizophrenia (M=46, F=14; mean age 32.40±6.6 years; 48 drug-free for 10.50±9.2 weeks) with 60 age-sex matched healthy controls. Upon recruitment, fasting venous blood samples of all subjects were analysed for total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, VLDL and TG levels, and patients were rated on PANSS for symptom severity, Modified Overt Aggression Scale for aggression, Impulsivity Rating Scale for impulsivity and Scale for Suicide Ideation for suicidality. The socio-demographic characteristics of the patients were comparable to controls. In patients, total cholesterol, HDL and LDL levels were found to be significantly lower (p<0.01) than the control group. When explored further in patients, lower total cholesterol and LDL levels showed significant negative correlations with scores on impulsivity (p<0.01) and suicidality (p<0.05); and TG level showed a negative correlation with impulsivity (p<0.05). This study adds to a growing literature on a complex relationship between lipid fractions and impulsivity, suicidality and aggression in schizophrenia; providing interesting insights into the biochemical basis of human behaviour and confirming these in a developing-world population. The implications are many, including a need to review judiciously the promotion of weight loss and cholesterol reduction programmes in constitutionally vulnerable population, at least during their acutely-symptomatic states. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Trunk position influences the kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activity of the lead lower extremity during the forward lunge exercise.

PubMed

Farrokhi, Shawn; Pollard, Christine D; Souza, Richard B; Chen, Yu-Jen; Reischl, Stephen; Powers, Christopher M

2008-07-01

Experimental laboratory study. To examine how a change in trunk position influences the kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activity of the lead lower extremity during the forward lunge exercise. Altering the position of the trunk during the forward lunge exercise is thought to affect the muscular actions of the lead lower extremity. However, no studies have compared the biomechanical differences between the traditional forward lunge and its variations. Ten healthy adults (5 males, 5 females; mean age +/- SD, 26.7 +/- 3.2 years) participated. Lower extremity kinematics, kinetics, and surface electromyographic (EMG) data were obtained while subjects performed 3 lunge exercises: normal lunge with the trunk erect (NL), lunge with the trunk forward (LTF), and lunge with trunk extension (LTE). A 1-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to compare lower extremity kinematics, joint impulse (area under the moment-time curve), and normalized EMG (highest 1-second window of activity for selected lower extremity muscles) among the 3 lunge conditions. During the LTF condition, significant increases were noted in peak hip flexion angle, hip extensor and ankle plantar flexor impulse, as well as gluteus maximus and biceps femoris EMG (P<.015) when compared to the NL condition. During the LTE condition, a significant increase was noted in peak ankle dorsiflexion and a significant decrease was noted in peak hip flexion angle (P<.015) compared to the NL condition. Performing a lunge with the trunk forward increased the hip extensor impulse and the recruitment of the hip extensors. In contrast, performing a forward lunge with the trunk extended did not alter joint impulse or activation of the lower extremity musculature. Therapy, level 5.

Charge-conjugation symmetric complete impulse approximation for the pion electromagnetic form factor in the covariant spectator theory

DOE PAGES

Biernat, Elmar P.; Gross, Franz; Peña, M. T.; ...

2015-10-26

The pion form factor is calculated in the framework of the charge-conjugation invariant covariant spectator theory. This formalism is established in Minkowski space, and the calculation is set up in momentum space. In a previous calculation we included only the leading pole coming from the spectator quark (referred to as the relativistic impulse approximation). In this study we also include the contributions from the poles of the quark which interacts with the photon and average over all poles in both the upper and lower half-planes in order to preserve charge conjugation invariance (referred to as the C-symmetric complete impulse approximation).more » We find that for small pion mass these contributions are significant at all values of the four-momentum transfer Q 2 but, surprisingly, do not alter the shape obtained from the spectator poles alone.« less

Training Disadvantaged Preschoolers on Various Fantasy Activities: Effects on Cognitive Functioning and Impulse Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saltz, Eli; And Others

1977-01-01

A total of 146 disadvantaged preschool children were trained in 1 of 3 different types of fantasy activities. The effects of this training were evaluated over a variety of tasks measuring cognitive development and impulse control. (Author/JMB)

Childhood Reports of Food Neglect and Impulse Control Problems and Violence in Adulthood

PubMed Central

Vaughn, Michael G.; Salas-Wright, Christopher P.; Naeger, Sandra; Huang, Jin; Piquero, Alex R.

2016-01-01

Food insecurity and hunger during childhood are associated with an array of developmental problems in multiple domains, including impulse control problems and violence. Unfortunately, extant research is based primarily on small convenience samples and an epidemiological assessment of the hunger-violence link is lacking. The current study employed data from Wave 1 (2001–2002) and Wave 2 (2004–2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). The NESARC is a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized U.S. residents aged 18 years and older. Participants who experienced frequent hunger during childhood had significantly greater impulsivity, worse self-control, and greater involvement in several forms of interpersonal violence. These effects were stronger among whites, Hispanics, and males. The findings support general theoretical models implicating impulse control problems as a key correlate of crime and violence and add another facet to the importance of ameliorating food neglect in the United States. PMID:27043598

Decision making, impulse control and loss of willpower to resist drugs: a neurocognitive perspective.

PubMed

Bechara, Antoine

2005-11-01

Here I argue that addicted people become unable to make drug-use choices on the basis of long-term outcome, and I propose a neural framework that explains this myopia for future consequences. I suggest that addiction is the product of an imbalance between two separate, but interacting, neural systems that control decision making: an impulsive, amygdala system for signaling pain or pleasure of immediate prospects, and a reflective, prefrontal cortex system for signaling pain or pleasure of future prospects. After an individual learns social rules, the reflective system controls the impulsive system via several mechanisms. However, this control is not absolute; hyperactivity within the impulsive system can override the reflective system. I propose that drugs can trigger bottom-up, involuntary signals originating from the amygdala that modulate, bias or even hijack the goal-driven cognitive resources that are needed for the normal operation of the reflective system and for exercising the willpower to resist drugs.

Binge drinking, reflection impulsivity, and unplanned sexual behavior: impaired decision-making in young social drinkers.

PubMed

Townshend, Julia M; Kambouropoulos, Nicolas; Griffin, Alison; Hunt, Frances J; Milani, Raffaella M

2014-04-01

The repeated pattern of heavy intoxication followed by withdrawal from alcohol (i.e., "binge drinking") has been found to have substantial adverse effects on prefrontal neural systems associated with decision-making and impulse control. Repeated binge drinking has been linked to risky and unplanned sexual behavior; however few studies have examined the role of impulsivity and related cognitive processes in understanding this association. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between binge drinking, "reflection impulsivity" (deficits in gathering and evaluating information during decision-making), alcohol-related expectancies, and unplanned sexual behavior in a sample of young social drinkers. Ninety-two university students completed the alcohol use questionnaire (AUQ) to measure alcohol intake and binge drinking. Two groups (low-binge and high-binge) were generated from the AUQ data. The Information Sampling Task (IST) was used to measure reflection impulsivity; the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) for alcohol outcome expectancies; and an unplanned sexual behavior questionnaire, which asked about the number of unplanned sexual events. When compared to the low-binge drinking group, the high-binge drinkers had significantly more unplanned sexual encounters and were impaired on the IST, reflection-impulsivity task. They scored higher on the alcohol expectancy factors of sociability, risk and aggression, negative self-perception, and in particular liquid courage. In a regression analysis, number of unplanned sexual encounters, binge drinking score, and liquid courage were all significantly related. These results support the role of binge drinking in reduced impulse control and decision-making deficits. The findings indicate that high-binge drinkers demonstrate impairments on an impulse control task similar to that observed in dependent samples and this may be a factor in understanding the negative behavioral consequences associated with excessive alcohol use. Copyright © 2014 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Impatience and Grades: Delay-Discount Rates Correlate Negatively with College Gpa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, K.N.; Winston, G.C.; Santiesteban, M.

2005-01-01

Because the rewards of academic performance in college are often delayed, the delay-discounting model of impulsiveness (Ainslie (1975) [Ainslie, G. Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychological Bulletin, 82 (4), 463-496] predicts that academic performance should tend to decrease as people place less…

Risk-taking behaviors and impulsivity among veterans with and without PTSD and mild TBI.

PubMed

James, Lisa M; Strom, Thad Q; Leskela, Jennie

2014-04-01

Military personnel commonly experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), both of which are associated with premature mortality. The present study examined two factors that may play a role in premature mortality--impulsivity and risk-taking behaviors--in a sample of 234 veterans screening positive for PTSD, mTBI, PTSD + mTBI, and controls. Analyses of variance demonstrated that veterans with PTSD, regardless of mTBI status, reported engaging in more frequent risky behaviors and reported a greater tendency to engage in impulsive behaviors when in a negative affective state. They also reported more premilitary delinquent behaviors and more suicide-related behaviors than controls. The present study highlights associations between impulsivity, risk-taking behaviors, and PTSD, and suggests continuity across the lifespan in terms of a predisposition to engage in impulsive and/or risky behaviors. Thorough evaluation of impulsivity and potentially risky behaviors is important in clinical settings to guide interventions and reduce the mortality and public health impact of high-risk behaviors in veterans. Reprint & Copyright © 2014 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

The Role of Working Memory for Cognitive Control in Anorexia Nervosa versus Substance Use Disorder

PubMed Central

Brooks, Samantha J.; Funk, Sabina G.; Young, Susanne Y.; Schiöth, Helgi B.

2017-01-01

Prefrontal cortex executive functions, such as working memory (WM) interact with limbic processes to foster impulse control. Such an interaction is referred to in a growing body of publications by terms such as cognitive control, cognitive inhibition, affect regulation, self-regulation, top-down control, and cognitive–emotion interaction. The rising trend of research into cognitive control of impulsivity, using various related terms reflects the importance of research into impulse control, as failure to employ cognitions optimally may eventually result in mental disorder. Against this background, we take a novel approach using an impulse control spectrum model – where anorexia nervosa (AN) and substance use disorder (SUD) are at opposite extremes – to examine the role of WM for cognitive control. With this aim, we first summarize WM processes in the healthy brain in order to frame a systematic review of the neuropsychological, neural and genetic findings of AN and SUD. In our systematic review of WM/cognitive control, we found n = 15 studies of AN with a total of n = 582 AN and n = 365 HC participants; and n = 93 studies of SUD with n = 9106 SUD and n = 3028 HC participants. In particular, we consider how WM load/capacity may support the neural process of excessive epistemic foraging (cognitive sampling of the environment to test predictions about the world) in AN that reduces distraction from salient stimuli. We also consider the link between WM and cognitive control in people with SUD who are prone to ‘jumping to conclusions’ and reduced epistemic foraging. Finally, in light of our review, we consider WM training as a novel research tool and an adjunct to enhance treatment that improves cognitive control of impulsivity. PMID:29018381

Impulsive behavior and recurrent major depression associated with dandy-walker variant.

PubMed

Kim, Ji Hyun; Kim, Tae Ho; Choi, Young Chil; Chung, Soon-Cheol; Moon, Seok Woo

2013-09-01

Reported herein is a case of recurrent major depression with impulse control difficulty in a 33-year-old man with Dandy-Walker variant. He was diagnosed as having major depressive disorder a year before he presented himself to the authors' hospital, and had a history of three-time admission to a psychiatric unit in the previous 12 months. He was readmitted and treated with sodium valporate 1,500 mg/day, mirtazapine 45 mg/day, and quetiapine 800 mg/day during the three months that he was confined in the authors' hospital, and the symptoms were reduced within three months but remained thereafter. This is the only case so far reporting recurrent depression with impulse control difficulty associated with Dandy-Walker variant. This case implies that any cerebellar lesion may cause the appearance of recurrent depression with impulse control difficulty in major depressive disorder.

Impulsive Behavior and Recurrent Major Depression Associated with Dandy-Walker Variant

PubMed Central

Kim, Ji Hyun; Kim, Tae Ho; Choi, Young Chil; Chung, Soon-Cheol

2013-01-01

Reported herein is a case of recurrent major depression with impulse control difficulty in a 33-year-old man with Dandy-Walker variant. He was diagnosed as having major depressive disorder a year before he presented himself to the authors' hospital, and had a history of three-time admission to a psychiatric unit in the previous 12 months. He was readmitted and treated with sodium valporate 1,500 mg/day, mirtazapine 45 mg/day, and quetiapine 800 mg/day during the three months that he was confined in the authors' hospital, and the symptoms were reduced within three months but remained thereafter. This is the only case so far reporting recurrent depression with impulse control difficulty associated with Dandy-Walker variant. This case implies that any cerebellar lesion may cause the appearance of recurrent depression with impulse control difficulty in major depressive disorder. PMID:24302956

The Young and the Stressed: Stress, Impulse Control, and Health in College Students.

PubMed

Leppink, Eric W; Odlaug, Brian L; Lust, Katherine; Christenson, Gary; Grant, Jon E

2016-12-01

High levels of stress are common among young adults, particularly those enrolled in college. These degrees of stress have shown numerous deleterious effects across both academic and health variables. Findings regarding the role of stress in the presentation of impulse control disorders, particular among college students, are limited. This study examined potential associations between perceived stress, academic achievement, physical/mental health, and impulse control disorders in young adults. A total of 1805 students completed an online survey and were included in the analysis. Responders were grouped by their overall score on the Perceived Stress Scale into mild, moderate, or severe. Severe perceived stress was associated with worse academic achievement and worse physical health, as well as higher rates of psychiatric and impulsive disorders. These findings may suggest associations between stress and numerous aspects of mental/physical health in young adults, which could be an important consideration for individuals working with college students.

Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity and attempted suicide in rural China: A paired case-control study.

PubMed

Liu, Yang-Yang; Wang, Xin-Ting; Qiu, Hui-Min; Xu, Ai-Qiang; Jia, Cun-Xian

2017-07-01

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between functional and dysfunctional impulsivity and attempted suicide in rural China. Data of this study came from the investigation of 407 suicide attempters and their paired non-suicide attempters matched with the same gender, age (±3 years) and residence area in six counties in rural Shandong, China. Suicide attempters accounted for a lower proportion on high functional impulsivity, but a higher proportion on high dysfunctional impulsivity than non-suicide attempters. Dysfunctional impulsivity in the male denoted a significant risk factor for attempted suicide, even after adjustment for psychiatric disorder and demographic factors. Suicide attempters with high dysfunctional impulsivity had a higher percent of family suicide history than those with low dysfunctional impulsivity. High functional impulsivity was a significant protective factor for attempted suicide in the group aged 35-59 years, but a significant risk factor in the group aged 15-34 years. Suicide attempters with low functional impulsivity had poorer economic status and older age than those with high functional impulsivity. Our findings support the key roles of functional and dysfunctional impulsivity in attempted suicide among rural residents of China. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulse-induced localized control of chaos in starlike networks.

PubMed

Chacón, Ricardo; Palmero, Faustino; Cuevas-Maraver, Jesús

2016-06-01

Locally decreasing the impulse transmitted by periodic pulses is shown to be a reliable method of taming chaos in starlike networks of dissipative nonlinear oscillators, leading to both synchronous periodic states and equilibria (oscillation death). Specifically, the paradigmatic model of damped kicked rotators is studied in which it is assumed that when the rotators are driven synchronously, i.e., all driving pulses transmit the same impulse, the networks display chaotic dynamics. It is found that the taming effect of decreasing the impulse transmitted by the pulses acting on particular nodes strongly depends on their number and degree of connectivity. A theoretical analysis is given explaining the basic physical mechanism as well as the main features of the chaos-control scenario.

Individual differences in components of impulsivity and effortful control moderate the relation between borderline personality disorder traits and emotion recognition in a sample of university students.

PubMed

Preti, Emanuele; Richetin, Juliette; Suttora, Chiara; Pisani, Alberto

2016-04-30

Dysfunctions in social cognition characterize personality disorders. However, mixed results emerged from literature on emotion processing. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) traits are either associated with enhanced emotion recognition, impairments, or equal functioning compared to controls. These apparent contradictions might result from the complexity of emotion recognition tasks used and from individual differences in impulsivity and effortful control. We conducted a study in a sample of undergraduate students (n=80), assessing BPD traits, using an emotion recognition task that requires the processing of only visual information or both visual and acoustic information. We also measured individual differences in impulsivity and effortful control. Results demonstrated the moderating role of some components of impulsivity and effortful control on the capability of BPD traits in predicting anger and happiness recognition. We organized the discussion around the interaction between different components of regulatory functioning and task complexity for a better understanding of emotion recognition in BPD samples. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: crossroads between neurology, psychiatry and neuroscience.

PubMed

Bugalho, Paulo; Oliveira-Maia, Albino J

2013-01-01

Non-motor symptoms contribute significantly to Parkinson's disease (PD) related disability. Impulse control disorders (ICDs) have been recently added to the behavioural spectrum of PD-related non-motor symptoms. Such behaviours are characterized by an inappropriate drive to conduct repetitive behaviours that are usually socially inadequate or result in harmful consequences. Parkinson disease impulse control disorders (PD-ICDs) have raised significant interest in the scientific and medical community, not only because of their incapacitating nature, but also because they may represent a valid model of ICDs beyond PD and a means to study the physiology of drive, impulse control and compulsive actions in the normal brain. In this review, we discuss some unresolved issues regarding PD-ICDs, including the association with psychiatric co-morbidities such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and with dopamine related side effects, such as hallucinations and dyskinesias; the relationship with executive cognitive dysfunction; and the neural underpinnings of ICDs in PD. We also discuss the contribution of neuroscience studies based on animal-models towards a mechanistic explanation of the development of PD-ICDs, specifically regarding corticostriatal control of goal directed and habitual actions.

Evidence for impulsivity in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat drawn from complementary response-withholding tasks

PubMed Central

Sanabria, Federico; Killeen, Peter R

2008-01-01

Background The inability to inhibit reinforced responses is a defining feature of ADHD associated with impulsivity. The Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) has been extolled as an animal model of ADHD, but there is no clear experimental evidence of inhibition deficits in SHR. Attempts to demonstrate these deficits may have suffered from methodological and analytical limitations. Methods We provide a rationale for using two complementary response-withholding tasks to doubly dissociate impulsivity from motivational and motor processes. In the lever-holding task (LHT), continual lever depression was required for a minimum interval. Under a differential reinforcement of low rates schedule (DRL), a minimum interval was required between lever presses. Both tasks were studied using SHR and two normotensive control strains, Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and Long Evans (LE), over an overlapping range of intervals (1 – 5 s for LHT and 5 – 60 s for DRL). Lever-holding and DRL performance was characterized as the output of a mixture of two processes, timing and iterative random responding; we call this account of response inhibition the Temporal Regulation (TR) model. In the context of TR, impulsivity was defined as a bias toward premature termination of the timed intervals. Results The TR model provided an accurate description of LHT and DRL performance. On the basis of TR parameter estimates, SHRs were more impulsive than LE rats across tasks and target times. WKY rats produced substantially shorter timed responses in the lever-holding task than in DRL, suggesting a motivational or motor deficit. The precision of timing by SHR, as measured by the variance of their timed intervals, was excellent, flouting expectations from ADHD research. Conclusion This research validates the TR model of response inhibition and supports SHR as an animal model of ADHD-related impulsivity. It indicates, however, that SHR's impulse-control deficit is not caused by imprecise timing. The use of ad hoc impulsivity metrics and of WKY as control strain for SHR impulsivity are called into question. PMID:18261220

Evaluation of the utility of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in the diagnosis of social anxiety, impulsivity and depression.

PubMed

Tyrała, Kinga; Seweryn, Mariusz; Bonk, Magdalena; Bulska, Weronika; Orszulak, Kamila; Bratek, Agnieszka; Krysta, Krzysztof

2015-09-01

Often mental disorders are serious problems concerning psychological well-being. They require comprehensive and specialized psychiatric and psychological help, but there are no public methods of controlling your mental state. The aim of study was the evaluation of the utility of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in the diagnosis of social anxiety, impulsivity and depression. The study included 85 persons. The study group had 34 patients treated in an open ward of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. The control group included 51 persons without mental disorders. Three self-rating questionnaires were used: Beck Depression Inventory, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Statistica v10 Statsoft software was used for statistical analysis. The analyzed groups had significant differences in terms of Beck Scale (U Mann-Whitney test p=0.000001). Average score in study group: 22.94±12.50; in control group: 7.15±6.44. Groups had significant differences in terms of Liebowitz Scale (U test Mann-Whitney test, p=0.000164). Average score in the study group: 60.41±30.30; in control group: 35.01±23.94. Groups had significant differences in terms of Barratt Scale (t-student test p=0.000601). Average in study group: 66.35±9,49; in control group: 59.54±7.87. Significant positive correlation was observed between the results of Beck Scale and Liebowitz Scale (r=0.64465). Correlation was not observed between the results of the Liebowitz and Barrat (r=0.12091 and Beck and Barrat (r=0.21482). The intensity of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale is directly proportional to the severity of depression according to the Beck Depression Inventory. The degree of impulsivity by Barrat Impulsiveness Scale does not correlate with the level of depression according to Beck Depression Inventory. The analyzed scales are relevant in the diagnosis of mental disorders.

Associations Between Self-Control, Practice, and Skill Level in Sport Expertise Development.

PubMed

Tedesqui, Rafael A B; Young, Bradley W

2017-03-01

The purpose of this study was to test the association between self-control (SC) variables and (a) sport-specific practice amounts, (b) engagement in various practice contexts, (c) threats to commitment to one's sport, and (d) skill development using the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) in a diverse sport sample. Two hundred forty-four athletes (47% female; M age  = 21.96 years, SD = 6.98 years; 68.8% individual sports and 31.2% team sports; 13.77 [SD = 8.12] hr/week of sport-specific practice) completed a survey composed of the BSCS and practice-related measures. Three skill groups (basic/intermediate, advanced, expert) were informed by athletes' self-reported highest level of competition. Separate analyses were conducted for juniors (aged 12-17 years) and seniors (aged 18-43 years). A 2-factor model (self-discipline and impulse control) fit the BSCS data. Fewer thoughts of quitting from one's sport were associated with higher self-discipline in juniors and seniors and were also related to higher impulse control in seniors. Greater practice amounts were associated with higher self-discipline; however, only seniors showed such associations in voluntary practice contexts. For juniors and seniors, impulse control was associated with more voluntary practicing. There were, however, no skill-group differences for levels of self-discipline or impulse control. Self-discipline and impulse control may be dispositional characteristics associated with how athletes engage in practice and avert conditions that threaten their sport commitment. SC dispositions may relate to practice amounts differently in juniors and seniors, depending on the requirements for self-regulation in a practice context.

Lower limb ice application alters ground reaction force during gait initiation

PubMed Central

Muniz, Thiago B.; Moraes, Renato; Guirro, Rinaldo R. J.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Cryotherapy is a widely used technique in physical therapy clinics and sports. However, the effects of cryotherapy on dynamic neuromuscular control are incompletely explained. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of cryotherapy applied to the calf, ankle and sole of the foot in healthy young adults on ground reaction forces during gait initiation. METHOD: This study evaluated the gait initiation forces, maximum propulsion, braking forces and impulses of 21 women volunteers through a force platform, which provided maximum and minimum ground reaction force values. To assess the effects of cooling, the task - gait initiation - was performed before ice application, immediately after and 30 minutes after removal of the ice pack. Ice was randomly applied on separate days to the calf, ankle and sole of the foot of the participants. RESULTS: It was demonstrated that ice application for 30 minutes to the sole of the foot and calf resulted in significant changes in the vertical force variables, which returned to their pre-application values 30 minutes after the removal of the ice pack. Ice application to the ankle only reduced propulsion impulse. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that although caution is necessary when performing activities that require good gait control, the application of ice to the ankle, sole of the foot or calf in 30-minute intervals may be safe even preceding such activities. PMID:25993625

Steroid 5α-reductase 2 deficiency leads to reduced dominance-related and impulse-control behaviors.

PubMed

Mosher, Laura J; Godar, Sean C; Morissette, Marc; McFarlin, Kenneth M; Scheggi, Simona; Gambarana, Carla; Fowler, Stephen C; Di Paolo, Thérèse; Bortolato, Marco

2018-05-01

The enzyme steroid 5α-reductase 2 (5αR2) catalyzes the conversion of testosterone into the potent androgen 5α-dihydrotestosterone. Previous investigations showed that 5αR2 is expressed in key brain areas for emotional and socio-affective reactivity, yet the role of this enzyme in behavioral regulation remains mostly unknown. Here, we profiled the behavioral characteristics of 5αR2 heterozygous (HZ) and knockout (KO) mice, as compared with their wild-type (WT) littermates. While male 5αR2 KO mice displayed no overt alterations in motoric, sensory, information-processing and anxiety-related behaviors, they exhibited deficits in neurobehavioral correlates of dominance (including aggression against intruders, mating, and tube dominance) as well as novelty-seeking and risk-taking responses. Furthermore, male 5αR2 KO mice exhibited reduced D 2 -like dopamine receptor binding in the shell of the nucleus accumbens - a well-recognized molecular signature of social dominance. Collectively, these results suggest that 5αR2 is involved in the establishment of social dominance and its behavioral manifestations. Further studies are warranted to understand how the metabolic actions of 5αR2 on steroid profile may be implicated in social ranking, impulse control, and the modulation of dopamine receptor expression in the nucleus accumbens. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Daily morphine administration increases impulsivity in rats responding under a 5‐choice serial reaction time task

PubMed Central

Maguire, DR; Henson, C

2016-01-01

Background and Purpose Repeated administration of a μ opioid receptor agonist can enhance some forms of impulsivity, such as delay discounting. However, it is unclear whether repeated administration alters motor impulsivity. Experimental Approach We examined the effects of acute administration of morphine and amphetamine prior to and during daily morphine administration in rats responding under a five‐choice serial reaction time task. Rats (n = 5) were trained to detect a brief flash of light presented randomly in one of five response holes; responding in the target hole delivered food, whereas responding in the wrong hole or responding prior to illumination of the target stimulus (premature response) initiated a timeout. Premature responding served as an index of motor impulsivity. Key Results Administered acutely, morphine (0.1–10 mg·kg−1, i.p.) increased omissions and modestly, although not significantly, premature responding without affecting response accuracy; amphetamine (0.1–1.78 mg·kg−1, i.p.) increased premature responding without changing omissions or response accuracy. After 3 weeks of 10 mg·kg−1·day−1 morphine, tolerance developed to its effects on omissions whereas premature responding increased approximately fourfold, compared with baseline. Effects of amphetamine were not significantly affected by daily morphine administration. Conclusions and Implications These data suggest that repeated administration of morphine increased effects of morphine on motor impulsivity, although tolerance developed to other effects, such as omissions. To the extent that impulsivity is a risk factor for drug abuse, repeated administration of μ opioid receptor agonists, for recreational or therapeutic purposes, might increase impulsivity and thus the risk for drug abuse. PMID:26776751

Second-to-fourth digit ratio and impulsivity: a comparison between offenders and nonoffenders.

PubMed

Hanoch, Yaniv; Gummerum, Michaela; Rolison, Jonathan

2012-01-01

Personality characteristics, particularly impulsive tendencies, have long been conceived as the primary culprit in delinquent behavior. One crucial question to emerge from this line of work is whether impulsivity has a biological basis. To test this possibility, 44 male offenders and 46 nonoffenders completed the Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire, and had their 2D∶4D ratio measured. Offenders exhibited smaller right hand digit ratio measurements compared to non-offenders, but higher impulsivity scores. Both impulsivity and 2D∶4D ratio measurements significantly predicted criminality (offenders vs. nonoffenders). Controlling for education level, the 2D∶4D ratio measurements had remained a significant predictor of criminality, while impulsivity scores no longer predicted criminality significantly. Our data, thus, indicates that impulsivity but not 2D∶4D ratio measurements relate to educational attainment. As offenders varied in their number of previous convictions and the nature of their individual crimes, we also tested for differences in 2D∶4D ratio and impulsivity among offenders. Number of previous convictions did not correlate significantly with the 2D∶4D ratio measurements or impulsivity scores. Our study established a link between a biological marker and impulsivity among offenders (and lack thereof among non-offenders), which emphasise the importance of studying the relationship between biological markers, impulsivity and criminal behavior.

Performance of hybrid and single-frequency impulse GPR antennas on USGA sporting greens

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The utility of employing ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technologies for environmental surveys can vary, depending upon the physical properties of the site. Environmental conditions can fluctuate, altering soil properties. Operator proficiency and survey methodology will also influence GPR findings....

Framing alters risk-taking behavior on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in a sex-specific manner.

PubMed

Gabriel, Kara I; Williamson, Ashley

2010-12-01

Framing uncertain scenarios to emphasize potential positive or negative elements influences decision making and behavior. The current experiment investigated sex differences in framing effects on risk-taking propensity in a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Male and female undergraduates completed questionnaires on sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and risk and benefit perception prior to viewing one of three framing conditions for the BART: (1) positively-framed instructions emphasizing the ability to earn money if balloons were inflated to large size; (2) negatively framed instructions emphasizing the possibility that money could be lost if balloons were inflated to bursting; and (3) completely framed instructions noting both possible outcomes. Results revealed correlations between BART performance and impulsiveness for both sexes. Compared to positive and complete framing, negatively framed instructions decreased balloon inflation time in women but not men, indicating sex differences in response to treatments designed to alter risk-taking behavior.

Control conditions for footwear insole and orthotic research.

PubMed

Lewinson, Ryan T; Worobets, Jay T; Stefanyshyn, Darren J

2016-07-01

Footwear insoles/orthotics alter variables associated with musculoskeletal injury; however, their clinical effectiveness is inconclusive. One explanation for this is the possibility that control conditions may actually produce biomechanical changes that induce clinical responses. The purpose of this study was to compare insole/orthotic control conditions to identify if variables at the ground, ankle and knee that are associated with injury are altered relative to what participants would normally experience in their own shoes. Gait analysis was performed on 15 participants during walking and running while wearing (1) their own shoes, (2) #1 with a 3mm flat insole, (3) a standardized shoe, and (4) #3 with a 3mm flat insole, where external knee adduction moments, external knee adduction angular impulses, internal ankle inversion moments, and vertical ground reaction force loading rates were determined. Conditions 2-4 were expressed as percent changes relative to condition 1, and tests of proportions assessed if there were a significant number of individuals experiencing a biomechanically relevant change for each variable. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to identify group differences between conditions. The majority of movement-footwear-variable combinations contained a proportion of individuals experiencing biomechanically relevant changes compared to condition 1 that was significantly greater than the expected proportion of 20%. No systematic differences were found between conditions. This suggests that conditions 2-4 may alter biomechanics relative to baseline for many participants, but not in a consistent way across participants. It is recommended that participant's own footwear be used as control conditions in future trials where biomechanics are primary variables of interest. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulsive-aggressive behaviours and completed suicide across the life cycle: a predisposition for younger age of suicide.

PubMed

McGirr, A; Renaud, J; Bureau, A; Seguin, M; Lesage, A; Turecki, G

2008-03-01

It is unclear whether the association between impulsive-aggressive behaviours and suicide exists across different ages. Via psychological autopsy, we examined a total of 645 subjects aged 11-87 years who died by suicide. Proxy-based interviews were conducted using the SCID-I & SCID-II or K-SADS interviews and a series of behavioural and personality-trait assessments. Secondarily, 246 living controls were similarly assessed. Higher levels of impulsivity, lifetime history of aggression, and novelty seeking were associated with younger age of death by suicide, while increasing levels of harm avoidance were associated with increasing age of suicide. This effect was observed after accounting for age-related psychopathology (current and lifetime depressive disorders, lifetime anxiety disorders, current and lifetime substance abuse disorders, psychotic disorders and cluster B personality disorders). Age effects were not due to the characteristics of informants, and such effects were not observed among living controls. When directly controlling for major psychopathology, the interaction between age, levels of impulsivity, aggression and novelty seeking predicted suicide status while controlling for the independent contributions of age and these traits. Higher levels of impulsive-aggressive traits play a greater role in suicide occurring among younger individuals, with decreasing importance with increasing age.

Impulse oscillometry and obesity in children.

PubMed

Assumpção, Maíra S de; Ribeiro, José D; Wamosy, Renata M G; Figueiredo, Fernanda C X S de; Parazzi, Paloma L F; Schivinski, Camila I S

2017-09-08

To compare impulse oscillometry system parameters of normal-weight children with overweight and obese children. All participants were submitted to the evaluation of lung function (spirometry and impulse oscillometry) following the American Thoracic Society standards. The evaluation of respiratory mechanics was performed using the Jaeger™ MasterScreen™ Impulse Oscillometry System (Erich Jaeger, Germany), three tests were recorded, with acquisition for at least 20s. The study included 81 children (30 in the control group, 21 in the overweight group, and 30 the in obesity group), matched for age and sex. Regarding spirometry data, obesity group showed higher numerical values in relation to the control group; however, there were no significant differences among the three groups. For impulse oscillometry parameters, there was a difference between control group and obesity group for respiratory impedance (p=0.036), resistance at 5hertz (p=0.026), resonant frequency (p=0.029), and reactance area (p=0.014). For the parameters expressed in percentage of predicted, there were differences in resistance at 5 hertz, resonant frequency, and reactance area between control group and obesity group. Obese children showed increased oscillometry parameters values representative of airway obstruction, compared to normal-weight children. Changes in some oscillometry parameters can already be observed in overweight school-aged children. Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Think twice: Impulsivity and decision making in obsessive–compulsive disorder

PubMed Central

Grassi, Giacomo; Pallanti, Stefano; Righi, Lorenzo; Figee, Martijn; Mantione, Mariska; Denys, Damiaan; Piccagliani, Daniele; Rossi, Alessandro; Stratta, Paolo

2015-01-01

Background and Aims Recent studies have challenged the anxiety-avoidance model of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), linking OCD to impulsivity, risky-decision-making and reward-system dysfunction, which can also be found in addiction and might support the conceptualization of OCD as a behavioral addiction. Here, we conducted an exploratory investigation of the behavioral addiction model of OCD by assessing whether OCD patients are more impulsive, have impaired decision-making, and biased probabilistic reasoning, three core dimensions of addiction, in a sample of OCD patients and healthy controls. Methods We assessed these dimensions on 38 OCD patients and 39 healthy controls with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Beads Task. Results OCD patients had significantly higher BIS-11 scores than controls, in particular on the cognitive subscales. They performed significantly worse than controls on the IGT preferring immediate reward despite negative future consequences, and did not learn from losses. Finally, OCD patients demonstrated biased probabilistic reasoning as reflected by significantly fewer draws to decision than controls on the Beads Task. Conclusions OCD patients are more impulsive than controls and demonstrate risky decision-making and biased probabilistic reasoning. These results might suggest that other conceptualizations of OCD, such as the behavioral addiction model, may be more suitable than the anxiety-avoidance one. However, further studies directly comparing OCD and behavioral addiction patients are needed in order to scrutinize this model. PMID:26690621

Targeted isometric force impulses in patients with traumatic brain injury reveal delayed motor programming and change of strategy.

PubMed

Cantagallo, Anna; Di Russo, Francesco; Favilla, Marco; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi

2015-04-15

The capability of quickly (as soon as possible) producing fast uncorrected and accurate isometric force impulses was examined to assess the motor efficiency of patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and good motor recovery at a clinical evaluation. Twenty male right-handed patients with moderate to severe TBI and 24 age-matched healthy male right-handed controls participated in the study. The experimental task required subjects to aim brief and uncorrected isometric force impulses to targets visually presented along with subjects' force displays. Both TBI patients and controls were able to produce force impulses whose mean peak amplitudes varied proportionally to the target load with no detectable group difference. Patients with TBI, however, were slower than controls in initiating their responses (reaction times [RTs] were longer by 125 msec) and were also slower during the execution of their motor responses, reaching the peak forces requested 23 msec later than controls (time to peak force: 35% delay). Further, their mean dF/dt (35 kg/sec) was slower than that of controls (53 kg/sec), again indicating a 34% impairment with respect to controls. Overall, patients with TBI showed accurate but delayed and slower isometric force impulses. Thus, an evaluation taking into account also response time features is more effective in picking up motor impairments than the standard clinical scales focusing on accuracy of movement only.

Diet-induced impulsivity: Effects of a high-fat and a high-sugar diet on impulsive choice in rats

PubMed Central

Pirkle, Jesseca R. A.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2017-01-01

Impulsive choice is a common charactertistic among individuals with gambling problems, obesity, and substance abuse issues. Impulsive choice has been classified as a trans-disease process, and understanding the etiology of trait impulsivity could help to understand how diseases and disorders related to impulsive choice are manifested. The Western diet is a possible catalyst of impulsive choice as individuals who are obese and who eat diets high in fat and sugar are typically more impulsive. However, such correlational evidence is unable to discern the direction and causal nature of the relationship. The present study sought to determine how diet may directly contribute to impulsive choice. After 8 weeks of dietary exposure (high-fat, high-sugar, chow), the rats were tested on an impulsive choice task, which presented choices between a smaller-sooner reward (SS) and a larger-later reward (LL). Then, the rats were transferred to a chow diet and retested on the impulsive choice task. The high-sugar and high-fat groups made significantly more impulsive choices than the chow group. Both groups became more self-controlled when they were off the diet, but there were some residual effects of the diet on choice behavior. These results suggest that diet, specifically one high in processed fat or sugar, induces impulsive choice. This diet-induced impulsivity could be a precursor to other disorders that are characterized by impulsivity, such as diet-induced obesity, and could offer potential understanding of the trans-disease nature of impulsive choice. PMID:28662133

Diet-induced impulsivity: Effects of a high-fat and a high-sugar diet on impulsive choice in rats.

PubMed

Steele, Catherine C; Pirkle, Jesseca R A; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2017-01-01

Impulsive choice is a common charactertistic among individuals with gambling problems, obesity, and substance abuse issues. Impulsive choice has been classified as a trans-disease process, and understanding the etiology of trait impulsivity could help to understand how diseases and disorders related to impulsive choice are manifested. The Western diet is a possible catalyst of impulsive choice as individuals who are obese and who eat diets high in fat and sugar are typically more impulsive. However, such correlational evidence is unable to discern the direction and causal nature of the relationship. The present study sought to determine how diet may directly contribute to impulsive choice. After 8 weeks of dietary exposure (high-fat, high-sugar, chow), the rats were tested on an impulsive choice task, which presented choices between a smaller-sooner reward (SS) and a larger-later reward (LL). Then, the rats were transferred to a chow diet and retested on the impulsive choice task. The high-sugar and high-fat groups made significantly more impulsive choices than the chow group. Both groups became more self-controlled when they were off the diet, but there were some residual effects of the diet on choice behavior. These results suggest that diet, specifically one high in processed fat or sugar, induces impulsive choice. This diet-induced impulsivity could be a precursor to other disorders that are characterized by impulsivity, such as diet-induced obesity, and could offer potential understanding of the trans-disease nature of impulsive choice.

Impulsivity, aggression and suicidal behavior in unipolar and bipolar disorders.

PubMed

Perroud, Nader; Baud, Patrick; Mouthon, Dominique; Courtet, Philippe; Malafosse, Alain

2011-11-01

Predictors of suicidal behaviors (SB) in bipolar (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) patients are poorly understood. It has been recognized that behavioral dysregulation characterizes SB with traits of impulsivity and aggression being particularly salient. However, little is known about how these traits are segregated among mood disorder patients with and without a history of suicide attempt (SA). This article aims to compare impulsivity and aggression between 143 controls, 138 BD and 186 MDD subjects with or without a history of SA. BD and MDD patients showed higher impulsivity scores (BIS-10 = 57.9 vs. 44.7, p < 0.0001) and more severe lifetime aggression than controls (Lifetime History of Aggression = 7.3 vs. 3.9, p < 0.0001). Whereas impulsivity helped to distinguish MDD subjects without a history of SA from those with such a history, this was not the case in BD subjects where no difference in impulsive traits was observed between BD without and with history of SA (57.2 vs. 63.2 for BIS-10; p = 0.259). Impulsive and aggressive traits were strongly correlated in suicide attempters (independently of the diagnosis) but not in non-suicide attempters. Dimensional traits were not characterized at different stages of illness. Impulsivity, as a single trait, may be a reliable suicide risk marker in MDD but not in BD patients, and its strong correlation with aggressive traits seems specifically related to SB. Our study therefore suggests that the specific dimension of impulsive aggression should be systematically assessed in mood disorder patients to address properly their suicidal risk. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Unique Contribution of Emotional Impulsiveness to Impairment in Major Life Activities in Hyperactive Children as Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barkley, Russell A.; Fischer, Mariellen

2010-01-01

Objective: Emotional impulsiveness (EI) may be a central feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) contributing impairment beyond the two ADHD dimensions of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Method: We evaluated EI in hyperactive (N = 135) and control (N = 75) children followed to adulthood (mean age 27 years). The…

Evaluating Self-Control and Impulsivity in Children with Severe Behavior Disorders.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vollmer, Timothy R.; Borrero, John C.; Lalli, Joseph S.; Daniel, Dency

1999-01-01

This study evaluated self-control and impulsivity in two nine-year- old males with severe developmental disabilities and behavior disorders. Functional analyses suggested that aggression was reinforced by food access. A differential reinforcement procedure to reinforce appropriate mands was implemented. Although aggression occurred when it…

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Novel Self-Help Technique for Impulse Control Disorders: A Study on Nail-Biting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moritz, Steffen; Treszl, Andras; Rufer, Michael

2011-01-01

Nail-biting is currently classified as an impulse control disorder not otherwise specified. Although seldom targeted as a primary symptom, nail-biting is often associated with somatic complications and decreased quality of life. The present study assessed the effectiveness of an innovative self-help technique, titled decoupling (DC). DC aims at…

Sex modulates approach systems and impulsivity in substance dependence.

PubMed

Perry, Robert I; Krmpotich, Theodore; Thompson, Laetitia L; Mikulich-Gilbertson, Susan K; Banich, Marie T; Tanabe, Jody

2013-11-01

Personality traits such as pathological engagement in approach behaviors, high levels of impulsivity and heightened negative affect are consistently observed in substance dependent individuals (SDI). The clinical course of addiction has been shown to differ between sexes. For example, women increase their rates of consumption of some drugs of abuse more quickly than men. Despite the potential influence of personality and sex on features of addiction, few studies have investigated the interaction of these factors in substance dependence. Fifty-one SDI (26 males, 25 females) and 66 controls (41 males, 25 females) completed the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) Scales, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X). Data were analyzed with 2×2 ANCOVAs testing for main effects of group, sex and group by sex interactions, adjusting for education level. Significant group by sex interactions were observed for BAS scores [F(1,116)=7.03, p<.01] and Barratt Motor Impulsiveness [F(1,116)=6.11, p<.02] with female SDI showing the highest approach tendencies and impulsivity followed by male SDI, male controls, and finally female controls. SDI scored higher on negative affect [F(1,116)=25.23, p<.001] than controls. Behavioral Inhibition System scores were higher in women than men [F(1,116)=14.03, p<.001]. Higher BAS and motor impulsivity in SDI women relative to SDI men and control women suggest that personality traits that have been previously associated with drug use may be modulated by sex. These factors may contribute to differences in the disease course observed in male compared to female drug users. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affective traits of psychopathy are linked to white-matter abnormalities in impulsive male offenders.

PubMed

Vermeij, Anouk; Kempes, Maaike M; Cima, Maaike J; Mars, Rogier B; Brazil, Inti A

2018-04-26

Psychopathy is a personality disorder typified by lack of empathy and impulsive antisocial behavior. Psychopathic traits may partly relate to disrupted connections between brain regions. The aim of the present study was to link abnormalities in microstructural integrity of white-matter tracts to the severity of different psychopathic traits in 15 male offenders with impulse control problems and 10 without impulse control problems. Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R). Diffusion-weighted MRI was used to examine white-matter tracts. Fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white-matter integrity, was calculated for each voxel. Clusters of voxels showing a significant relationship with psychopathy severity were submitted to probabilistic tractography. No significant correlations between psychopathy severity and FA were present in the whole group of impulsive and nonimpulsive offenders. In impulsive offenders, interpersonal-affective traits (PCL-R Factor 1) were negatively correlated with FA in the anterior and posterior temporal lobe and orbitofrontal area. Further analyses indicated that elevated affective traits (PCL-R Facet 2) were specifically related to reduced FA in the right temporal lobe. Our findings suggest that white-matter abnormalities in temporal and frontotemporal tracts may be linked to the interpersonal-affective deficits of psychopathy in offenders with relatively severe impulse control problems. Our study offers novel insights into the relationships between the four facets of psychopathy and disrupted structural connectivity, and may provide new leads for further characterization of different subtypes of antisocial populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Response inhibition and impulsive decision-making in sexual offenders against children.

PubMed

Turner, Daniel; Laier, Christian; Brand, Matthias; Bockshammer, Tamara; Welsch, Robin; Rettenberger, Martin

2018-05-31

Current theories view impulsivity as an important factor in the explanation of sexual offending. While impulsivity itself is a multidimensional construct, response inhibition and impulsive decision-making are frequently discussed subcomponents. Impulsivity in sexual offenders could be triggered by sexual cues with high emotional significance. The present study compared response inhibition abilities and the degree of impulsive decision-making between 63 child sexual abusers and 63 nonoffending controls. A Go/No-Go task was used to assess response inhibition, while the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Game of Dice Task (GDT) were used for the assessment of decision-making. In contrast to previous studies, modified versions of the Go/No-Go task and the IGT were used, including pictures of the Not Real People-Set depicting nude adults and children. Child sexual abusers showed more deficits in response inhibition in the Go/No-Go task. Furthermore, decision-making was especially impaired by the presence of child images in child sexual abusers with more intense pedophilic sexual interests. In contrast, in the nonoffending controls the presence of preferred sexual cues (pictures of women) improved decision-making performance. No differences in overall GDT performance were found between the groups; however, child sexual abusers chose the riskiest option more frequently than nonoffending controls. In line with theoretical assumptions about the processes underlying sexual offending, child sexual abusers show more deficits in neuropsychological functioning, which may be related to more impulsive behaviors. These impairments could be triggered by the presence of sexually relevant cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Risk factors for suicide completion in major depression: a case-control study of impulsive and aggressive behaviors in men.

PubMed

Dumais, A; Lesage, A D; Alda, M; Rouleau, G; Dumont, M; Chawky, N; Roy, M; Mann, J J; Benkelfat, C; Turecki, Gustavo

2005-11-01

Major depression is a major risk factor for suicide. However, not all individuals with major depression commit suicide. Impulsive and aggressive behaviors have been proposed as risk factors for suicide, but it remains unclear whether their effect on the risk of suicide is at least partly explained by axis I disorders commonly associated with suicide, such as major depression. With a case-control design, a comparison of the level of impulsive and aggressive behaviors and the prevalence of associated psychopathology was carried out with control for the presence of primary psychopathology. One hundred and four male suicide completers who died during an episode of major depression and 74 living depressed male comparison subjects were investigated with proxy-based interviews by using structured diagnostic instruments and personality trait assessments. The authors found that current (6-month prevalence) alcohol abuse/dependence, current drug abuse/dependence, and cluster B personality disorders increased the risk of suicide in individuals with major depression. Also, higher levels of impulsivity and aggression were associated with suicide. An analysis by age showed that these risk factors were more specific to younger suicide victims (ages 18-40). A multivariate analysis indicated that current alcohol abuse/dependence and cluster B personality disorder were two independent predictors of suicide. Impulsive-aggressive personality disorders and alcohol abuse/dependence were two independent predictors of suicide in major depression, and impulsive and aggressive behaviors seem to underlie these risk factors. A developmental hypothesis of suicidal behavior, with impulsive and aggressive behaviors as the starting point, is discussed.

Walking dynamics of the passive compass-gait model under OGY-based control: Emergence of bifurcations and chaos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gritli, Hassène; Belghith, Safya

2017-06-01

An analysis of the passive dynamic walking of a compass-gait biped model under the OGY-based control approach using the impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics is presented in this paper. We describe our strategy for the development of a simplified analytical expression of a controlled hybrid Poincaré map and then for the design of a state-feedback control. Our control methodology is based mainly on the linearization of the impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics around a desired nominal one-periodic hybrid limit cycle. Our analysis of the controlled walking dynamics is achieved by means of bifurcation diagrams. Some interesting nonlinear phenomena are displayed, such as the period-doubling bifurcation, the cyclic-fold bifurcation, the period remerging, the period bubbling and chaos. A comparison between the raised phenomena in the impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics and the hybrid Poincaré map under control was also presented.

The Prospective Joint Effects of Self-Regulation and Impulsive Processes on Early Adolescence Alcohol Use

PubMed Central

O’Connor, Roisin M.; Colder, Craig R.

2015-01-01

Objective: Dual-process models propose that behavior is influenced by the interactive effect of impulsive (automatic) and selfregulatory (controlled) processes. Elaborations of this model posit that the effect of impulsive processes on alcohol use is influenced by capacity and motivation to self-regulate. The interactive effect of these three processes on drinking has not previously been tested. The goal of this study was to provide a developmental extension of this model to early adolescent alcohol use and to test the three-way interaction between impulsive processes (implicit alcohol cognition), self-regulatory capacity (inhibitory and activation control), and self-regulatory motivation (negative alcohol outcome expectancies [AOE]) in a 1-year prospective prediction of adolescent alcohol use. Method: Adolescents (N = 325; 54% girls, mean age = 13.6 years at baseline) completed the Single Category Implicit Association Test and self-reports of alcohol expectancies and use. Inhibitory and activation control were based on parental report. Results: Negative AOE and inhibitory/activation control were supported as moderators of the effect of implicit alcohol cognition on 1-year prospective alcohol use. As expected, weak implicit negative alcohol cognition was associated with elevated alcohol use when both negative AOE and inhibitory control were low. Contrary to hypothesis, when activation control was high, weak implicit negative alcohol cognition was unrelated to alcohol use if negative AOE were high (p = .72) (vs. low, p < .01).Activation control may reflect the ability to plan ahead and act pro-socially. Conclusions: Our study supports current theory suggesting alcohol use is influenced by a complex interplay of impulsive and self-regulatory processes. PMID:26562596

Aggressive Behavior Among Military Veterans in Substance Use Disorder Treatment: The Roles of Posttraumatic Stress and Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Heinz, Adrienne J.; Makin-Byrd, Kerry; Blonigen, Daniel M.; Reilly, Patrick; Timko, Christine

2015-01-01

This study examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and impulsivity as predictors of aggressive behavior among 133 male military Veterans entering substance abuse treatment who endorsed difficulty controlling anger in the past year. At treatment intake, participants completed measures assessing PTSD symptom severity, impulsivity and aggressive behavior. Perpetration of aggressive behavior was reassessed four months later. Results from multivariate models indicated that PTSD symptom severity and impulsivity explained unique variance in aggressive behavior at intake but not follow-up. Mediation models indicated that the association between PTSD symptom severity and aggressive behavior was accounted for by impulsivity. The identification of impulsivity as a key mediator between trauma symptoms and aggressive behavior has significant clinical and research implications. Based on these findings, clinicians are encouraged to consider a standard assessment of impulsivity and the selection of interventions that target impulsivity as a trans-diagnostic process among at-risk client populations. PMID:25468005

Impulsivity moderates the relationship between previous quit failure and cue-induced craving.

PubMed

Erblich, Joel; Michalowski, Alexandra

2015-12-01

Poor inhibitory control has been shown to be an important predictor of relapse to a number of drugs, including nicotine. Indeed, smokers who exhibit higher levels of impulsivity are thought to have impaired regulation of urges to smoke, and previous research has suggested that impulsivity may moderate cue-induced cigarette cravings. To that end, we conducted a study to evaluate the interplay between failed smoking cessation, cue-induced craving, and impulsivity. Current smokers (n=151) rated their cigarette cravings before and after laboratory to exposure to smoking cues, and completed questionnaires assessing impulsivity and previous failed quit attempts. Findings indicated that shorter duration of previous failed quit attempts was related to higher cue-induced cigarette craving, especially among smokers with higher levels of impulsivity. Results underscore the importance of considering trait impulsivity as a factor in better understanding the management of cue-induced cravings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity Moderates the Relationship between Previous Quit Failure and Cue-induced Craving

PubMed Central

Erblich, Joel; Michalowski, Alexandra

2015-01-01

Introduction Poor inhibitory control has been shown to be an important predictor of relapse to a number of drugs, including nicotine. Indeed, smokers who exhibit higher levels of impulsivity are thought to have impaired regulation of urges to smoke, and previous research has suggested that impulsivity may moderate cue-induced cigarette cravings. To that end, we conducted a study to evaluate the interplay between failed smoking cessation, cue-induced craving, and impulsivity. Methods Current smokers (n=151) rated their cigarette cravings before and after laboratory to exposure to smoking cues, and completed questionnaires assessing impulsivity and previous failed quit attempts. Results Findings indicated that shorter duration of previous failed quit attempts was related to higher cue-induced cigarette craving, especially among smokers with higher levels of impulsivity. Conclusions Results underscore the importance of considering trait impulsivity as a factor in better understanding the management of cue-induced cravings. PMID:26183443

Comparing Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention with Treatment as Usual on Impulsivity and Relapse for Methadone-Treated Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Yaghubi, Mehdi; Zargar, Fatemeh; Akbari, Hossein

2017-07-01

Impulsivity is one of the causes of relapse that can affect treatment outcomes. Studies have shown that addiction treatments can reduce impulsivity in drug-dependent individuals. Studies also have suggested that mindfulness is associated with impulsivity. However, no study has investigated the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based intervention on impulsivity in opioid-dependent individuals. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) with treatment as usual (TAU) in terms of impulsivity and relapse for methadone-treated patients. The present randomized controlled clinical trial was performed in Kashan, Iran, in 2015. The study population was opioid-dependent patients referred to Maintenance Treatment Centers. Seventy patients were selected by random sampling and were assigned in two groups (MBRP and TAU) randomly. The participants of two groups filled out Barratt impulsivity scale (BIS-11) as a pre-test and 8 weeks later as post-test and 2 months later as a follow-up. Both groups received methadone-therapy. The MBRP group received 8 sessions of group therapy, while the control group did not receive any group psychotherapy session. Finally, data from 60 patients were analyzed statistically. The MBRP group had decreased impulsivity significantly (P < 0.001). The mean impulsivity score was 74.76 ± 4.72 before intervention that was significantly decreased to 57.66 ± 3.73 and 58.86 ± 3.57 after the intervention and follow-up (P < 0.001), respectively. In addition, significant differences were observed between MBRP and TAU groups for relapse frequency (P < 0.050). This study showed that MBRP compared to TAU can decrease the mean impulsivity score in opioid-dependent and reduce relapse probability. These findings suggest that MBRP is useful for opioid-dependent individuals with high-level impulsivity, and relapse prevention.

Transpersonal: The New Educational Psychology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Thomas Bradford

This article lists some of the major ideas and topics of interest in transpersonal psychology and illustrates them with examples of transpersonal education applied to schools. Transpersonal psychology includes psychological aspects of such things as new world views, altered states of consciousness, an impulse toward higher states, self-realization…

Decreased Callosal Thickness in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Luders, Eileen; Narr, Katherine L.; Hamilton, Liberty S.; Phillips, Owen R.; Thompson, Paul M.; Valle, Jessica S.; Del'Homme, Melissa; Strickland, Tony; McCracken, James T.; Toga, Arthur W.; Levitt, Jennifer G.

2009-01-01

Background Neuroimaging studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have revealed structural abnormalities in the brains of affected individuals. One of the most replicated alterations is a significantly smaller corpus callosum (CC), for which conflicting reports exist with respect to the affected callosal segments. Methods We applied novel surface-based geometrical modeling methods to establish the presence, direction, and exact location of callosal alterations in ADHD at high spatial resolution. For this purpose, we calculated the thickness of the CC at 100 equidistant midsagittal points in an age-matched male sample of 19 individuals with ADHD and 19 typically developing control subjects. Results In close agreement with many prior observations, the CC was shown to be significantly thinner in ADHD subjects in anterior and, particularly, posterior callosal sections. Covarying for intelligence did not significantly alter the observed ADHD effects. However, group differences were no longer present in anterior sections when covarying for brain volume and after excluding ADHD subjects comorbid for oppositional defiant disorder. Conclusions Decreased callosal thickness may be associated with fewer fibers or a decrease in the myelination of fibers connecting the parietal and prefrontal cortices. This might affect interhemispheric communication channels that are necessary to sustain attention or motor control, thus contributing to symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity, or inattention, observed in ADHD. Future studies are necessary to determine whether callosal abnormalities reflect maturational delays or persist into adulthood. PMID:18842255

Impulsivity and test meal intake among women with bulimia nervosa

PubMed Central

Sysko, Robyn; Ojserkis, Rachel; Schebendach, Janet; Evans, Suzette M.; Hildebrandt, Tom; Walsh, B. Timothy

2017-01-01

Many patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) also meet criteria for a lifetime alcohol use disorder (AUD). In order to understand possible mechanisms contributing to the co-occurrence and perpetuation of these disorders, this study investigated the importance of impulsivity and test meal intake among patients with BN by comparing women with BN only (n = 18), BN and current/past AUDs (n = 13), and healthy controls (n = 12). All participants completed assessments of eating disorder symptoms, frequency of alcohol use, binge eating, and purging via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews over two sessions. Measures of impulsivity consisted of computerized and self-report measures, and laboratory test meals. Significant differences between individuals with BN with/without comorbid AUDs were not found for test meal intake, impulsivity measures, or self-reported psychological symptoms. As hypothesized, compared to healthy controls, individuals with BN had significantly higher scores on two subscales and the total score of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, a trait measure of impulsivity, and consumed significantly more calories in the binge instruction meal. Total Barratt Impulsiveness Scale scores were also significantly related to kcal consumed during the laboratory test meal when individuals were instructed to binge eat (BN groups). Data from this study add to the existing literature implicating impulsivity in the psychopathology of disorders of binge eating, including BN, and also support the use of laboratory meals as a symptom-specific measure of this trait in eating disorder populations. PMID:28077307

Impulsivity and test meal intake among women with bulimia nervosa.

PubMed

Sysko, Robyn; Ojserkis, Rachel; Schebendach, Janet; Evans, Suzette M; Hildebrandt, Tom; Walsh, B Timothy

2017-05-01

Many patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) also meet criteria for a lifetime alcohol use disorder (AUD). In order to understand possible mechanisms contributing to the co-occurrence and perpetuation of these disorders, this study investigated the importance of impulsivity and test meal intake among patients with BN by comparing women with BN only (n = 18), BN and current/past AUDs (n = 13), and healthy controls (n = 12). All participants completed assessments of eating disorder symptoms, frequency of alcohol use, binge eating, and purging via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews over two sessions. Measures of impulsivity consisted of computerized and self-report measures, and laboratory test meals. Significant differences between individuals with BN with/without comorbid AUDs were not found for test meal intake, impulsivity measures, or self-reported psychological symptoms. As hypothesized, compared to healthy controls, individuals with BN had significantly higher scores on two subscales and the total score of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, a trait measure of impulsivity, and consumed significantly more calories in the binge instruction meal. Total Barratt Impulsiveness Scale scores were also significantly related to kcal consumed during the laboratory test meal when individuals were instructed to binge eat (BN groups). Data from this study add to the existing literature implicating impulsivity in the psychopathology of disorders of binge eating, including BN, and also support the use of laboratory meals as a symptom-specific measure of this trait in eating disorder populations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resting-state EEG, impulsiveness, and personality in daily and nondaily smokers.

PubMed

Rass, Olga; Ahn, Woo-Young; O'Donnell, Brian F

2016-01-01

Resting EEG is sensitive to transient, acute effects of nicotine administration and abstinence, but the chronic effects of smoking on EEG are poorly characterized. This study measures the resting EEG profile of chronic smokers in a non-deprived, non-peak state to test whether differences in smoking behavior and personality traits affect pharmaco-EEG response. Resting EEG, impulsiveness, and personality measures were collected from daily smokers (n=22), nondaily smokers (n=31), and non-smokers (n=30). Daily smokers had reduced resting delta and alpha EEG power and higher impulsiveness (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale) compared to nondaily smokers and non-smokers. Both daily and nondaily smokers discounted delayed rewards more steeply, reported lower conscientiousness (NEO-FFI), and reported greater disinhibition and experience seeking (Sensation Seeking Scale) than non-smokers. Nondaily smokers reported greater sensory hedonia than nonsmokers. Altered resting EEG power in daily smokers demonstrates differences in neural signaling that correlated with greater smoking behavior and dependence. Although nondaily smokers share some characteristics with daily smokers that may predict smoking initiation and maintenance, they differ on measures of impulsiveness and resting EEG power. Resting EEG in non-deprived chronic smokers provides a standard for comparison to peak and trough nicotine states and may serve as a biomarker for nicotine dependence, relapse risk, and recovery. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Periodic components of hand acceleration/deceleration impulses during telemanipulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Draper, J.V.; Handel, S.

1994-01-01

Responsiveness is the ability of a telemanipulator to recreate user trajectories and impedance in time and space. For trajectory production, a key determinant of responsiveness is the ability of the system to accept user inputs, which are forces on the master handle generated by user hand acceleration/deceleration (a/d) impulses, and translate them into slave arm acceleration/deceleration. This paper presents observations of master controller a/d impulses during completion of a simple target acquisition task. Power spectral density functions (PSDF`s) calculated from hand controller a/d impulses were used to assess impulse waveform. The relative contributions of frequency intervals ranging up to 25more » Hz for three spatially different versions of the task were used to determine which frequencies were most important. The highest relative power was observed in frequencies between 1 Hz and 6 Hz. The key frequencies related to task difficulty were in the range from 2 Hz to 8 Hz. the results provide clues to the source of the performance inhibition.« less

Development and automation of a test of impulse control in zebrafish

PubMed Central

Parker, Matthew O.; Ife, Dennis; Ma, Jun; Pancholi, Mahesh; Smeraldi, Fabrizio; Straw, Chris; Brennan, Caroline H.

2013-01-01

Deficits in impulse control (difficulties in inhibition of a pre-potent response) are fundamental to a number of psychiatric disorders, but the molecular and cellular basis is poorly understood. Zebrafish offer a very useful model for exploring these mechanisms, but there is currently a lack of validated procedures for measuring impulsivity in fish. In mammals, impulsivity can be measured by examining rates of anticipatory responding in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), a continuous performance task where the subject is reinforced upon accurate detection of a briefly presented light in one of five distinct spatial locations. This paper describes the development of a fully-integrated automated system for testing impulsivity in adult zebrafish. We outline the development of our image analysis software and its integration with National Instruments drivers and actuators to produce the system. We also describe an initial validation of the system through a one-generation screen of chemically mutagenized zebrafish, where the testing parameters were optimized. PMID:24133417

Dysfunctional, but not functional, impulsivity is associated with a history of seriously violent behaviour and reduced orbitofrontal and hippocampal volumes in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Kumari, Veena; Barkataki, Ian; Goswami, Sangeeta; Flora, Satinder; Das, Mrigendra; Taylor, Pamela

2009-07-15

Aggression and violent acts have been linked with impulsive responding. We investigated whether impulsive personality trait, especially suggestive of dysfunctional impulsivity (i.e. fast and inaccurate responding where this is non-optimal), is associated with a history of seriously violent behaviour and specific brain deficits in schizophrenia. Twenty-four male participants with schizophrenia, of whom 10 had a history of serious physical violence, and 14 healthy male participants were assessed on impulsiveness (dysfunctional impulsivity), venturesomeness (functional impulsivity), and empathy. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging. The results revealed that participants with schizophrenia and a history of violence showed elevated impulsiveness but had comparable scores on venturesomeness and empathy dimensions. Impulsiveness scores correlated negatively with reduced orbitofrontal grey matter volume in both the patient and healthy control groups, and with hippocampal volume in the patient group. Our findings suggest that dysfunctional, but not functional, impulsivity is elevated in patients with schizophrenia with a propensity for repetitive violence, and this in turn appears to be associated with reduce volumes of both the orbitofrontal cortex grey matter and the hippocampus. Violence risk prediction and management strategies in schizophrenia may benefit from including specific measures of dysfunctional impulsive traits.

Being Active and Impulsive: The Role of Goals for Action and Inaction in Self-Control.

PubMed

Hepler, Justin; Albarracin, Dolores; McCulloch, Kathleen C; Noguchi, Kenji

2012-12-01

Although self-control often requires behavioral inaction (i.e., not eating a piece of cake), the process of inhibiting impulsive behavior is commonly characterized as cognitively active (i.e., actively exerting self-control). Two experiments examined whether motivation for action or inaction facilitates self-control behavior in the presence of tempting stimuli. Experiment 1 used a delay discounting task to assess the ability to delay gratification with respect to money. Experiment 2 used a Go/No-Go task to assess the ability to inhibit a dominant but incorrect motor response to the words "condom" and "sex". The results demonstrate that goals for inaction promote self-control, whereas goals for action promote impulsive behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent evidence suggesting that goals for action and inaction modulate physiological resources that promote behavioral execution.

Dynamics of cholera epidemics with impulsive vaccination and disinfection.

PubMed

Sisodiya, Omprakash Singh; Misra, O P; Dhar, Joydip

2018-04-01

Waterborne diseases have a tremendous influence on human life. The contaminated drinking water causes water-borne disease like cholera. Pulse vaccination is an important and effective strategy for the elimination of infectious diseases. A waterborne disease like cholera can also be controlled by using impulse technique. In this paper, we have proposed a delayed SEIRB epidemic model with impulsive vaccination and disinfection. We have studied the pulse vaccination strategy and sanitation to control the cholera disease. The existence and stability of the disease-free and endemic periodic solution are investigated both analytically and numerically. It is shown that there exists an infection-free periodic solution, using the impulsive dynamical system defined by the stroboscopic map. It is observed that the infection-free periodic solution is globally attractive when the impulse period is less than some critical value. From the analysis of the model, we have obtained a sufficient condition for the permanence of the epidemic with pulse vaccination. The main highlight of this paper is to introduce impulse technique along with latent period into the SEIRB epidemic model to investigate the role of pulse vaccination and disinfection on the dynamics of the cholera epidemics. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prospective Associations Between Features of Borderline Personality Disorder, Emotion Dysregulation, and Aggression

PubMed Central

Scott, Lori N.; Stepp, Stephanie D.; Pilkonis, Paul A.

2014-01-01

Difficulties with emotion regulation and behavioral instability, including impulsive aggression, are seen as core dimensions underlying borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although both BPD and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are associated with impulsivity and aggressive behavior, difficulties regulating emotions may be associated uniquely with BPD and may explain distinctive associations between BPD and aggression. This study was designed to examine the unique prospective associations between BPD symptoms at baseline, difficulties with emotion regulation and trait impulsivity, and psychological and physical aggression (both perpetration and victimization) over the course of a year after controlling for ASPD symptoms in a mixed clinical and community sample of adults (N = 150). Results of a multivariate path analysis demonstrated that associations between BPD symptoms at baseline and later psychological and physical aggression were fully mediated by difficulties with emotion regulation. Although BPD symptoms also predicted trait impulsivity, impulsivity did not predict aggression after controlling for emotion dysregulation. ASPD symptoms were directly associated with physical assault perpetration and victimization but were not associated with emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, or psychological aggression. These findings suggest that although both BPD and ASPD are associated with aggressive behaviors, associations between BPD symptoms and aggression are mediated uniquely by difficulties regulating emotions. PMID:24635753

Relationship between impulsivity and decision-making in cocaine dependence

PubMed Central

Kjome, Kimberly L.; Lane, Scott D.; Schmitz, Joy M.; Green, Charles; Ma, Liangsuo; Prasla, Irshad; Swann, Alan C.; Moeller, F. Gerard

2010-01-01

Impulsivity and decision-making are associated on a theoretical level in that impaired planning is a component of both. However, few studies have examined the relationship between measures of decision-making and impulsivity in clinical populations. The purpose of this study was to compare cocaine-dependent subjects to controls on a measure of decision-making (the Iowa Gambling Task or IGT), a questionnaire measure of impulsivity (the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale or BIS-11), and a measure of behavioral inhibition (the immediate memory task or IMT), and to examine the interrelationship among these measures. Results of the study showed that cocaine-dependent subjects made more disadvantageous choices on the IGT, had higher scores on the BIS, and more commission errors on the IMT. Cognitive model analysis showed that choice consistency factors on the IGT differed between cocaine-dependent subjects and controls. However, there was no significant correlation between IGT performance and the BIS total score or subscales or IMT commission errors. These results suggest that in cocaine dependent subjects there is little overlap between decision-making as measured by the IGT and impulsivity/behavioral inhibition as measured by the BIS and IMT. PMID:20478631

Self-reported impulsivity, but not behavioral choice or response impulsivity, partially mediates the effect of stress on drinking behavior

PubMed Central

HAMILTON, KRISTEN R.; ANSELL, EMILY B.; REYNOLDS, BRADY; POTENZA, MARC N.; SINHA, RAJITA

2013-01-01

Stress and impulsivity contribute to alcohol use, and stress may also act via impulsivity to increase drinking behavior. Impulsivity represents a multi-faceted construct and self-report and behavioral assessments may effectively capture distinct clinically relevant factors. The present research investigated whether aspects of impulsivity mediate the effect of stress on alcohol use. A community-based sample of 192 men and women was assessed on measures of cumulative stress, alcohol use, self-reported impulsivity, and behavioral choice and response impulsivity. Data were analyzed using regression and bootstrapping techniques to estimate indirect effects of stress on drinking via impulsivity. Cumulative adversity exhibited both direct effects and indirect effects (via self-reported impulsivity) on drinking behavior. Additional models examining specific types of stress indicated direct and indirect effects of trauma and recent life events, and indirect effects of major life events and chronic stressors on drinking behavior. Overall, cumulative stress was associated with increased drinking behavior, and this effect was partially mediated by self-reported impulsivity. Self-reported impulsivity also mediated the effects of different types of stress on drinking behavior. These findings highlight the value of mediation models to examine the pathways through which different types of stress increase drinking behavior. Treatment and prevention strategies should focus on enhancing stress management and self-control. PMID:22376044

Self-reported impulsivity, but not behavioral choice or response impulsivity, partially mediates the effect of stress on drinking behavior.

PubMed

Hamilton, Kristen R; Ansell, Emily B; Reynolds, Brady; Potenza, Marc N; Sinha, Rajita

2013-01-01

Stress and impulsivity contribute to alcohol use, and stress may also act via impulsivity to increase drinking behavior. Impulsivity represents a multi-faceted construct and self-report and behavioral assessments may effectively capture distinct clinically relevant factors. The present research investigated whether aspects of impulsivity mediate the effect of stress on alcohol use. A community-based sample of 192 men and women was assessed on measures of cumulative stress, alcohol use, self-reported impulsivity, and behavioral choice and response impulsivity. Data were analyzed using regression and bootstrapping techniques to estimate indirect effects of stress on drinking via impulsivity. Cumulative adversity exhibited both direct effects and indirect effects (via self-reported impulsivity) on drinking behavior. Additional models examining specific types of stress indicated direct and indirect effects of trauma and recent life events, and indirect effects of major life events and chronic stressors on drinking behavior. Overall, cumulative stress was associated with increased drinking behavior, and this effect was partially mediated by self-reported impulsivity. Self-reported impulsivity also mediated the effects of different types of stress on drinking behavior. These findings highlight the value of mediation models to examine the pathways through which different types of stress increase drinking behavior. Treatment and prevention strategies should focus on enhancing stress management and self-control.

Complex Dynamics of an Impulsive Control System in which Predator Species Share a Common Prey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pei, Yongzhen; Liu, Shaoying; Li, Changguo

2009-06-01

In an ecosystem, multiple predator species often share a common prey and the interactions between the predators are neutral. In view of this fact, we propose a three-species prey-predator system with the functional responses and impulsive controls to model the process of pest management. It is proved that the system has a locally stable pest-eradication periodic solution under the assumption that the impulsive period is less than some critical value. In particular, two single control strategies (biological control alone or chemical control alone) are proposed. Finally, we compare three pest control strategies and find that if we choose narrow-spectrum pesticides that are targeted to a specific pest’s life cycle to kill the pest, then the combined strategy is preferable. Numerical results show that our system has complex dynamics including period-doubling bifurcation, quasi-periodic oscillation, chaos, intermittency and crises.

HOPE, SELF-ESTEEM, AND SELF-REGULATION: POSITIVE CHARACTERISTICS AMONG MEN AND WOMEN IN RECOVERY

PubMed Central

Ferrari, Joseph R.; Stevens, Edward B.; Legler, Raymond; Jason, Leonard A.

2014-01-01

Hopefulness remains unclear in relation to aspects of self-control and self-esteem among adults in substance abuse recovery. The present study explored the relationship between dispositional hope (agency and pathway) with self-esteem (self-liking, self-competency, and self-confidence) and self-regulation (impulse control and self-discipline), using a latent variable measurement model and structural equation modeling among adults (n = 601) residing in a communal living setting for persons in substance abuse recovery. Results showed that multiple dimensions of these constructs were significant as individual predictors. With persons in recovery, self-regulation included impulsivity control and self-discipline, while self-esteem reflected self-liking, competence, and a sense of self-confidence. Furthermore, both hope-pathways and hope-agency significantly related to self-control/impulse control but not self-control/discipline, and self-esteem/competency was associated with hope-pathways but not hope-agency. PMID:25382880

Kindergartners' Temperament, Classroom Engagement, and Student-Teacher Relationship: Moderation by Effortful Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valiente, Carlos; Swanson, Jodi; Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergartners' (N = 291; M age = 5 years) effortful control (EC), impulsivity, anger, or shyness predict their classroom participation, school liking, and student-teacher relationship. Parents and teachers reported on children's temperament. Children's EC and impulsivity were also assessed with…

Finite-time resilient decentralized control for interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay.

PubMed

Ren, Hangli; Zong, Guangdeng; Hou, Linlin; Yang, Yi

2017-03-01

This paper is concerned with the problem of finite-time control for a class of interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay in which the time-varying delay appears in both the state and the state derivative. The concepts of finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability are respectively extended to interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay for the first time. By applying the average dwell time method, sufficient conditions are first derived to cope with the problem of finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability for interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay. In addition, the purpose of finite-time resilient decentralized control is to construct a resilient decentralized state-feedback controller such that the closed-loop system is finite-time bounded and finite-time stable. All the conditions are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities to ensure finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability of the given system. Finally, an example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Subthalamic Nucleus, Limbic Function, and Impulse Control.

PubMed

Rossi, P Justin; Gunduz, Aysegul; Okun, Michael S

2015-12-01

It has been well documented that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) to address some of the disabling motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) can evoke unintended effects, especially on non-motor behavior. This observation has catalyzed more than a decade of research concentrated on establishing trends and identifying potential mechanisms for these non-motor effects. While many issues remain unresolved, the collective result of many research studies and clinical observations has been a general recognition of the role of the STN in mediating limbic function. In particular, the STN has been implicated in impulse control and the related construct of valence processing. A better understanding of STN involvement in these phenomena could have important implications for treating impulse control disorders (ICDs). ICDs affect up to 40% of PD patients on dopamine agonist therapy and approximately 15% of PD patients overall. ICDs have been reported to be associated with STN DBS. In this paper we will focus on impulse control and review pre-clinical, clinical, behavioral, imaging, and electrophysiological studies pertaining to the limbic function of the STN.

Controller reduction by preserving impulse response energy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Craig, Roy R., Jr.; Su, Tzu-Jeng

1989-01-01

A model order reduction algorithm based on a Krylov recurrence formulation is developed to reduce order of controllers. The reduced-order controller is obtained by projecting the full-order LQG controller onto a Krylov subspace in which either the controllability or the observability grammian is equal to the identity matrix. The reduced-order controller preserves the impulse response energy of the full-order controller and has a parameter-matching property. Two numerical examples drawn from other controller reduction literature are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed reduction algorithm.

Bladder function - neurological control

MedlinePlus Videos and Cool Tools

... with urine, sensory nerves send impulses to the brain indicating that the bladder is full. The sensory ... cord to relay this information. In turn, the brain sends impulses back to the bladder instructing the ...

Partial sleep deprivation impacts impulsive action but not impulsive decision-making.

PubMed

Demos, K E; Hart, C N; Sweet, L H; Mailloux, K A; Trautvetter, J; Williams, S E; Wing, R R; McCaffery, J M

2016-10-01

Sleep deprivation may lead to increased impulsivity, however, previous literature has focused on examining effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) rather than the more common condition, partial sleep deprivation (PSD) or 'short sleep'. Moreover, it has been unclear whether PSD impacts impulse-related cognitive processes, and specifically if it differentially affects impulsive action versus impulsive decision-making. We sought to determine if short compared to long sleep (6 vs. 9h/night) impacts impulsive action via behavioral inhibition (Go/No-Go), and/or impulsive decision-making processes of risk taking (Balloon Analogue Risk Task [BART]) and preferences for immediate over delayed rewards (Delay Discounting). In a within-subject design, 34 participants (71% female, mean age=37.0years, SD=10.54) were assigned to four consecutive nights of 6h/night (short sleep) and 9h/night (long sleep) in their own home in random counterbalanced order. Sleep was measured via wrist-worn actigraphs to confirm adherence to the sleep schedules (mean short sleep=5.9h, SD=0.3; mean long sleep=8.6h, SD=0.3, p<0.001). The Go/No-Go, BART, and Delay Discounting tasks were completed following both sleep conditions. Participants had more inhibition errors on the Go/No-Go task after short (mean false alarms=19.79%, SD=14.51) versus long sleep (mean=15.97%, SD=9.51, p=0.039). This effect was strongest in participants reporting longer habitual time in bed (p=0.04). There were no differences in performance following long- versus short-sleep for either delay discounting or the BART (p's>0.4). Overall, these results indicate that four days of PSD diminishes behavioral inhibition abilities, but may not alter impulsive decision-making. These findings contribute to the emerging understanding of how partial sleep deprivation, currently an epidemic, impacts cognitive ability. Future research should continue to explore the connection between PSD and cognitive functions, and ways to minimize the occurrence and negative consequences of short sleep. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Partial sleep deprivation impacts impulsive action but not impulsive decision-making

PubMed Central

Demos, K.E.; Hart, C.N.; Sweet, LH.; Mailloux, K.A.; Trautvetter, J.; Williams, S.E.; Wing, R.R.; McCaffery, J.M.

2017-01-01

Sleep deprivation may lead to increased impulsivity, however, previous literature has focused on examining effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) rather than the more common condition, partial sleep deprivation (PSD) or ‘short sleep’. Moreover, it has been unclear whether PSD impacts impulse-related cognitive processes, and specifically if it differentially affects impulsive action versus impulsive decision-making. We sought to determine if short compared to long sleep (6 vs. 9 h/night) impacts impulsive action via behavioral inhibition (Go/No-Go), and/or impulsive decision-making processes of risk taking (Balloon Analogue Risk Task [BART]) and preferences for immediate over delayed rewards (Delay Discounting). In a within-subject design, 34 participants (71% female, mean age = 37.0 years, SD = 10.54) were assigned to four consecutive nights of 6 h/night (short sleep) and 9 h/night (long sleep) in their own home in random counterbalanced order. Sleep was measured via wrist-worn actigraphs to confirm adherence to the sleep schedules (mean short sleep = 5.9 h, SD = 0.3; mean long sleep = 8.6 h, SD = 0.3, p < 0.001). The Go/No-Go, BART, and Delay Discounting tasks were completed following both sleep conditions. Participants had more inhibition errors on the Go/No-Go task after short (mean false alarms = 19.79%, SD = 14.51) versus long sleep (mean = 15.97%, SD = 9.51, p = 0.039). This effect was strongest in participants reporting longer habitual time in bed (p = 0.04). There were no differences in performance following long- versus short-sleep for either delay discounting or the BART (p’s > 0.4). Overall, these results indicate that four days of PSD diminishes behavioral inhibition abilities, but may not alter impulsive decision-making. These findings contribute to the emerging understanding of how partial sleep deprivation, currently an epidemic, impacts cognitive ability. Future research should continue to explore the connection between PSD and cognitive functions, and ways to minimize the occurrence and negative consequences of short sleep. PMID:27267950

Situational Strategies for Self-Control

PubMed Central

Duckworth, Angela L.; Gendler, Tamar Szabó; Gross, James J.

2015-01-01

Exercising self-control is often difficult, whether declining a drink in order to drive home safely, passing on the chocolate cake to stay on a diet, or ignoring text messages to finish reading an important paper. But enacting self-control isn’t always difficult, particularly when it takes the form of proactively choosing or changing situations in ways that weaken undesirable impulses or potentiate desirable ones. Examples of situational self-control include the partygoer who chooses a seat far from where drinks are being poured, the dieter who asks the waiter not to bring around the dessert cart, and the student who goes to the library without a cell phone. Using the process model of self-control, we argue that the full range of self-control strategies can be organized by considering the timeline of the developing tempting impulse. Because impulses tend to grow stronger over time, situational self-control strategies—which can nip a tempting impulse in the bud— may be especially effective in preventing undesirable action. Ironically, we may underappreciate situational self-control for the same reason it is so effective, namely that by manipulating our circumstances to advantage we are often able to minimize the in-the-moment experience of intrapsychic struggle typically associated with exercising self-control. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.—Sun Tzu, The Art of War PMID:26817725

Selective and interactive effects of D2 receptor antagonism and positive allosteric mGluR4 modulation on waiting impulsivity.

PubMed

Isherwood, Sarah N; Robbins, Trevor W; Nicholson, Janet R; Dalley, Jeffrey W; Pekcec, Anton

2017-09-01

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (mGluR4) and dopamine D 2 receptors are specifically expressed within the indirect pathway neurons of the striato-pallidal-subthalamic pathway. This unique expression profile suggests that mGluR4 and D 2 receptors may play a cooperative role in the regulation and inhibitory control of behaviour. We investigated this possibility by testing the effects of a functionally-characterised positive allosteric mGluR4 modulator, 4-((E)-styryl)-pyrimidin-2-ylamine (Cpd11), both alone and in combination with the D 2 receptor antagonist eticlopride, on two distinct forms of impulsivity. Rats were trained on the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) of sustained visual attention and segregated according to low, mid, and high levels of motor impulsivity (LI, MI and HI, respectively), with unscreened rats used as an additional control group. A separate group of rats was trained on a delay discounting task (DDT) to assess choice impulsivity. Systemic administration of Cpd11 dose-dependently increased motor impulsivity and impaired attentional accuracy on the 5-CSRTT in all groups tested. Eticlopride selectively attenuated the increase in impulsivity induced by Cpd11, but not the accompanying attentional impairment, at doses that had no significant effect on behavioural performance when administered alone. Cpd11 also decreased choice impulsivity on the DDT (i.e. increased preference for the large, delayed reward) and decreased locomotor activity. These findings demonstrate that mGluR4s, in conjunction with D 2 receptors, affect motor- and choice-based measures of impulsivity, and therefore may be novel targets to modulate impulsive behaviour associated with a number of neuropsychiatric syndromes. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity and Stress Response in Pathological Gamblers During the Trier Social Stress Test.

PubMed

Maniaci, G; Goudriaan, A E; Cannizzaro, C; van Holst, R J

2018-03-01

Gambling has been associated with increased sympathetic nervous system output and stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However it is unclear how these systems are affected in pathological gambling. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on cortisol and on cardiac interbeat intervals in relation to impulsivity, in a sample of male pathological gamblers compared to healthy controls. In addition, we investigated the correlation between the TSST, duration of the disorder and impulsivity. A total of 35 pathological gamblers and 30 healthy controls, ranging from 19 to 58 years old and all male, participated in this study. Stress response was measured during and after the TSST by salivary cortisol and cardiac interbeat intervals; impulsivity was assessed with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Exposure to the TSST produced a significant increase in salivary cortisol and interbeat intervals in both groups, without differences between groups. We found a negative correlation between baseline cortisol and duration of pathological gambling indicating that the longer the duration of the disorder the lower the baseline cortisol levels. Additionally, we found a main effect of impulsivity across groups on interbeat interval during the TSST, indicating an association between impulsivity and the intensity of the neurovegetative stress response during the TSST. Involvement of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in pathological gambling was confirmed together with evidence of a correlation between length of the disorder and diminished baseline cortisol levels. Impulsivity emerged as a personality trait expressed by pathological gamblers; however the neurovegetative response to the TSST, although associated with impulsivity, appeared to be independent of the presence of pathological gambling.

Separation Control in a Multistage Compressor Using Impulsive Surface Injection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wundrow, David W.; Braunscheidel, Edward P.; Culley, Dennis E.; Bright, Michelle M.

2006-01-01

Control of flow separation using impulsive surface injection is investigated within the multistage environment of a low speed axial-flow compressor. Measured wake profiles behind a set of embedded stator vanes treated with suction-surface injection indicate significant reduction in flow separation at a variety of injection-pulse repetition rates and durations. The corresponding total pressure losses across the vanes reveal a bank of repetition rates at each pulse duration where the separation control remains nearly complete. This persistence allows for demands on the injected-mass delivery system to be economized while still achieving effective flow control. The response of the stator-vane boundary layers to infrequently applied short injection pulses is described in terms of the periodic excitation of turbulent strips whose growth and propagation characteristics dictate the lower bound on the band of optimal pulse repetition rates. The eventual falloff in separation control at higher repetition rates is linked to a competition between the benefits of pulse-induced mixing and the aggravation caused by the periodic introduction of low-momentum fluid. Use of these observations for impulsive actuator design is discussed and their impact on modeling the time-average effect of impulsive surface injection for multistage steady-flow simulation is considered.

Tetrahedron Formation Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guzman, Jose J.

2003-01-01

Spacecraft flying in tetrahedron formations are excellent instrument platforms for electromagnetic and plasma studies. A minimum of four spacecraft - to establish a volume - is required to study some of the key regions of a planetary magnetic field. The usefulness of the measurements recorded is strongly affected by the tetrahedron orbital evolution. This paper considers the preliminary development of a general optimization procedure for tetrahedron formation control. The maneuvers are assumed to be impulsive and a multi-stage optimization method is employed. The stages include targeting to a fixed tetrahedron orientation, rotating and translating the tetrahedron and/or varying the initial and final times. The number of impulsive maneuvers citn also be varied. As the impulse locations and times change, new arcs are computed using a differential corrections scheme that varies the impulse magnitudes and directions. The result is a continuous trajectory with velocity discontinuities. The velocity discontinuities are then used to formulate the cost function. Direct optimization techniques are employed. The procedure is applied to the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) to compute preliminary formation control fuel requirements.

The effect of genetic variation of the serotonin 1B receptor gene on impulsive aggressive behavior and suicide.

PubMed

Zouk, Hana; McGirr, Alexander; Lebel, Véronique; Benkelfat, Chawky; Rouleau, Guy; Turecki, Gustavo

2007-12-05

Impulsive-aggressive behaviors (IABs) are regarded as possible suicide intermediate phenotypes, mediating the relationship between genes and suicide outcome. In this study, we aimed to investigate the putative relationship between genetic variation at the 5-HT1B receptor gene, which in animal models is involved in impulse-aggression control, IABs, and suicide risk. We investigated the relationship of variation at five 5-HT1B loci and IAB measures in a sample of 696 subjects, including 338 individuals who died by suicide and 358 normal epidemiological controls. We found that variation at the 5-HT1B promoter A-161T locus had a significant effect on levels of IABs, as measured by the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI). Suicides also differed from controls in distribution of variants at this locus. The A-161T locus, which seems to impact 5-HT1B transcription, could play a role in suicide predisposition by means of mediating impulsive-aggressive behaviors. 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

On the Spur of the Moment: Intrinsic Predictors of Impulse Sports Betting.

PubMed

Hing, Nerilee; Li, En; Vitartas, Peter; Russell, Alex M T

2018-06-01

Betting on impulse, without thoughtful consideration, research or informed decision-making, may cause financial and other harms and lead to the development of gambling problems. Impulse betting undermines responsible consumption of gambling because it reflects self-regulatory failure, impaired control, unreflective decision-making and betting more than planned. In this paper we define impulse gambling and report on a study that aimed to understand more about the intrinsic characteristics of sports bettors who have a greater tendency to bet on impulse. Specifically, the study aimed to identify behavioural, psychological and socio-demographic predictors of impulse sports betting. A sample of 1816 Australian sports bettors completed an online survey that measured the proportion of their bets placed on impulse both before and during sporting events, as well as bets that were researched and planned in advance. Impulse betting was common, accounting for nearly one-half of all past-year sports bets by respondents. Over three-quarters of respondents had placed one or more impulse bets in the last year and one in seven respondents had made all of their sports bets on impulse. More impulsive sports bettors were characterised as having higher trait impulsiveness, higher problem gambling severity, more frequent sports betting and a shorter history of sports betting. They favoured betting on in-match contingencies instead of overall match outcomes. While health promotion strategies are needed to discourage impulse betting, research into contextual factors that arouse urges to bet would also provide direction for harm minimisation measures that help consumers to resist impulsive betting decisions.

Effect of First Tarsometatarsal Joint Derotational Arthrodesis on First Ray Dynamic Stability Compared to Distal Chevron Osteotomy.

PubMed

Klemola, Tero; Leppilahti, Juhana; Laine, Vesa; Pentikäinen, Ilkka; Ojala, Risto; Ohtonen, Pasi; Savola, Olli

2017-08-01

Hallux valgus alters gait, compromising first ray stability and function of the windlass mechanism at the late stance. Hallux valgus correction should restore the stability of the first metatarsal. Comparative studies reporting the impact of different hallux valgus correction methods on gait are rare. We report the results of a case-control study between distal chevron osteotomy and first tarsometatarsal joint derotational arthrodesis (FTJDA). Two previously studied hallux valgus cohorts were matched: distal chevron osteotomy and FTJDA. Seventy-seven feet that underwent distal chevron osteotomy (chevron group) and 76 feet that underwent FTJDA (FTJDA group) were available for follow-up, with a mean of 7.9 years (range, 5.8-9.4 years) and 5.1 years (range, 3.0-8.3 years), respectively. Matching criteria were the hallux valgus angle (HVA) and a follow-up time difference of a maximum 24 months. Two matches were made: according to the preoperative HVA and the HVA at late follow-up. Matching provided 30 and 31 pairs, respectively. Relative impulses (%) of the first toe (T1) and metatarsal heads 1 to 5 (MTH1-5), weightbearing radiographs, and American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) (hallux metatarsophalangeal-interphalangeal [MTP-IP]) scores were studied. The relative impulse of MTH1 was higher in the FTJDA group, whereas a central dynamic loading pattern was seen in the chevron group. This result remained when relative impulses were analyzed according to the postoperative HVA. The mean difference in the HVA at follow-up was 6.2 degrees (95% confidence interval, 3.0-9.5; P = .001) in favor of the FTJDA group. The dynamic loading capacity of MTH1 was higher in the FTJDA group in comparison to the chevron group. The follow-up HVA remained better in the FTJDA group. Level III, case-control study.

Atypical mismatch negativity to distressful voices associated with conduct disorder symptoms.

PubMed

Hung, An-Yi; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Cheng, Yawei

2013-09-01

Although a general consensus holds that emotional reactivity in youth with conduct disorder (CD) symptoms arises as one of the main causes of successive aggression, it remains to be determined whether automatic emotional processing is altered in this population. We measured auditory event-related potentials (ERP) in 20 young offenders and 20 controls, screened for DSM-IV criteria of CD and evaluated using the youth version of Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:YV), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Barrett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). In an oddball design, sadly or fearfully spoken 'deviant' syllables were randomly presented within a train of emotionally neutral 'standard' syllables. In young offenders meeting with CD criteria, the ERP component mismatch negativity (MMN), presumed to reflect preattentive auditory change detection, was significantly stronger for fearful than sad syllables. No MMN differences for fearful versus sad syllables were observed in controls. Analyses of nonvocal deviants, matched spectrally with the fearful and sad sounds, supported our interpretation that the MMN abnormalities in juvenile offenders were related to the emotional content of sounds, instead of purely acoustic factors. Further, in the young offenders with CD symptoms, strong MMN amplitudes to fearful syllables were associated with high impulsive tendencies (PCL:YV, Factor 2). Higher trait and state anxiety, assessed by STAI, were positively correlated with P3a amplitudes to fearful and sad syllables, respectively. The differences in group-interaction MMN/P3a patterns to emotional syllables and nonvocal sounds could be speculated to suggest that there is a distinct processing route for preattentive processing of species-specific emotional information in human auditory cortices. Our results suggest that youths with CD symptoms may process distressful voices in an atypical fashion already at the preattentive level. This auditory processing abnormality correlated with increased impulsivity and anxiety. Our results may help to shed light on the neural mechanisms of aggression. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2013 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

A New Risk Factor for Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.

PubMed

Sabre, Liis; Harro, Jaanus; Eensoo, Diva; Vaht, Mariliis; Kabel, Vaike; Pakkanen, Malle; Asser, Toomas; Kõrv, Janika

2016-11-01

Several behavioral factors such as violence, impulsivity, and alcohol-related problems are associated with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI). Such factors have been associated with inherently low neuronal serotonergic capacity that in turn is reflected in low activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO) as measured in platelets. The aim of the study was to characterize platelet MAO activity and impulsivity in persons with TSCI. Data were collected from 93 patients with TSCI and compared with 93 age- and gender-matched control subjects. Platelet MAO activity was measured radioenzymatically and expressed as nanomoles of beta-phenylethylamine oxidized per 10 to the tenth power platelets per minute. Facets of impulsivity were self-reported using Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Most of the patients were men (87%). The mean time from TSCI was 4.3 ± 3.7 years. Twenty-one (24%) patients reported social problems associated with alcohol, and 30 (39%) patients had consumed alcohol before the trauma. Platelet MAO activity was significantly lower among the patients with TSCI (6.4 ± 3.2 vs.10.8 ± 5.2, p < 0.0001). This difference was not affected by consideration of their smoking status. The patients with TSCI had significantly higher BIS-11 impulsivity compared with the controls (62.8 ± 10.0 vs. 55.4 ± 8.6, p = 0.0001). The patients with TSCI have lower platelet MAO activity, and they are more impulsive compared with the healthy controls. Our results indicate that both low platelet MAO activity and high impulsivity are important risk factors for TSCI that can have predictive value and aid in undertaking preventive measures.

Effects of acute MDMA intoxication on mood and impulsivity: role of the 5-HT2 and 5-HT1 receptors.

PubMed

van Wel, Janelle H P; Kuypers, Kim P C; Theunissen, Eef L; Bosker, Wendy M; Bakker, Katja; Ramaekers, Johannes G

2012-01-01

MDMA induces positive mood and increases impulse control during intoxication, but only a few studies on the neuropharmacological mechanisms underlying these processes have been conducted. It was hypothesized that pretreatment with 5-HT(1) and 5-HT(2) receptor blockers would prevent MDMA effects on mood and impulsivity. Subjects (N = 17) participated in a double-blind, placebo controlled, within-subject design involving 6 experimental conditions consisting of pretreatment (T1) and treatment (T2). T1 preceded T2 by 30 minutes. T1-T2 combinations were: placebo-placebo, 20 mg pindolol-placebo, 50 mg ketanserin-placebo, placebo-75 mg MDMA, 20 mg pindolol-75 mg MDMA and 50 mg ketanserin-75 g MDMA. Subjects completed a Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire and several impulsivity tasks (Stop signal task, Matching familiar figures task, Cue dependent reversal learning task) at 1.5 hrs post-treatment. MDMA alone increased both positive (vigor, arousal, friendliness, elation, positive mood) and negative affect (anxiety, confusion) as assessed by the POMS questionnaire. MDMA also increased stop reaction time in the Stop signal task and reaction time in the Matching familiar figures task. Pretreatment with ketanserin blocked MDMA effects on positive affect, but not negative affect. Ketanserin did not influence the effects of MDMA on impulsivity. Pindolol did not interact with MDMA on any of the measures. In conclusion, 5-HT(2) receptors mediate positive moods induced by MDMA but not negative moods or impulsivity. 5-HT(1) receptors do not appear to be involved in MDMA effects on mood and impulse control. Nederlands Trial Register NTR2352.

Effects of Acute MDMA Intoxication on Mood and Impulsivity: Role of the 5-HT2 and 5-HT1 Receptors

PubMed Central

van Wel, Janelle H. P.; Kuypers, Kim P. C.; Theunissen, Eef L.; Bosker, Wendy M.; Bakker, Katja; Ramaekers, Johannes G.

2012-01-01

MDMA induces positive mood and increases impulse control during intoxication, but only a few studies on the neuropharmacological mechanisms underlying these processes have been conducted. It was hypothesized that pretreatment with 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 receptor blockers would prevent MDMA effects on mood and impulsivity. Subjects (N = 17) participated in a double-blind, placebo controlled, within-subject design involving 6 experimental conditions consisting of pretreatment (T1) and treatment (T2). T1 preceded T2 by 30 minutes. T1–T2 combinations were: placebo-placebo, 20 mg pindolol-placebo, 50 mg ketanserin-placebo, placebo-75 mg MDMA, 20 mg pindolol-75 mg MDMA and 50 mg ketanserin-75 g MDMA. Subjects completed a Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire and several impulsivity tasks (Stop signal task, Matching familiar figures task, Cue dependent reversal learning task) at 1.5 hrs post-treatment. MDMA alone increased both positive (vigor, arousal, friendliness, elation, positive mood) and negative affect (anxiety, confusion) as assessed by the POMS questionnaire. MDMA also increased stop reaction time in the Stop signal task and reaction time in the Matching familiar figures task. Pretreatment with ketanserin blocked MDMA effects on positive affect, but not negative affect. Ketanserin did not influence the effects of MDMA on impulsivity. Pindolol did not interact with MDMA on any of the measures. In conclusion, 5-HT2 receptors mediate positive moods induced by MDMA but not negative moods or impulsivity. 5-HT1 receptors do not appear to be involved in MDMA effects on mood and impulse control. Trial Registration Nederlands Trial Register NTR2352 PMID:22808116

Altered resting-state frontoparietal control network in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Lin, Hsiang-Yuan; Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac; Lai, Meng-Chuan; Matsuo, Kayako; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

2015-04-01

The frontoparietal control network, anatomically and functionally interposed between the dorsal attention network and default mode network, underpins executive control functions. Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) commonly exhibit deficits in executive functions, which are mainly mediated by the frontoparietal control network. Involvement of the frontoparietal control network based on the anterior prefrontal cortex in neurobiological mechanisms of ADHD has yet to be tested. We used resting-state functional MRI and seed-based correlation analyses to investigate functional connectivity of the frontoparietal control network in a sample of 25 children with ADHD (7-14 years; mean 9.94 ± 1.77 years; 20 males), and 25 age-, sex-, and performance IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children. All participants had limited in-scanner head motion. Spearman's rank correlations were used to test the associations between altered patterns of functional connectivity with clinical symptoms and executive functions, measured by the Conners' Continuous Performance Test and Spatial Span in the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Compared with TD children, children with ADHD demonstrated weaker connectivity between the right anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the right ventrolateral PFC, and between the left anterior PFC and the right inferior parietal lobule. Furthermore, this aberrant connectivity of the frontoparietal control network in ADHD was associated with symptoms of impulsivity and opposition-defiance, as well as impaired response inhibition and attentional control. The findings support potential integration of the disconnection model and the executive dysfunction model for ADHD. Atypical frontoparietal control network may play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of ADHD.

Reward sensitivity in Parkinson's patients with binge eating.

PubMed

Terenzi, Damiano; Rumiati, Raffaella I; Catalan, Mauro; Antonutti, Lucia; Furlanis, Giovanni; Garlasco, Paolo; Polverino, Paola; Bertolotti, Claudio; Manganotti, Paolo; Aiello, Marilena

2018-06-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients who are treated with dopamine replacement therapy are at risk of developing impulse control disorders (ICDs) (such as gambling, binge eating, and others). According to recent evidence, compulsive reward seeking in ICDs may arise from an excessive attribution of incentive salience (or 'wanting') to rewards. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in patients with PD who developed binge eating (BE). Patients with BE, patients without BE, and healthy controls performed different experimental tasks assessing food liking and wanting. Participants first rated the degree of liking and wanting for different foods using explicit self-report measures. They then performed an affective priming task that measured participants' affective reactions towards foods (liking), and a grip-force task that assessed their motivation for food rewards (wanting). All participants also completed several questionnaires assessing impulsivity, reward sensitivity, anxiety and depression, and underwent a neuropsychological evaluation. Patients with BE displayed an altered liking for sweet foods compared to controls but not to patients without BE. Furthermore, this difference emerged only when implicit measures were used. Importantly, an increased wanting was not associated with binge eating even if wanting, but not liking scores significantly correlated with LED levodopa, confirming the hypothesis of a distinction between the two components of rewards. Lastly, binge eating was associated with depression and lower working memory scores. Take together these results suggest that binge eating in PD is associated with cognitive abnormalities, and to lesser extent affective abnormalities, but not with an increased incentive salience. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mesolimbic recruitment by nondrug rewards in detoxified alcoholics: effort anticipation, reward anticipation, and reward delivery.

PubMed

Bjork, James M; Smith, Ashley R; Chen, Gang; Hommer, Daniel W

2012-09-01

Aberrant sensitivity of incentive neurocircuitry to nondrug rewards has been suggested as either a risk factor for or consequence of drug addiction. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested whether alcohol-dependent patients (ADP: n = 29) showed altered recruitment of ventral striatal (VS) incentive neurocircuitry compared to controls (n = 23) by: (1) cues to respond for monetary rewards, (2) post-response anticipation of rewards, or (3) delivery of rewards. Using an instrumental task with two-stage presentation of reward-predictive information, subjects saw cues signaling opportunities to win $0, $1, or $10 for responding to a target. Following this response, subjects were notified whether their success would be indicated by a lexical notification (“Hit?”) or by delivery of a monetary reward (“Win?”). After a variable interval, subjects then viewed the trial outcome. We found no significant group differences in voxelwise activation by task contrasts, or in signal change extracted from VS. Both ADP and controls showed significant VS and other limbic recruitment by pre-response reward anticipation. In addition, controls also showed VS recruitment by post-response reward-anticipation, and ADP had appreciable subthreshold VS activation. Both groups also showed similar mesolimbic responses to reward deliveries. Across all subjects, a questionnaire measure of “hot” impulsivity correlated with VS recruitment by post-response anticipation of low rewards and with VS recruitment by delivery of low rewards. These findings indicate that incentive-motivational processing of nondrug rewards is substantially maintained in recovering alcoholics, and that reward-elicited VS recruitment correlates more with individual differences in trait impulsivity irrespective of addiction.

Altered interregional molecular associations of the serotonin transporter in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder assessed with PET.

PubMed

Vanicek, Thomas; Kutzelnigg, Alexandra; Philippe, Cecile; Sigurdardottir, Helen L; James, Gregory M; Hahn, Andreas; Kranz, Georg S; Höflich, Anna; Kautzky, Alexander; Traub-Weidinger, Tatjana; Hacker, Marcus; Wadsak, Wolfgang; Mitterhauser, Markus; Kasper, Siegfried; Lanzenberger, Rupert

2017-02-01

Altered serotonergic neurotransmission has been found to cause impulsive and aggressive behavior, as well as increased motor activity, all exemplifying key symptoms of ADHD. The main objectives of this positron emission tomography (PET) study were to investigate the serotonin transporter binding potential (SERT BP ND ) in patients with ADHD and to assess associations of SERT BP ND between the brain regions. 25 medication-free patients with ADHD (age ± SD; 32.39 ± 10.15; 10 females) without any psychiatric comorbidity and 25 age and sex matched healthy control subjects (33.74 ± 10.20) were measured once with PET and the highly selective and specific radioligand [ 11 C]DASB. SERT BP ND maps in nine a priori defined ROIs exhibiting high SERT binding were compared between groups by means of a linear mixed model. Finally, adopted from structural and functional connectivity analyses, we performed correlational analyses using regional SERT binding potentials to examine molecular interregional associations between all selected ROIs. We observed significant differences in the interregional correlations between the precuneus and the hippocampus in patients with ADHD compared to healthy controls, using SERT BP ND of the investigated ROIs (P < 0.05; Bonferroni corrected). When correlating SERT BP ND and age in the ADHD and the healthy control group, we confirmed an age-related decline in brain SERT binding in the thalamus and insula (R 2  = 0.284, R 2  = 0.167, Ps < 0.05; Bonferroni corrected). The results show significantly different interregional molecular associations of the SERT expression for the precuneus with hippocampus in patients with ADHD, indicating presumably altered functional coupling. Altered interregional coupling between brain regions might be a sensitive approach to demonstrate functional and molecular alterations in psychiatric conditions. Hum Brain Mapp 38:792-802, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The development of a brief self-report questionnaire to measure 'recent' rash impulsivity: a preliminary investigation of its validity and association with recent alcohol consumption.

PubMed

Mayhew, Matthew J; Powell, Jane H

2014-11-01

Traditionally, impulsivity has been regarded as a stable trait. However, a series of longitudinal and behavioural laboratory studies has found that impulsivity can fluctuate within individuals, suggesting that it has a state as well as a trait manifestation. Whilst existing impulsivity questionnaires tap the former, there is no self-report instrument to assess recent fluctuations in impulsivity. Research aims and design The present study set out to develop and undertake preliminary validation of a measure of 'recent' impulsivity, focusing in particular on Rash Impulsivity. Part of the construct validation of the resulting Recent Rash Impulsivity Scale (RRIS) entailed examining its association with recent alcohol intake, since there are well-documented reciprocal relationships between alcohol consumption and inhibitory control. In developing the RRIS, items from existing trait impulsivity questionnaires were converted into a 'previous two weeks' format. The pilot RRIS was then administered, along with a parallel trait version (Trait Rash Impulsivity Scale; TRIS) and a well-established trait impulsivity measure (the BIS-11; Patton, Stanford & Barratt, 1995), to two cohorts of first-year undergraduates aged 17 to 25 (N=240), on two occasions one month apart. Information about habitual and recent alcohol intake was also gathered. Factor analyses on both the RRIS and TRIS identified two factors: 'Cognitive Impulsivity' (CogImp) and 'Motor Impulsivity' (MotImp). Consistent with the RRIS being sensitive to fluctuations in impulsivity, it was found that, as predicted: i) the RRIS was somewhat less strongly correlated than the TRIS with an established trait measure (the BIS-11; Patton et al., 1995); ii) the test-retest stability of 'Total' scores (CogImp and MotImp) was weaker for the RRIS than the TRIS; iii) there was evidence that the RRIS MotImp and Total scales were more strongly predicted by recent alcohol intake than were their trait equivalents; and iv) the RRIS CogImp and Total scales correlated more strongly with their trait equivalents in participants whose alcohol consumption had remained stable recently (relative to their habitual intake), compared to those whose consumption had recently changed. These data suggest that transient changes in impulsivity can be assessed via self-report, and that the RRIS is sensitive to recent changes in alcohol intake. Subject to a more intensive and detailed validation, it is thus promising as a tool for tapping and characterising fluctuations in behavioural control and for exploring a range of factors to which this might be associated. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active control of impulsive noise with symmetric α-stable distribution based on an improved step-size normalized adaptive algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yali; Zhang, Qizhi; Yin, Yixin

2015-05-01

In this paper, active control of impulsive noise with symmetric α-stable (SαS) distribution is studied. A general step-size normalized filtered-x Least Mean Square (FxLMS) algorithm is developed based on the analysis of existing algorithms, and the Gaussian distribution function is used to normalize the step size. Compared with existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm needs neither the parameter selection and thresholds estimation nor the process of cost function selection and complex gradient computation. Computer simulations have been carried out to suggest that the proposed algorithm is effective for attenuating SαS impulsive noise, and then the proposed algorithm has been implemented in an experimental ANC system. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme has good performance for SαS impulsive noise attenuation.

Developmental Course of Impulsivity and Capability from Age 10 to Age 25 as Related to Trajectory of Suicide Attempt in a Community Cohort

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasen, Stephanie; Cohen, Patricia; Chen, Henian

2011-01-01

Hierarchical linear models were used to examine trajectories of impulsivity and capability between ages 10 and 25 in relation to suicide attempt in 770 youths followed longitudinally: intercepts were set at age 17. The impulsivity measure assessed features of urgency (e.g., poor control, quick provocation, and disregard for external constraints);…

Low Cognitive Impulsivity Is Associated with Better Gain and Loss Learning in a Probabilistic Decision-Making Task

PubMed Central

Cáceres, Pablo; San Martín, René

2017-01-01

Many advances have been made over the last decades in describing, on the one hand, the link between reward-based learning and decision-making, and on the other hand, the link between impulsivity and decision-making. However, the association between reward-based learning and impulsivity remains poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the association between individual differences in loss-minimizing and gain-maximizing behavior in a learning-based probabilistic decision-making task and individual differences in cognitive impulsivity. We found that low cognitive impulsivity was associated both with a better performance minimizing losses and maximizing gains during the task. These associations remained significant after controlling for mathematical skills and gender as potential confounders. We discuss potential mechanisms through which cognitive impulsivity might interact with reward-based learning and decision-making. PMID:28261137

Low Cognitive Impulsivity Is Associated with Better Gain and Loss Learning in a Probabilistic Decision-Making Task.

PubMed

Cáceres, Pablo; San Martín, René

2017-01-01

Many advances have been made over the last decades in describing, on the one hand, the link between reward-based learning and decision-making, and on the other hand, the link between impulsivity and decision-making. However, the association between reward-based learning and impulsivity remains poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the association between individual differences in loss-minimizing and gain-maximizing behavior in a learning-based probabilistic decision-making task and individual differences in cognitive impulsivity. We found that low cognitive impulsivity was associated both with a better performance minimizing losses and maximizing gains during the task. These associations remained significant after controlling for mathematical skills and gender as potential confounders. We discuss potential mechanisms through which cognitive impulsivity might interact with reward-based learning and decision-making.

An Update Overview on Brain Imaging Studies of Internet Gaming Disorder

PubMed Central

Weinstein, Aviv M.

2017-01-01

There are a growing number of studies on structural and functional brain mechanisms underlying Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies showed that IGD adolescents and adults had reduced gray matter volume in regions associated with attention motor coordination executive function and perception. Adolescents with IGD showed lower white matter (WM) integrity measures in several brain regions that are involved in decision-making, behavioral inhibition, and emotional regulation. IGD adolescents had also disruption in the functional connectivity in areas responsible for learning memory and executive function, processing of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli and relay of sensory and motor signals. IGD adolescents also had decreased functional connectivity of PFC-striatal circuits, increased risk-taking choices, and impaired ability to control their impulses similar to other impulse control disorders. Recent studies indicated that altered executive control mechanisms in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) would be a predisposition for developing IGD. Finally, patients with IGD have also shown an increased functional connectivity of several executive control brain regions that may related to comorbidity with ADHD and depression. The behavioral addiction model argues that IGD shows the features of excessive use despite adverse consequences, withdrawal phenomena, and tolerance that characterize substance use disorders. The evidence supports the behavioral addiction model of IGD by showing structural and functional changes in the mechanisms of reward and craving (but not withdrawal) in IGD. Future studies need to investigate WM density and functional connectivity in IGD in order to validate these findings. Furthermore, more research is required about the similarity in neurochemical and neurocognitive brain circuits in IGD and comorbid conditions such as ADHD and depression. PMID:29033857

I can't wait: Methods for measuring and moderating individual differences in impulsive choice.

PubMed

Peterson, Jennifer R; Hill, Catherine C; Marshall, Andrew T; Stuebing, Sarah L; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2015-01-01

Impulsive choice behavior occurs when individuals make choices without regard for future consequences. This behavior is often maladaptive and is a common symptom in many disorders, including drug abuse, compulsive gambling, and obesity. Several proposed mechanisms may influence impulsive choice behavior. These mechanisms provide a variety of pathways that may provide the basis for individual differences that are often evident when measuring choice behavior. This review provides an overview of these different pathways to impulsive choice, and the behavioral intervention strategies being developed to moderate impulsive choice. Because of the compelling link between impulsive choice behavior and the near-epidemic pervasiveness of obesity in the United States, we focus on the relationship between impulsive choice behavior and obesity as a test case for application of the multiple pathways approach. Choosing immediate gratification over healthier long term food choices is a contributing factor to the obesity crisis. Behavioral interventions can lead to more self controlled choices in a rat pre-clinical model, suggesting a possible gateway for translation to human populations. Designing and implementing effective impulsive choice interventions is crucial to improving the overall health and well-being of impulsive individuals.

I can't wait: Methods for measuring and moderating individual differences in impulsive choice

PubMed Central

Peterson, Jennifer R.; Hill, Catherine C.; Marshall, Andrew T.; Stuebing, Sarah L.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2016-01-01

Impulsive choice behavior occurs when individuals make choices without regard for future consequences. This behavior is often maladaptive and is a common symptom in many disorders, including drug abuse, compulsive gambling, and obesity. Several proposed mechanisms may influence impulsive choice behavior. These mechanisms provide a variety of pathways that may provide the basis for individual differences that are often evident when measuring choice behavior. This review provides an overview of these different pathways to impulsive choice, and the behavioral intervention strategies being developed to moderate impulsive choice. Because of the compelling link between impulsive choice behavior and the near-epidemic pervasiveness of obesity in the United States, we focus on the relationship between impulsive choice behavior and obesity as a test case for application of the multiple pathways approach. Choosing immediate gratification over healthier long term food choices is a contributing factor to the obesity crisis. Behavioral interventions can lead to more self controlled choices in a rat pre-clinical model, suggesting a possible gateway for translation to human populations. Designing and implementing effective impulsive choice interventions is crucial to improving the overall health and well-being of impulsive individuals. PMID:27695664

Psychedelic symptoms of cannabis and cocaine use as a function of trait impulsivity.

PubMed

van Wel, J H P; Spronk, D B; Kuypers, K P C; Theunissen, E L; Toennes, S W; Verkes, R J; Ramaekers, J G

2015-03-01

Trait impulsivity has been linked to addiction in humans. It has been suggested that drug users with high trait impulsivity levels are more sensitive to subjective drug intoxication. This study assessed whether subjective response to drugs differs between drug users with normal or high levels of trait impulsivity. Regular drug users (N = 122) received doses of cocaine HCl, cannabis, and placebo in a three-way crossover study. Their mood, dissociative state, and psychedelic symptoms were measured with subjective rating scales (CADDS, Bowdle, POMS). Trait impulsivity was assessed with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Cannabis increased dissociation and psychedelic state, as well as fatigue, confusion, depression and anxiety, and decreased arousal, positive mood, vigor, friendliness, and elation. Cocaine increased dissociation, psychedelic state, vigor, friendliness, elation, positive mood, anxiety and arousal, while decreasing fatigue. Only a few subjective items revealed a drug × trait impulsivity interaction, suggesting that psychedelic symptoms were most intense in high impulsivity subjects. Trait impulsiveness ratings were negatively correlated with ratings of vigor (r = -.197) and positively correlated with ratings of loss of thought control (r = .237) during cannabis intoxication. It is concluded that a broad association between trait impulsivity and psychedelic subjective drug experience appears to be absent. © The Author(s) 2015.

The error-related negativity (ERN) is an electrophysiological marker of motor impulsiveness on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) during adolescence.

PubMed

Taylor, Jasmine B; Visser, Troy A W; Fueggle, Simone N; Bellgrove, Mark A; Fox, Allison M

2018-04-01

Previous studies have postulated that the error-related negativity (ERN) may reflect individual differences in impulsivity; however, none have used a longitudinal framework or evaluated impulsivity as a multidimensional construct. The current study evaluated whether ERN amplitude, measured in childhood and adolescence, is predictive of impulsiveness during adolescence. Seventy-five children participated in this study, initially at ages 7-9 years and again at 12-18 years. The interval between testing sessions ranged from 5 to 9 years. The ERN was extracted in response to behavioural errors produced during a modified visual flanker task at both time points (i.e. childhood and adolescence). Participants also completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - a measure that considers impulsiveness to comprise three core sub-traits - during adolescence. At adolescence, the ERN amplitude was significantly larger than during childhood. Additionally, ERN amplitude during adolescence significantly predicted motor impulsiveness at that time point, after controlling for age, gender, and the number of trials included in the ERN. In contrast, ERN amplitude during childhood did not uniquely predict impulsiveness during adolescence. These findings provide preliminary evidence that ERN amplitude is an electrophysiological marker of self-reported motor impulsiveness (i.e. acting without thinking) during adolescence. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Delay discounting and response disinhibition under acute experimental stress in women with borderline personality disorder and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Krause-Utz, A; Cackowski, S; Daffner, S; Sobanski, Esther; Plichta, Michael M; Bohus, M; Ende, G; Schmahl, C

2016-11-01

Impulsivity is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In BPD, impulsive behavior primarily occurs under acute stress; impulse control deficits under non-stress conditions may be partly related to co-morbid ADHD. We aimed to investigate whether acute experimental stress has an impact on self-reported impulsivity, response inhibition (action withholding, action cancelation) and delay discounting in BPD compared to ADHD. Thirty female BPD patients, 28 female ADHD patients (excluding patients with co-morbid BPD and ADHD), and 30 female healthy controls (HC) completed self-reports and behavioral measures of impulsivity (IMT, assessing action withholding; GoStop, measuring action cancelation, Delay Discounting Task) under baseline conditions and after an experimental stress induction (Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test). Both patient groups reported higher impulsivity than HC, ADHD reported higher trait impulsivity than BPD. On the IMT, ADHD showed significant action-withholding deficits under both conditions, while BPD performed significantly worse than HC under stress. In BPD but not ADHD and HC, action-withholding deficits (IMT) were significantly increased under stress compared to baseline, while no group/stress effects were found for action cancelation (GoStop). Delay discounting was significantly more pronounced in BPD than in HC (no stress effect was found). In BPD, behavioral deficits in action withholding (but not in action cancelation) appear to be influenced by acute experimental stress. Delay discounting seems to be a general feature of BPD, independent of co-morbid ADHD and acute stress, possibly underlying typical expressions of behavioral impulsivity in the disorder.

Neural substrates of time perception and impulsivity

PubMed Central

Wittmann, Marc; Simmons, Alan N.; Flagan, Taru; Lane, Scott D.; Wackermann, Jiří; Paulus, Martin P.

2011-01-01

Several studies provide empirical evidence for the association between impulsivity and time perception. However, little is known about the neural substrates underlying this function. This investigation examined the influence of impulsivity on neural activation patterns during the encoding and reproduction of intervals with durations of 3, 9 and 18 seconds using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty-seven subjects participated in this study, including 15 high impulsive subjects that were classified based on their self-rating. FMRI activation during the duration reproduction task was correlated with measures of two self-report questionnaires related to the concept of impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, BIS; Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, ZTPI). Behaviorally, those individuals who under-reproduced temporal intervals also showed lower scores on the ZTPI future perspective subscale and higher scores on the BIS. FMRI activation revealed an accumulating pattern of neural activity peaking at the end of the 9- and 18-s interval within right posterior insula. Activations of brain regions during the reproduction phase of the timing task, such as those related to motor execution as well as to the ‘core control network’ – encompassing the inferior frontal and medial frontal cortex, the anterior insula as well as the inferior parietal cortex – were significantly correlated with reproduced duration, as well as with BIS and ZTPI subscales. In particular, the greater activation in these regions the shorter were the reproduced intervals, the more impulsive was an individual and the less pronounced the future perspective. Activation in the core control network, thus, may form a biological marker for cognitive time management and for impulsiveness. PMID:21763642

Early age of e-cigarette use onset mediates the association between impulsivity and e-cigarette use frequency in youth.

PubMed

Bold, Krysten W; Morean, Meghan E; Kong, Grace; Simon, Patricia; Camenga, Deepa R; Cavallo, Dana A; Krishnan-Sarin, Suchitra

2017-12-01

Identifying risk factors for youth e-cigarette use is critical, given high rates of e-cigarette use and unknown health effects of long-term use. The current study examined whether an early age of onset of e-cigarette use mediates the association between impulsivity and e-cigarette frequency. Cross-sectional survey data of e-cigarette users (n=927) were collected from 8 high schools in southeastern Connecticut. The sample was 44.7% female (mean age 16.2 [SD=1.2], mean age of e-cigarette onset 14.7 [SD=1.6]). Two domains of self-reported, trait impulsivity were assessed using the abbreviated Barratt Impulsiveness Scale: impaired self-regulation (e.g., problems with concentration or self-control) and behavioral impulsivity (e.g., doing things without thinking). Mediation was tested with Mplus, and the model included school as a cluster variable and controlled for covariates related to e-cigarette use (i.e., sex, age, race, peer use, and other tobacco products ever tried). The hypothesized mediation was supported for both domains of impulsivity (impaired self-regulation a 1 b=0.09, SE=0.02, 95%CI [0.03-0.14], p=.002; behavioral impulsivity a 2 b=0.07, SE=0.03, 95%CI [.01-.14], p=0.03). Specifically, impaired self-regulation (B=-0.33, SE=0.06, p<0.001) and behavioral impulsivity (B=-0.26, SE=0.11, p=0.02) predicted trying e-cigarettes at an earlier age, and earlier initiation was associated with more days of e-cigarette use in the past month (B=-0.28, SE=0.08, p<0.001). Adolescents who endorse aspects of impulsivity, such as acting without thinking, are at greater risk for more frequent e-cigarette use through an early age of e-cigarette initiation. Further research is needed to evaluate these relationships longitudinally and to develop targeted e-cigarette interventions for impulsive youth. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity traits in patients with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Toro, Jaime; Blanco, Luisa; Orozco-Cabal, Luis Felipe; Díaz, Camilo; Reyes, Saúl; Burbano, Lisseth; Cuéllar-Giraldo, David Felipe; Duque, Alejandra; Patiño, Jorge; Cortés, Fabián

2018-05-01

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease with a lifetime prevalence of 4.41/100000 in Bogota, Colombia. It is known that it can be related with neuropsychiatric disorders, increasing by a factor of three the prevalence of depression in MS patients compared to general population. However, less attention has been given to the association between MS and impulsive behavior. This cross-sectional study compared the levels of impulsivity controlling for the presence of MS. 60 patients with MS and 60 sex- and age-matched subjects without MS were included. In order to assess depression and impulsivity, participants completed the 13-item short form of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-SF), the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale version 11 (BIS-11) and the Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks (IMT-DMT) as an objective measure of impulsive behavior. Total scores, motor and cognitive subscales on the BIS-11 were significantly higher in the MS group. However, median BDI-SF score was also higher in MS patients than in subjects without MS (p < 0.001). To rule out depression as a confounding factor, stratification was performed using the BDI-SF score. In the subgroup of individuals with a BDI-SF< 8, the BIS-11 cognitive subscale scores were significantly higher in patients with MS than in subjects without MS (p = 0.041). In the IMT/DMT test, subjects with MS had a fewer number of correct detections than did subjects without MS, after controlling for BDI-SF score (p = 0.0001/p = 0.003). The ratio of commission errors to correct detections in the IMT was significantly higher in the MS group (p = 0.011). Patients with MS showed higher levels of cognitive impulsivity than subjects without MS. Objective measures for impulsiveness further support this finding. Impulsiveness scales scores might be biased by depression, which should be considered when assessing impulsivity in MS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Impulsive and Risky Choice in Rats

PubMed Central

Kirkpatrick, Kimberly; Marshall, Andrew T.; Smith, Aaron P.

2016-01-01

Individual differences in impulsive and risky choice are key risk factors for a variety of maladaptive behaviors such as drug abuse, gambling, and obesity. In our rat model, ordered individual differences are stable across choice parameters, months of testing, and span a broad spectrum, suggesting that rats, like humans, exhibit trait-level impulsive and risky choice behaviors. In addition, impulsive and risky choices are highly correlated, suggesting a degree of correlation between these two traits. An examination of the underlying cognitive mechanisms has suggested an important role for timing processes in impulsive choice. In addition, in an examination of genetic factors in impulsive choice, the Lewis rat strain emerged as a possible animal model for studying disordered impulsive choice, with this strain demonstrating deficient delay processing. Early rearing environment also affected impulsive behaviors, with rearing in an enriched environment promoting adaptable and more self-controlled choices. The combined results with impulsive choice suggest an important role for timing and reward sensitivity in moderating impulsive behaviors. Relative reward valuation also affects risky choice, with manipulation of objective reward value (relative to an alternative reference point) resulting in loss chasing behaviors that predicted overall risky choice behaviors. The combined results are discussed in relation to domain-specific versus domain-general subjective reward valuation processes and the potential neural substrates of impulsive and risky choice. PMID:27695580

Allelic variation in dopamine D2 receptor gene is associated with attentional impulsiveness on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11).

PubMed

Taylor, Jasmine B; Cummins, Tarrant D R; Fox, Allison M; Johnson, Beth P; Tong, Janette H; Visser, Troy A W; Hawi, Ziarih; Bellgrove, Mark A

2017-01-20

Previous studies have postulated that noradrenergic and/or dopaminergic gene variations are likely to underlie individual differences in impulsiveness, however, few have shown this. The current study examined the relationship between catecholamine gene variants and self-reported impulsivity, as measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (Version 11; BIS-11) Methods: Six hundred and seventy-seven non-clinical adults completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). DNA was analysed for a set of 142 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across 20 autosomal catecholamine genes. Association was tested using an additive regression model with permutation testing used to control for the influence of multiple comparison. Analysis revealed an influence of rs4245146 of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene on the BIS-11 attention first-order factor, such that self-reported attentional impulsiveness increased in an additive fashion with each copy of the T allele. These findings provide preliminary evidence that allelic variation in DRD2 may influence impulsiveness by increasing the propensity for attentional lapses.

Religiosity and Impulsivity in Mental Health: Is There a Relationship?

PubMed

Caribé, André C; Rocha, Marlos Fernando Vasconcelos; Junior, Davi Félix Martins; Studart, Paula; Quarantini, Lucas C; Guerreiro, Nicolau; Miranda-Scippa, Ângela

2015-07-01

Our aim is to evaluate the relationship between religiosity and impulsivity in patients with mental illness who had attempted suicide and in healthy individuals. This is a cross-sectional study that included 61 healthy individuals and 93 patients. The instruments used were a sociodemographic data questionnaire, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and the Duke University Religion Index. The healthy individuals presented higher scores in the religiosity domains (organizational, p = 0.028; non-organizational, p = 0.000; intrinsic, p = 0.000). The patients presented higher scores in the impulsivity dimensions (attentional, p = 0.000; motor, p = 0.000; absence of planning, p = 0.000). In the patient group, intrinsic religiosity had a significant inverse relationship with total impulsivity (p = 0.023), attentional (p = 0.010), and absence of planning (p = 0.007), even after controlling for sociodemographic variables. Healthy individuals were more religious and less impulsive than patients. The relationship between religiosity, impulsiveness, and mental illness could be bidirectional; that is, just as mental illness might impair religious involvement, religiosity could diminish the expression of mental illness and impulsive behaviors.

Association between Internet gaming disorder and adult attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and their correlates: Impulsivity and hostility.

PubMed

Yen, Ju-Yu; Liu, Tai-Ling; Wang, Peng-Wei; Chen, Cheng-Sheng; Yen, Cheng-Fang; Ko, Chih-Hung

2017-01-01

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with impulsivity and hostility. This study evaluated the associations among ADHD, impulsivity, hostility, and IGD. We recruited 87 individuals with IGD and 87 controls without a history of IGD. All participants underwent a diagnostic interview based on the DSM-5 IGD criteria and DSM-IV-TR ADHD criteria and completed a questionnaire regarding impulsivity and hostility. The information from the diagnostic interviews was assessed using the clinical global impression scale. The results suggested that IGD is associated with ADHD among young adults and that young adults with both IGD and ADHD have higher impulsivity and hostility. Furthermore, impulsivity and hostility mediate the association between ADHD and IGD. Thus, ADHD is a common comorbidity of IGD among young adults, and impulsivity and hostility are major factors involved in comorbid ADHD and IGD. Young adults with ADHD should be thoroughly assessed, particularly for their impulsivity and hostility, and interventions for IGD should be developed. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior via the internet. Effects on body weight.

PubMed

Veling, Harm; van Koningsbruggen, Guido M; Aarts, Henk; Stroebe, Wolfgang

2014-07-01

Because eating behavior can take on an impulsive nature many people experience difficulty with dieting to lose weight. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of two interventions targeting impulsive processes of eating behavior to facilitate weight loss: Implementation intentions to remind people about dieting versus a go/no-go task to change impulses toward palatable foods. Dieters performed an online training program (four times in 4 weeks) in which they were randomly assigned to a 2 (implementation intention condition: dieting versus control) × 2 (go/no-go task condition: food versus control) design. They formed either dieting implementation intentions (e.g., If I open the fridge I will think of dieting!) or control implementation intentions. Furthermore, they received either a go/no-go task in which behavioral stop signals were presented upon presentation of palatable foods (food go/no-go task), or upon control stimuli. Participants' weight was measured in the laboratory before and after the intervention. Strength of participants' dieting goal and their Body Mass Index (BMI; as a proxy for impulsiveness toward food) were examined as moderators. Results showed that both dieting implementation intentions and the food go/no-go task facilitated weight loss. Moreover, dieting implementation intentions facilitated weight loss particularly among people with a strong current dieting goal, whereas the food go/no-go task facilitated weight loss independent of this factor. Instead, the food go/no-go task, but not formation of dieting implementation intentions, was primarily effective among dieters with a relatively high BMI. These results provide the first preliminary evidence that interventions aimed at targeting impulsive eating-related processes via the internet can facilitate weight loss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimality of affine control system of several species in competition on a sequential batch reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez, J. C.; Ramírez, H.; Gajardo, P.; Rapaport, A.

2014-09-01

In this paper, we analyse the optimality of affine control system of several species in competition for a single substrate on a sequential batch reactor, with the objective being to reach a given (low) level of the substrate. We allow controls to be bounded measurable functions of time plus possible impulses. A suitable modification of the dynamics leads to a slightly different optimal control problem, without impulsive controls, for which we apply different optimality conditions derived from Pontryagin principle and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. We thus characterise the singular trajectories of our problem as the extremal trajectories keeping the substrate at a constant level. We also establish conditions for which an immediate one impulse (IOI) strategy is optimal. Some numerical experiences are then included in order to illustrate our study and show that those conditions are also necessary to ensure the optimality of the IOI strategy.

Pramipexole-induced disruption of behavioral processes fundamental to intertemporal choice.

PubMed

Johnson, Patrick S; Stein, Jeffrey S; Smits, Rochelle R; Madden, Gregory J

2013-05-01

Evaluating the effects of presession drug administration on intertemporal choice in nonhumans is a useful approach for identifying compounds that promote impulsive behavior in clinical populations, such as those prescribed the dopamine agonist pramipexole (PPX). Based on the results of previous studies, it is unclear whether PPX increases rats' impulsive choice or attenuates aspects of stimulus control. The present study was designed to experimentally isolate behavioral processes fundamental to intertemporal choice and challenge them pharmacologically with PPX administration. In Experiment 1, the hypothesis that PPX increases impulsive choice as a result of enhanced sensitivity to reinforcer delays was tested and disconfirmed. That is, acute PPX diminished delay sensitivity in a manner consistent with disruption of stimulus control whereas repeated PPX had no effect on delay sensitivity. Experiments 2 and 3 elaborated upon this finding by examining the effects of repeated PPX on rats' discrimination of response-reinforcer contingencies and reinforcer amounts, respectively. Accuracy of both discriminations was reduced by PPX. Collectively these results provide no support for past studies that have suggested PPX increases impulsive choice. Instead, PPX impairs stimulus control over choice behavior. The behavioral approach adopted herein could be profitably integrated with genetic and other biobehavioral models to advance our understanding of impulsive behavior associated with drug administration. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Dysfunctional decision-making in pathological gambling: pattern specificity and the role of impulsivity.

PubMed

Kräplin, Anja; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Behrendt, Silke; Scherbaum, Stefan; Goschke, Thomas; Bühringer, Gerhard

2014-03-30

Dysfunctional decision-making in individuals with pathological gambling (PGs) may result from dominating reward-driven processes, indicated by higher impulsivity. In the current study we examined (1) if PGs show specific decision-making impairments related to dominating reward-driven processes rather than to strategic planning deficits and (2) whether these impairments are related to impulsivity. Nineteen PGs according to DSM-IV and 19 matched control subjects undertook the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) to assess decision-making. The delay discounting paradigm (DDP) as well as the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale (measuring urgency, premeditation, perseverance and sensation seeking) were administered as multidimensional measures of impulsivity. Results revealed that (1) PGs exhibited higher risk seeking and an immediate reward focus in the CGT and, in contrast, comparable strategic planning to the control group. (2) Decision-making impairments were related to more severe delay discounting and, specifically, to increased urgency and less premeditation. Our findings suggest (1) the necessity to disentangle decision-making components in order to improve etiological models of PGs, and (2) that urgency and premeditation are specifically related to disadvantageous decision-making and should be tackled in intervention strategies focusing on emotion tolerance and control strategies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trait and state impulsivity in males with tendency towards Internet-pornography-use disorder.

PubMed

Antons, Stephanie; Brand, Matthias

2018-04-01

Impulsivity has been identified to be involved in the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders (IUD). It can be differentiated between relatively stable trait impulsivity and state impulsivity which is dependent on environmental and affective factors such as craving. Following the I-PACE (Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution) model, both trait and state impulsivity may play an interactive role in IUD. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between trait and state impulsivity and symptom severity of Internet-pornography-use disorder (IPD) as one form of IUD. Fifty heterosexual males participated in this study. State impulsivity was measured with reaction times in a modified stop-signal task. Each participant conducted two blocks of this task which included neutral and pornographic pictures. Moreover, current subjective craving, trait impulsivity, and symptom severity of IPD were assessed using several questionnaires. Results indicate that trait impulsivity was associated with higher symptom severity of IPD. Especially those males with higher trait impulsivity and state impulsivity in the pornographic condition of the stop-signal task as well as those with high craving reactions showed severe symptoms of IPD. The results indicate that both trait and state impulsivity play a crucial role in the development of IPD. In accordance with dual-process models of addiction, the results may be indicative of an imbalance between the impulsive and reflective systems which might be triggered by pornographic material. This may result in loss of control over the Internet-pornography use albeit experiencing negative consequences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Apathy and impulsivity in frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes

PubMed Central

Coyle-Gilchrist, Ian T. S.; Jones, P. Simon; Vázquez Rodríguez, Patricia; Wilcox, Alicia; Wehmann, Eileen; Dick, Katrina M.; Robbins, Trevor W.; Rowe, James B.

2017-01-01

Abstract Apathy and impulsivity are common and disabling consequences of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. They cause substantial carer distress, but their aetiology remains elusive. There are critical limitations to previous studies in this area including (i) the assessment of either apathy or impulsivity alone, despite their frequent co-existence; (ii) the assessment of behavioural changes within single diagnostic groups; and (iii) the use of limited sets of tasks or questions that relate to just one aspect of these multifactorial constructs. We proposed an alternative, dimensional approach that spans behavioural and language variants of frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome. This accommodates the commonalities of apathy and impulsivity across disorders and reveals their cognitive and anatomical bases. The ability to measure the components of apathy and impulsivity and their associated neural correlates across diagnostic groups would provide better novel targets for pharmacological manipulations, and facilitate new treatment strategies and strengthen translational models. We therefore sought to determine the neurocognitive components of apathy and impulsivity in frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes. The frequency and characteristics of apathy and impulsivity were determined by neuropsychological and behavioural assessments in 149 patients and 50 controls from the PIck’s disease and Progressive supranuclear palsy Prevalence and INcidence study (PiPPIN). We derived dimensions of apathy and impulsivity using principal component analysis and employed these in volumetric analyses of grey and white matter in a subset of 70 patients (progressive supranuclear palsy, n = 22; corticobasal syndrome, n = 13; behavioural variant, n = 14; primary progressive aphasias, n = 21) and 27 control subjects. Apathy and impulsivity were present across diagnostic groups, despite being criteria for behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia alone. Measures of apathy and impulsivity frequently loaded onto the same components reflecting their overlapping relationship. However, measures from objective tasks, patient-rated questionnaires and carer-rated questionnaires loaded onto separate components and revealed distinct neurobiology. Corticospinal tracts correlated with patients’ self-ratings. In contrast, carer ratings correlated with atrophy in established networks for goal-directed behaviour, social cognition, motor control and vegetative functions, including frontostriatal circuits, orbital and temporal polar cortex, and the brainstem. Components reflecting response inhibition deficits correlated with focal frontal cortical atrophy. The dimensional approach to complex behavioural changes arising from frontotemporal lobar degeneration provides new insights into apathy and impulsivity, and the need for a joint therapeutic strategy against them. The separation of objective tests from subjective questionnaires, and patient from carer ratings, has important implications for clinical trial design. PMID:28486594

Pinning impulsive control algorithms for complex network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Wen; Lü, Jinhu; Chen, Shihua; Yu, Xinghuo

2014-03-01

In this paper, we further investigate the synchronization of complex dynamical network via pinning control in which a selection of nodes are controlled at discrete times. Different from most existing work, the pinning control algorithms utilize only the impulsive signals at discrete time instants, which may greatly improve the communication channel efficiency and reduce control cost. Two classes of algorithms are designed, one for strongly connected complex network and another for non-strongly connected complex network. It is suggested that in the strongly connected network with suitable coupling strength, a single controller at any one of the network's nodes can always pin the network to its homogeneous solution. In the non-strongly connected case, the location and minimum number of nodes needed to pin the network are determined by the Frobenius normal form of the coupling matrix. In addition, the coupling matrix is not necessarily symmetric or irreducible. Illustrative examples are then given to validate the proposed pinning impulsive control algorithms.

Flights between a neighborhoods of unstable libration points of Sun-Earth system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Surkova, Valerya; Shmyrov, Vasily

2018-05-01

In this paper we study the problem of constructing impulse flights between neighborhoods of unstable collinear libration points of the Sun-Earth system [1]. Such maneuvering in near-Earth space may prove to be in demand in modern space navigation. For example, such a maneuvering was done by the space vehicle GENESIS. Three test points are chosen for the implementation of the impulse control, in order to move to a neighborhood of the libration point L2. It is shown that the earlier on the exit from the vicinity of the libration point L1 impulse control was realized, the sooner the neighborhood L2 was achieved. Separated from this problem, the problem of optimal control in the neighborhood of L2 was considered and a form of stabilizing control is presented.

A Lie algebraic condition for exponential stability of discrete hybrid systems and application to hybrid synchronization.

PubMed

Zhao, Shouwei

2011-06-01

A Lie algebraic condition for global exponential stability of linear discrete switched impulsive systems is presented in this paper. By considering a Lie algebra generated by all subsystem matrices and impulsive matrices, when not all of these matrices are Schur stable, we derive new criteria for global exponential stability of linear discrete switched impulsive systems. Moreover, simple sufficient conditions in terms of Lie algebra are established for the synchronization of nonlinear discrete systems using a hybrid switching and impulsive control. As an application, discrete chaotic system's synchronization is investigated by the proposed method.

Motor Impulsivity in Parkinson Disease: Associations with COMT and DRD2 polymorphisms

PubMed Central

Ziegler, David A.; Ashourian, Paymon; Wonderlick, Julien S.; Sarokhan, Alison K.; Prelec, Drazen; Scherzer, Clemens R.; Corkin, Suzanne

2017-01-01

Parkinson disease (PD) is an age-related degenerative disease of the brain, characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms. Neurologists and neuroscientists now understand that several symptoms of the disease, including hallucinations and impulse control behaviors, stem from the dopaminergic medications used to control the motor aspects of PD. Converging evidence from animals and humans suggests that individual differences in the genes that affect the dopamine system influence the response of PD patients to dopaminergic medication. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that patients taking dopamine replacement therapy who carry candidate alleles that increase dopamine signaling exhibit greater amounts of motor impulsivity. We examined the relation between inhibitory ability (measured by the Stop Signal Task) and polymorphisms of COMT Val158Met and DRD2 C957T in patients with idiopathic PD. On the Stop Signal Task, carriers of COMT Val/Met and Met/Met genotypes were more impulsive than Val/Val carriers, but we did not find a link between DRD2 polymorphisms and inhibitory ability. These results support the hypothesis that the Met allele of COMT confers an increased risk for behavioral impulsivity in PD patients, whereas DRD2 polymorphisms appear to be less important in determining whether PD patients exhibit a dopamine overdose in the form of motor impulsivity. PMID:24749760

Food-Related Impulsivity in Obesity and Binge Eating Disorder-A Systematic Update of the Evidence.

PubMed

Giel, Katrin E; Teufel, Martin; Junne, Florian; Zipfel, Stephan; Schag, Kathrin

2017-10-27

The specific eating pattern of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) patients has provoked the assumption that BED might represent a phenotype within the obesity spectrum that is characterized by increased impulsivity. Following the guidelines of the PRISMA statement (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses), we here provide a systematic update on the evidence on food-related impulsivity in obese individuals, with and without BED, as well as normal-weight individuals. We separately analyzed potential group differences in the impulsivity components of reward sensitivity and rash-spontaneous behavior. Our search resulted in twenty experimental studies with high methodological quality. The synthesis of the latest evidence consolidates conclusions drawn in our initial systematic review that BED represents a distinct phenotype within the obesity spectrum that is characterized by increased impulsivity. Rash-spontaneous behavior in general, and specifically towards food, is increased in BED, while food-specific reward sensitivity is also increased in obese individuals without BED, but potentially to a lesser degree. A major next step for research entails the investigation of sub-domains and temporal components of inhibitory control in BED and obesity. Based on the evidence of impaired inhibitory control in BED, affected patients might profit from interventions that address impulsive behavior.

Psychosis and concurrent impulse control disorder in Parkinson's disease: A review based on a case report.

PubMed

Guedes, Bruno Fukelmann; Gonçalves, Marcia Rubia; Cury, Rubens Gisbert

2016-01-01

Psychosis, impulse control disorders (e.g., pathological gambling and hypersexuality) and repetitive behaviors such as punding are known psychiatric complications of Parkinson's disease (PD). Impulsive, compulsive and repetitive behaviors are strongly associated with dopamine-replacement therapy. We present the case of a 58-year-old man with PD and a myriad of psychiatric symptoms. Concurrent psychosis, punding and pathological gambling developed more than six years after the introduction of pramipexole and ceased shortly after the addition of quetiapine and discontinuation of pramipexole. This report emphasizes the importance of monitoring for a wide array of psychiatric symptoms in patients on dopamine replacement therapy.

Cannabinoids induce apathetic and impulsive patterns of choice through CB1 receptors and TRPV1 channels.

PubMed

Fatahi, Zahra; Reisi, Zahra; Rainer, Gregor; Haghparast, Abbas; Khani, Abbas

2018-05-01

Despite evidence from psychiatry and psychology clinics pointing to altered cognition and decision making following the consumption of cannabis, the effects of cannabis derivatives are still under dispute and the mechanisms of cannabinoid effects on cognition are not known. In this study, we used effort-based and delay-based decision tasks and showed that ACEA, a potent cannabinoid agonist induced apathetic and impulsive patterns of choice in rats in a dose-dependent manner when locally injected into the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), respectively. Pre-treatment with AM251, a selective cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor antagonist, reversed ACEA-induced impulsive and apathetic patterns of choice in doses higher than a minimally effective dose. Unlike CB1 receptor antagonist, pretreatment with capsazepine, a transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) channel antagonist, was effective only at an intermediary dose. Furthermore, capsazepine per se induced impulsivity and apathy at a high dose suggesting a basal tonic activation of TRPV1 channels that exist in the ACC and OFC to support cost-benefit decision making and to help avoid apathetic and impulsive patterns of decision making. Taken together, unlike previous reports supporting opposing roles for the CB1 receptors and TRPV1 channels in anxiety and panic behavior, our findings demonstrate a different sort of interaction between endocannabinoid and endovanilloid systems and suggest that both systems contribute to the cognitive disrupting effects of cannabinoids. Given prevalent occurrence of apathy and particularly impulsivity in psychiatric disorders, these results have significant implications for pharmacotherapy research targeting these receptors. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Maternal Nicotine Exposure During Late Gestation and Lactation Increases Anxiety-Like and Impulsive Decision-Making Behavior in Adolescent Offspring of Rat.

PubMed

Lee, Hyunchan; Chung, Sooyeon; Noh, Jihyun

2016-10-01

Prenatal nicotine exposure over an entire pregnancy has been associated with an increased prevalence of hyperactivity, anxiety-like behavior and depression-like behavior in mature rats. However, the effects of maternal nicotine exposure in late gestation and lactation on the psychology and behavior of adolescent rat offspring are unclear. Thus, we investigated the effect of nicotine exposure during late gestation and lactation on anxiety-like and impulsive decision-making behavior in adolescent offspring of rat. Female rats were orally exposed to nicotine which is within range of plasma level of human chronic smokers during the period of third last period of gestation and lactation. When the offspring were weaned, we observed alterations in the anxiety-like behavior and decision-making ability of adolescent rat offspring using light/dark box test and T-maze delay-based cost-benefit decision-making task. The maternal consumption of nicotine reduced both the time spent in the light compartment and the number of transitions compared to nicotine-free rats. Moreover, such nicotine exposed adolescent offspring rats showed impulsive decision making which chose the instant reward in a decision-making situation. We found that nicotine exposure during late gestation and lactation induces an increase in anxiety-like and impulsive decision-making behavior at this developmental stage. These findings suggest that maternal nicotine-exposed offspring are at an increased risk of developing anxious and impulsive behavior.

Determination of Elastic Moduli of Fiber-Resin Composites Using an Impulse Excitation Technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Viens, Michael J.; Johnson, Jeffrey J.

1996-01-01

The elastic moduli of graphite/epoxy and graphite/cyanate ester composite specimens with various laminate lay-ups was determined using an impulse excitation/acoustic resonance technique and compared to those determined using traditional strain gauge and extensometer techniques. The stiffness results were also compared to those predicted from laminate theory using uniaxial properties. The specimen stiffnesses interrogated ranged from 12 to 30 Msi. The impulse excitation technique was found to be a relatively quick and accurate method for determining elastic moduli with minimal specimen preparation and no requirement for mechanical loading frames. The results of this investigation showed good correlation between the elastic modulus determined using the impulse excitation technique, strain gauge and extensometer techniques, and modulus predicted from laminate theory. The flexural stiffness determined using the impulse excitation was in good agreement with that predicted from laminate theory. The impulse excitation/acoustic resonance interrogation technique has potential as a quality control test.

New developments in brain research of internet and gaming disorder.

PubMed

Weinstein, Aviv; Livny, Abigail; Weizman, Abraham

2017-04-01

There is evidence that the neural mechanisms underlying Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) resemble those of drug addiction. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies of the resting state and measures of gray matter volume have shown that Internet game playing was associated with changes to brain regions responsible for attention and control, impulse control, motor function, emotional regulation, sensory-motor coordination. Furthermore, Internet game playing was associated with lower white matter density in brain regions that are involved in decision-making, behavioral inhibition and emotional regulation. Videogame playing involved changes in reward inhibitory mechanisms and loss of control. Structural brain imaging studies showed alterations in the volume of the ventral striatum that is an important part of the brain's reward mechanisms. Finally, videogame playing was associated with dopamine release similar in magnitude to those of drugs of abuse and lower dopamine transporter and dopamine receptor D 2 occupancy indicating sub-sensitivity of dopamine reward mechanisms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancing decision-making and cognitive impulse control with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC): A randomized and sham-controlled exploratory study.

PubMed

Ouellet, Julien; McGirr, Alexander; Van den Eynde, Frederique; Jollant, Fabrice; Lepage, Martin; Berlim, Marcelo T

2015-10-01

Decision-making and impulse control (both cognitive and motor) are complex interrelated processes which rely on a distributed neural network that includes multiple cortical and subcortical regions. Among them, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) seems to be particularly relevant as demonstrated by several neuropsychological and neuroimaging investigations. In the present study we assessed whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied bilaterally over the OFC is able to modulate decision-making and cognitive impulse control. More specifically, 45 healthy subjects were randomized to receive a single 30-min session of active or sham anodal tDCS (1.5 mA) applied over either the left or the right OFC (coupled with contralateral cathodal tDCS). They were also assessed pre- and post-tDCS with a battery of computerized tasks. Our results show that participants who received active anodal tDCS (irrespective of laterality), vs. those who received sham tDCS, displayed more advantageous decision-making (i.e., increased Iowa Gambling Task "net scores" [p = 0.04]), as well as improved cognitive impulse control (i.e., decreased "interference" in the Stroop Word-Colour Task [p = 0.007]). However, we did not observe tDCS-related effects on mood (assessed by visual analogue scales), attentional levels (assessed by the Continuous Performance Task) or motor impulse control (assessed by the Stop-Signal Task). Our study potentially serves as a key translational step towards the development of novel non-invasive neuromodulation-based therapeutic interventions directly targeting vulnerability factors for psychiatric conditions such as suicidal behaviour and addiction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parkinson's Impulse-Control Scale for the Severity Rating of Impulse-Control Behaviors in Parkinson's Disease: A Semistructured Clinical Assessment Tool.

PubMed

Okai, David; Askey-Jones, Sally; Mack, Joel; Martin, Anne; Chaudhuri, Kallol Ray; Samuel, Michael; David, Anthony S; Brown, Richard G

2016-01-01

Impulse-control behaviors (ICBs) are increasingly recognized in Parkinson's disease (PD) as drug-related effects of dopaminergic mediation that occur in 15% to 35% of patients with PD. The authors describe the design and evaluation of a new, clinician-rated severity scale for the assessment of syndromal and subsyndromal forms of impulse-control disorders (ICDs), simple (punding) and complex (hobbyism) repetitive behaviors, and compulsive overuse of medication (dopamine dysregulation syndrome). The Parkinson's Impulse-Control Scale (PICS), the first PD-specific, semistructured interview to cover the full range of PD-related ICBs, is described along with initial evidence on its clinimetric properties including interrater reliability, discriminant validity and sensitivity to change. A convenience sample of PD patients with ICBs and those without were administered a semistructured interview (n = 92). The scale distinguished between those with and without clinically detected ICBs and between patients with syndromal ICD and subsyndromal ICB (receiver operating characteristic areas under the curve, 92%-95%). Cutoff values were suggested, and substantial agreement was reported on weighted kappa (Κ) values for clinician-clinician rating of severity (Κ = 0.92). Significant improvements were detected on the scale after a randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication adjustment ( t [22] = 5.47; P < 0.001). The PICS appears to be a reliable measure of the full range of PD ICBs with good levels of interrater reliability. It may provide a useful measure to assess the severity of ICBs and monitor change in clinical and research settings; although, given the specialized centers used for recruitment of this sample, further psychometric evaluation is required.

Is impulsivity a common trait in bipolar and unipolar disorders?

PubMed

Henna, Elaine; Hatch, John P; Nicoletti, Mark; Swann, Alan C; Zunta-Soares, Giovana; Soares, Jair C

2013-03-01

  Impulsivity is increased in bipolar and unipolar disorders during episodes and is associated with substance abuse disorders and suicide risk. Impulsivity between episodes predisposes to relapses and poor therapeutic compliance. However, there is little information about impulsivity during euthymia in mood disorders. We sought to investigate trait impulsivity in euthymic bipolar and unipolar disorder patients, comparing them to healthy individuals and unaffected relatives of bipolar disorder patients.   Impulsivity was evaluated by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11A) in 54 bipolar disorder patients, 25 unipolar disorder patients, 136 healthy volunteers, and 14 unaffected relatives. The BIS-11A mean scores for all four groups were compared through the Games-Howell test for all possible pairwise combinations. Additionally, we compared impulsivity in bipolar and unipolar disorder patients with and without a history of suicide attempt and substance abuse disorder.   Bipolar and unipolar disorder patients scored significantly higher than the healthy controls and unaffected relatives on all measures of the BIS-11A except for attentional impulsivity. On the attentional impulsivity measures there were no differences among the unaffected relatives and the bipolar and unipolar disorder groups, but all three of these groups scored higher than the healthy participant group. There was no difference in impulsivity between bipolar and unipolar disorder subjects with and without suicide attempt. However, impulsivity was higher among bipolar and unipolar disorder subjects with past substance use disorder compared to patients without such a history.   Questionnaire-measured impulsivity appears to be relatively independent of mood state in bipolar and unipolar disorder patients; it remains elevated in euthymia and is higher in individuals with past substance abuse. Elevated attentional and lower non-planning impulsivity in unaffected relatives of bipolar disorder patients distinguished them from healthy participants, suggesting that increased attentional impulsivity may predispose to development of affective disorders, while reduced attentional impulsivity may be protective. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

12. POWERHOUSE INTERIOR SHOWING EXCITER No. 2 SMALL PELTONDOBLE IMPULSE ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

12. POWERHOUSE INTERIOR SHOWING EXCITER No. 2 SMALL PELTON-DOBLE IMPULSE WHEEL, HAND-CONTROLLED GATE VALVE, AND NOZZLE. VIEW TO SOUTHWEST. - Rush Creek Hydroelectric System, Powerhouse Exciters, Rush Creek, June Lake, Mono County, CA

The moderating effects of impulsivity on Chinese rural young suicide.

PubMed

Zhang, Jie; Lin, Lin

2014-06-01

As only about 50% of Chinese suicides have mental disorders, nonpsychiatric factors such as social environment and personality may account for the variance that is not explained by mental problems. We try to explore the effects of impulsivity on Chinese suicides and the role impulsivity plays in the relationship between negative life events (NLEs) and suicidal behavior. A total of 392 suicide cases (178 female and 214 male, aged 15-34 years) and 416 community controls (202 males and 214 females) of the same age range were sampled in China. The case-control data were obtained using psychological autopsy method with structured and semistructured instruments. Impulsivity was an important predictor of Chinese rural young suicides and it was a moderator between NLEs and suicide. Findings of the study may be translated into practical measures in suicide prevention in China as well as elsewhere in the world. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Inattention and Hyperactivity Predict Alterations in Specific Neural Circuits among 6-Year-Old Boys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qiu, Anqi; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne; Tuan, Ta Anh; Zhong, Jidan; Meaney, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Objective: Assessment of inattention and hyperactivity in preschoolers is highly dependent upon parental reports. Such reports are compromised by parental attitudes and mental health. Our study aimed to examine associations of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity from maternal reports on the Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS) with brain…

Osteochondral Tissue Cell Viability Is Affected by Total Impulse during Impaction Grafting

PubMed Central

Balash, Paul; Kang, Richard W.; Schwenke, Thorsten; Cole, Brian J.; Wimmer, Markus A.

2010-01-01

Objective: Osteochondral graft transplantation has garnered significant attention because of its ability to replace the lesion with true hyaline cartilage. However, surgical impaction of the graft to anchor it into the defect site can be traumatic and lead to cell death and cartilage degeneration. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that increasing impulse magnitude during impaction of osteochondral plugs has a direct effect on loss of cell viability. Design: In this controlled laboratory study, the impaction force was kept constant while the impulse was varied. Ninety-six osteochondral plugs were extracted from the trochlea of bovine stifle joints and were randomly assigned into 3 experimental and 1 (nonimpacted) control group. The transferred impulse of the experimental groups reflected the median and the lower and upper quartiles of preceding clinical measurements. Data were obtained at day 0, day 4, and day 8; at each point, cell viability was assessed using the Live/Dead staining kit and histological assessments were performed to visualize matrix structural changes. Results: After impaction, cartilage samples stayed intact and did not show any histological signs of matrix disruption. As expected, higher impulse magnitudes introduced more cell death; however, this relationship was lost at day 8 after impaction. Conclusion: Impulse magnitude has a direct effect on cell viability of the graft. Because impulse magnitude is mostly governed by the press-fit characteristics of the recipient site, this study aids in the definition of optimal insertion conditions for osteochondral grafts. PMID:26069558

Longitudinal Relations of Children's Effortful Control, Impulsivity, and Negative Emotionality to Their Externalizing, Internalizing, and Co-Occurring Behavior Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenberg, Nancy; Valiente, Carlos; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Cumberland, Amanda; Liew, Jeffrey; Reiser, Mark; Zhou, Qing; Losoya, Sandra H.

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and negative emotionality to at least borderline clinical levels of symptoms and change in maladjustment over four years. Children's (N = 214; 77% European American; M age = 73 months) externalizing and internalizing symptoms were rated by parents and…

Identification of minimal parameters for optimal suppression of chaos in dissipative driven systems.

PubMed

Martínez, Pedro J; Euzzor, Stefano; Gallas, Jason A C; Meucci, Riccardo; Chacón, Ricardo

2017-12-21

Taming chaos arising from dissipative non-autonomous nonlinear systems by applying additional harmonic excitations is a reliable and widely used procedure nowadays. But the suppressory effectiveness of generic non-harmonic periodic excitations continues to be a significant challenge both to our theoretical understanding and in practical applications. Here we show how the effectiveness of generic suppressory excitations is optimally enhanced when the impulse transmitted by them (time integral over two consecutive zeros) is judiciously controlled in a not obvious way. Specifically, the effective amplitude of the suppressory excitation is minimal when the impulse transmitted is maximum. Also, by lowering the impulse transmitted one obtains larger regularization areas in the initial phase difference-amplitude control plane, the price to be paid being the requirement of larger amplitudes. These two remarkable features, which constitute our definition of optimum control, are demonstrated experimentally by means of an analog version of a paradigmatic model, and confirmed numerically by simulations of such a damped driven system including the presence of noise. Our theoretical analysis shows that the controlling effect of varying the impulse is due to a subsequent variation of the energy transmitted by the suppressory excitation.

Effect of Victimization on Impulse Control and Binge Drinking among Serious Juvenile Offenders from Adolescence to Young Adulthood.

PubMed

Davis, Jordan P; Dumas, Tara M; Berey, Benjamin L; Merrin, Gabriel J; Cimpian, Joseph R; Roberts, Brent W

2017-07-01

A vast literature has found longitudinal effects of early life stress on substance use and self-regulatory processes. These associations may vary by period-specific development among youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The current study used an accelerated longitudinal design and auto-regressive latent trajectory with structure residuals (ALT-SR) model to examine the within-person cross-lagged associations between binge drinking, impulse control, and victimization from 15 to 25 years of age. A large sample (N = 1100) of justice-involved youth were followed longitudinally for 7 years (M age baseline  = 15.8, M age conclusion  = 22.8). In general, the sample was ethnically diverse (41% Black, 34% Hispanic, 21% White, 4.3% Other) and primarily male (87.2%). Participants reported on their frequency of binge drinking, impulse control, and frequency of victimization at each time point. The results indicated that, during adolescence, victimization and binge drinking attenuated impulse control, which resulted in more binge drinking and victimization during young adulthood. The current study highlights the importance of assessing developmental processes and period-specific transitions among at risk youth, especially for youth experiencing early life stress.

Attentional bias for nondrug reward is magnified in addiction.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A; Faulkner, Monica L; Rilee, Jessica J; Yantis, Steven; Marvel, Cherie L

2013-12-01

Attentional biases for drug-related stimuli play a prominent role in addiction, predicting treatment outcomes. Attentional biases also develop for stimuli that have been paired with nondrug rewards in adults without a history of addiction, the magnitude of which is predicted by visual working-memory capacity and impulsiveness. We tested the hypothesis that addiction is associated with an increased attentional bias for nondrug (monetary) reward relative to that of healthy controls, and that this bias is related to working-memory impairments and increased impulsiveness. Seventeen patients receiving methadone-maintenance treatment for opioid dependence and 17 healthy controls participated. Impulsiveness was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11; Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995), visual working-memory capacity was measured as the ability to recognize briefly presented color stimuli, and attentional bias was measured as the magnitude of response time slowing caused by irrelevant but previously reward-associated distractors in a visual-search task. The results showed that attention was biased toward the distractors across all participants, replicating previous findings. It is important to note, this bias was significantly greater in the patients than in the controls and was negatively correlated with visual working-memory capacity. Patients were also significantly more impulsive than controls as a group. Our findings demonstrate that patients in treatment for addiction experience greater difficulty ignoring stimuli associated with nondrug reward. This nonspecific reward-related bias could mediate the distracting quality of drug-related stimuli previously observed in addiction.

Attentional Bias for Non-drug Reward is Magnified in Addiction

PubMed Central

Anderson, Brian A.; Faulkner, Monica L.; Rilee, Jessica J.; Yantis, Steven; Marvel, Cherie L.

2014-01-01

Attentional biases for drug-related stimuli play a prominent role in addiction, predicting treatment outcome. Attentional biases also develop for stimuli that have been paired with non-drug reward in adults without a history of addiction, the magnitude of which is predicted by visual working memory capacity and impulsiveness. We tested the hypothesis that addiction is associated with an increased attentional bias for non-drug (monetary) reward relative to that of healthy controls, and that this bias is related to working memory impairments and increased impulsiveness. Seventeen patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment for opioid dependence and seventeen healthy controls participated. Impulsiveness was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), visual working memory capacity was measured as the ability to recognize briefly presented color stimuli, and attentional bias was measured as the magnitude of response time slowing caused by irrelevant but previously reward-associated distractors in a visual search task. The results showed that attention was biased toward the distractors across all participants, replicating previous findings. Importantly, this bias was significantly greater in the patients than in the controls and was negatively correlated with visual working memory capacity. Patients were also significantly more impulsive than controls as a group. Our findings demonstrate that patients in treatment for addiction experience greater difficulty ignoring stimuli associated with non-drug reward. This non-specific reward-related bias could mediate the distracting quality of drug-related stimuli previously observed in addiction. PMID:24128148

Negative urgency and reward/punishment sensitivity in intermittent explosive disorder.

PubMed

Puhalla, Alexander A; Ammerman, Brooke A; Uyeji, Lauren L; Berman, Mitchell E; McCloskey, Michael S

2016-09-01

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is the sole psychiatric diagnosis in which affective aggression is the cardinal symptom. Previous research has been equivocal with regard to the relationship between IED and impulsivity. This inconsistency may reflect the varied facets of impulsivity, with some aspects of impulsivity (e.g. negative urgency) as well as some overlapping, albeit distinct constructs (e.g. reward and punishment sensitivity) yet to be studied. The present study compared individuals diagnosed with IED (n=81) with psychiatric controls (PCs; n=52) and healthy volunteers (HVs; n=58) on the impulsivity domains of negative and positive urgency, perseverance, sensation seeking, and premeditation, as well as on reward and punishment sensitivity. We hypothesized that individuals with IED would show greater negative and positive urgency, reward sensitivity, punishment sensitivity, with negative urgency independently predicting IED status. We also hypothesized that negative urgency would predict levels of anger, aggression, and aggression control among those with IED. The IED participants reported greater negative urgency than both comparison groups, and greater levels of positive urgency, reward sensitivity, and punishment sensitivity compared to HVs. Further, heightened negative urgency was the sole predictor an IED diagnosis. Within the IED group negative urgency uniquely predicted decreased aggression control and increased trait anger. Limitations included reliance on self-report measures to assess RS/PS, impulsivity, and aggression. These findings suggest that negative urgency is a key factor associated with IED and is associated with dampened control of aggression within those with IED. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity in binge eating disorder: food cues elicit increased reward responses and disinhibition.

PubMed

Schag, Kathrin; Teufel, Martin; Junne, Florian; Preissl, Hubert; Hautzinger, Martin; Zipfel, Stephan; Giel, Katrin Elisabeth

2013-01-01

Binge eating disorder (BED) represents a distinct eating disorder diagnosis. Current approaches assume increased impulsivity to be one factor leading to binge eating and weight gain. We used eye tracking to investigate both components of impulsivity, namely reward sensitivity and rash-spontaneous behaviour towards food in BED for the first time. Overweight and obese people with BED (BED+; n = 25), without BED (BED-; n = 26) and healthy normal-weight controls (NWC; n = 25) performed a free exploration paradigm measuring reward sensitivity (experiment 1) and a modified antisaccade paradigm measuring disinhibited, rash-spontaneous behaviour (experiment 2) using food and nonfood stimuli. Additionally, trait impulsivity was assessed. In experiment 1, all participants located their initial fixations more often on food stimuli and BED+ participants gazed longer on food stimuli in comparison with BED- and NWC participants. In experiment 2, BED+ participants had more difficulties inhibiting saccades towards food and nonfood stimuli compared with both other groups in first saccades, and especially towards food stimuli in second saccades and concerning sequences of first and second saccades. BED- participants did not differ significantly from NWC participants in both experiments. Additionally, eye tracking performance was associated with self-reported reward responsiveness and self-control. According to these results, food-related reward sensitivity and rash-spontaneous behaviour, as the two components of impulsivity, are increased in BED in comparison with weight-matched and normal-weight controls. This indicates that BED represents a neurobehavioural phenotype of obesity that is characterised by increased impulsivity. Interventions for BED should target these special needs of affected patients.

Impulsivity Moderates Subjective Responses to Alcohol in Alcohol-Dependent Individuals.

PubMed

Westman, Jonathan G; Bujarski, Spencer; Ray, Lara A

2017-03-09

Studies of social drinkers indicate that subjective response (SR) to alcohol and impulsivity are risk factors for the development of alcohol use disorder which may be related. It is unclear, however, whether there are significant relationships between SR and impulsivity among individuals with alcohol dependence. Using data from an intravenous (IV) alcohol challenge study, the present study is the first to explore the relationship between impulsivity and SR during alcohol administration among alcohol-dependent individuals. Non-treatment-seeking, alcohol-dependent individuals (N = 42) completed the Delay Discounting Task to measure impulsivity and then completed two counterbalanced, placebo-controlled IV alcohol administration sessions, which included assessments of SR at breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) levels of 0.00, 0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 g/dl. Analyses revealed that more impulsive participants experienced higher subjective stimulation and positive mood in response to rising BrACs as compared to less impulsive individuals. More impulsive participants also experienced increased sedation over time regardless of condition (i.e. alcohol vs. saline). These findings suggest that among alcohol-dependent individuals, impulsivity is positively associated with the hedonic effects of alcohol as compared to placebo. High impulsivity may characterize a subset of alcohol-dependent individuals who drink to experience the rewarding effects of alcohol. © The Author 2016. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Impulsivity, aggression and suicide risk among male schizophrenia patients.

PubMed

Iancu, Iulian; Bodner, Ehud; Roitman, Suzana; Piccone Sapir, Anna; Poreh, Amir; Kotler, Moshe

2010-01-01

Impulsivity has been shown to be a major variable in the etiology of suicide and aggression, but has not been researched as much in the schizophrenic population, which is characterized by serious suicide and aggression risks. 68 male schizophrenia patients responded to a battery of measures including the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the impulsivity control scale (IS), the Suicide Risk Scale (SRS) and the Overt Aggression Scale. We divided our subjects into those who received scores above and below the median on the IS. The high-impulsivity group had higher present and past rates of suicidal ideation and showed a trend for more lifetime suicidal attempts than the low-impulsivity group. The impulsivity score correlated positively with the SRS score and with some of the scores of the PANSS (the positive symptoms score, the general psychopathology score and the total score). A multiple regression analysis revealed that an older age, higher levels of aggression, high impulsivity and an elevated score on the general psychopathology subscale of the PANSS contributed positively and significantly to the explained variance of the SRS. Our study supports the contention that high impulsivity in schizophrenia patients is significant in the etiology of suicide in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between impulsivity and aggression in schizophrenia patients, and also the amelioration of impulsivity by pharmacological interventions, require further study. Copyright (c) 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Knee joint kinetics in response to multiple three-dimensional printed, customised foot orthoses for the treatment of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Allan, Richard; Woodburn, James; Telfer, Scott; Abbott, Mandy; Steultjens, Martijn Pm

2017-06-01

The knee adduction moment is consistently used as a surrogate measure of medial compartment loading. Foot orthoses are designed to reduce knee adduction moment via lateral wedging. The 'dose' of wedging required to optimally unload the affected compartment is unknown and variable between individuals. This study explores a personalised approach via three-dimensional printed foot orthotics to assess the biomechanical response when two design variables are altered: orthotic length and lateral wedging. Foot orthoses were created for 10 individuals with symptomatic medial knee osteoarthritis and 10 controls. Computer-aided design software was used to design four full and four three-quarter-length foot orthoses per participant each with lateral posting of 0° 'neutral', 5° rearfoot, 10° rearfoot and 5° forefoot/10° rearfoot. Three-dimensional printers were used to manufacture all foot orthoses. Three-dimensional gait analyses were performed and selected knee kinetics were analysed: first peak knee adduction moment, second peak knee adduction moment, first knee flexion moment and knee adduction moment impulse. Full-length foot orthoses provided greater reductions in first peak knee adduction moment (p = 0.038), second peak knee adduction moment (p = 0.018) and knee adduction moment impulse (p = 0.022) compared to three-quarter-length foot orthoses. Dose effect of lateral wedging was found for first peak knee adduction moment (p < 0.001), second peak knee adduction moment (p < 0.001) and knee adduction moment impulse (p < 0.001) indicating greater unloading for higher wedging angles. Significant interaction effects were found for foot orthosis length and participant group in second peak knee adduction moment (p = 0.028) and knee adduction moment impulse (p = 0.036). Significant interaction effects were found between orthotic length and wedging condition for second peak knee adduction moment (p = 0.002). No significant changes in first knee flexion moment were found. Individual heterogeneous responses to foot orthosis conditions were observed for first peak knee adduction moment, second peak knee adduction moment and knee adduction moment impulse. Biomechanical response is highly variable with personalised foot orthoses. Findings indicate that the tailoring of a personalised intervention could provide an additional benefit over standard interventions and that a three-dimensional printing approach to foot orthosis manufacturing is a viable alternative to the standard methods.

Impulsivity, frontal lobes and risk for addiction.

PubMed

Crews, Fulton Timm; Boettiger, Charlotte Ann

2009-09-01

Alcohol and substance abuse disorders involve continued use of substances despite negative consequences, i.e. loss of behavioral control of drug use. The frontal-cortical areas of the brain oversee behavioral control through executive functions. Executive functions include abstract thinking, motivation, planning, attention to tasks and inhibition of impulsive responses. Impulsiveness generally refers to premature, unduly risky, poorly conceived actions. Dysfunctional impulsivity includes deficits in attention, lack of reflection and/or insensitivity to consequences, all of which occur in addiction [Evenden JL. Varieties of impulsivity. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 1999;146:348-361.; de Wit H. Impulsivity as a determinant and consequence of drug use: a review of underlying processes. Addict Biol 2009;14:22-31]. Binge drinking models indicate chronic alcohol damages in the corticolimbic brain regions [Crews FT, Braun CJ, Hoplight B, Switzer III RC, Knapp DJ. Binge ethanol consumption causes differential brain damage in young adolescent rats compared with adult rats. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2000;24:1712-1723] causing reversal learning deficits indicative of loss of executive function [Obernier JA, White AM, Swartzwelder HS, Crews FT. Cognitive deficits and CNS damage after a 4-day binge ethanol exposure in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2002b;72:521-532]. Genetics and adolescent age are risk factors for alcoholism that coincide with sensitivity to alcohol-induced neurotoxicity. Cortical degeneration from alcohol abuse may increase impulsivity contributing to the development, persistence and severity of alcohol use disorders. Interestingly, abstinence results in bursts of neurogenesis and brain regrowth [Crews FT, Nixon K. Mechanisms of neurodegeneration and regeneration in alcoholism. Alcohol Alcohol 2009;44:115-127]. Treatments for alcoholism, including naltrexone pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy may work through improving executive functions. This review will examine the relationships between impulsivity and executive function behaviors to changes in cortical structure during alcohol dependence and recovery.

Lower Monoamine Oxidase-A Total Distribution Volume in Impulsive and Violent Male Offenders with Antisocial Personality Disorder and High Psychopathic Traits: An [11C] Harmine Positron Emission Tomography Study

PubMed Central

Kolla, Nathan J; Matthews, Brittany; Wilson, Alan A; Houle, Sylvain; Michael Bagby, R; Links, Paul; Simpson, Alexander I; Hussain, Amina; Meyer, Jeffrey H

2015-01-01

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) often presents with highly impulsive, violent behavior, and pathological changes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum (VS) are implicated. Several compelling reasons support a relationship between low monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), an enzyme that regulates neurotransmitters, and ASPD. These include MAO-A knockout models in rodents evidencing impulsive aggression and positron emission tomography (PET) studies of healthy subjects reporting associations between low brain MAO-A levels and greater impulsivity or aggression. However, a fundamental gap in the literature is that it is unknown whether brain MAO-A levels are low in more severe, clinical disorders of impulsivity, such as ASPD. To address this issue, we applied [11C] harmine PET to measure MAO-A total distribution volume (MAO-A VT), an index of MAO-A density, in 18 male ASPD participants and 18 age- and sex-matched controls. OFC and VS MAO-A VT were lower in ASPD compared with controls (multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA): F2,33=6.8, P=0.003; OFC and VS MAO-A VT each lower by 19%). Similar effects were observed in other brain regions: prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsal putamen, thalamus, hippocampus, and midbrain (MANOVA: F7,28=2.7, P=0.029). In ASPD, VS MAO-A VT was consistently negatively correlated with self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity (r=−0.50 to −0.52, all P-values<0.05). This study is the first to demonstrate lower brain MAO-A levels in ASPD. Our results support an important extension of preclinical models of impulsive aggression into a human disorder marked by pathological aggression and impulsivity. PMID:26081301

Outcome Uncertainty and Brain Activity Aberrance in the Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex Are Associated with Dysfunctional Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder

PubMed Central

Mortensen, Jørgen Assar; Evensmoen, Hallvard Røe; Klensmeden, Gunilla; Håberg, Asta Kristine

2016-01-01

Uncertainty is recognized as an important component in distress, which may elicit impulsive behavior in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). These patients are known to be both impulsive and distress intolerant. The present study explored the connection between outcome uncertainty and impulsivity in BPD. The prediction was that cue primes, which provide incomplete information of subsequent target stimuli, led BPD patients to overrate the predictive value of these cues in order to reduce distress related to outcome uncertainty. This would yield dysfunctional impulsive behavior detected as commission errors to incorrectly primed targets. We hypothesized that dysfunctional impulsivity would be accompanied by aberrant brain activity in the right insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), previously described to be involved in uncertainty processing, attention-/cognitive control and BPD pathology. 14 female BPD patients and 14 healthy matched controls (HCs) for comparison completed a Posner task during fMRI at 3T. The task was modified to limit the effect of spatial orientation and enhance the effect of conscious expectations. Brain activity was monitored in the priming phase where the effects of cue primes and neutral primes were compared. As predicted, the BPD group made significantly more commission errors to incorrectly primed targets than HCs. Also, the patients had faster reaction times to correctly primed targets relative to targets preceded by neutral primes. The BPD group had decreased activity in the right mid insula and increased activity in bilateral dorsal ACC during cue primes. The results indicate that strong expectations induced by cue primes led to reduced uncertainty, increased response readiness, and ultimately, dysfunctional impulsivity in BPD patients. We suggest that outcome uncertainty may be an important component in distress related impulsivity in BPD. PMID:27199724

Food craving, food choice and consumption: The role of impulsivity and sham-controlled tDCS stimulation of the right dlPFC.

PubMed

Georgii, Claudio; Goldhofer, Philipp; Meule, Adrian; Richard, Anna; Blechert, Jens

2017-08-01

Impulsivity has been found to be associated with overeating and obesity. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance inhibitory control while reducing food craving and intake. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether tDCS stimulation modifies food choice, craving and consumption as a function of trait impulsivity. Forty-two predominantly healthy-weight women received active tDCS stimulation to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and sham stimulation in a within participant design. Trait impulsivity was measured with a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Participants completed a computerized food-choice task, during which their mouse movements were traced. Current food craving was measured by a modified version of the Food Cravings Questionnaire-State as well as by desire to eat ratings for food pictures. Food intake was measured in a taste test. There were no tDCS effects on any of the dependent variables. Trait impulsivity (and non-planning impulsivity in particular) was positively associated with higher calorie intake in the taste test, irrespective of tDCS stimulation. The current findings question the efficacy of single-session tDCS stimulation of the right dLPFC to reduce food craving, high caloric food choice and calorie intake in non-selected, predominantly healthy weight women. However, they do support the idea that trait impulsivity is related to overeating and, therefore, may be a risk factor for obesity. Future research needs to specify which appetitive behaviors can be modulated by brain stimulation and which populations might profit from it the most. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lower Monoamine Oxidase-A Total Distribution Volume in Impulsive and Violent Male Offenders with Antisocial Personality Disorder and High Psychopathic Traits: An [(11)C] Harmine Positron Emission Tomography Study.

PubMed

Kolla, Nathan J; Matthews, Brittany; Wilson, Alan A; Houle, Sylvain; Bagby, R Michael; Links, Paul; Simpson, Alexander I; Hussain, Amina; Meyer, Jeffrey H

2015-10-01

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) often presents with highly impulsive, violent behavior, and pathological changes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum (VS) are implicated. Several compelling reasons support a relationship between low monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), an enzyme that regulates neurotransmitters, and ASPD. These include MAO-A knockout models in rodents evidencing impulsive aggression and positron emission tomography (PET) studies of healthy subjects reporting associations between low brain MAO-A levels and greater impulsivity or aggression. However, a fundamental gap in the literature is that it is unknown whether brain MAO-A levels are low in more severe, clinical disorders of impulsivity, such as ASPD. To address this issue, we applied [(11)C] harmine PET to measure MAO-A total distribution volume (MAO-A VT), an index of MAO-A density, in 18 male ASPD participants and 18 age- and sex-matched controls. OFC and VS MAO-A VT were lower in ASPD compared with controls (multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA): F2,33=6.8, P=0.003; OFC and VS MAO-A VT each lower by 19%). Similar effects were observed in other brain regions: prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsal putamen, thalamus, hippocampus, and midbrain (MANOVA: F7,28=2.7, P=0.029). In ASPD, VS MAO-A VT was consistently negatively correlated with self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity (r=-0.50 to -0.52, all P-values<0.05). This study is the first to demonstrate lower brain MAO-A levels in ASPD. Our results support an important extension of preclinical models of impulsive aggression into a human disorder marked by pathological aggression and impulsivity.

ADHD symptoms in non-treatment seeking young adults: relationship with other forms of impulsivity.

PubMed

Chamberlain, Samuel R; Ioannidis, Konstantinos; Leppink, Eric W; Niaz, Faiza; Redden, Sarah A; Grant, Jon E

2017-02-01

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with various manifestations of impulsivity in adults, including elevated rates of other impulsive disorders, substance use, questionnaire-based impulsivity scores, and inhibitory dysregulation on neurocognitive tests. The relationship between ADHD and all these other forms of impulsivity has yet to be explored within the context of a single comprehensive study. A total of 423 young adults, who gambled ≥5 times in the preceding year, were recruited using media advertisements and undertook detailed assessment including structured psychiatric interview, questionnaires, and neurocognitive tests. Participants with ADHD symptoms were identified using the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Screener (ASRS-V1.1) and were compared to controls using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). ADHD symptoms were found in 20.3% of the sample, but only 7.3% of these subjects had ever received a formal diagnosis. ADHD symptoms were associated with significantly lower quality of life, lower self-esteem, higher emotional dysregulation, higher impulsivity questionnaire scores, more problematic Internet use, greater occurrence of psychiatric disorders, and impaired stop-signal reaction times. Of these variables, stop-signal reaction times and Barratt attentional impulsiveness were the strongest predictors of group classification. ADHD symptoms are common and under-diagnosed in young adults who gamble, and are most strongly linked with certain other types of impulsivity (questionnaire- and cognitive-based measures) and with emotional dysregulation, suggesting that these are each important considerations in understanding the pathophysiology of the disorder, but also potential treatment targets. It is necessary to question whether treatment for adult ADHD could be enhanced by considering self-esteem, emotional reactivity, and impaired inhibitory control as specific treatment targets, in addition to the core diagnostic symptoms of the disorder.

Effects of the potential lithium-mimetic, ebselen, on impulsivity and emotional processing.

PubMed

Masaki, Charles; Sharpley, Ann L; Cooper, Charlotte M; Godlewska, Beata R; Singh, Nisha; Vasudevan, Sridhar R; Harmer, Catherine J; Churchill, Grant C; Sharp, Trevor; Rogers, Robert D; Cowen, Philip J

2016-07-01

Lithium remains the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder and also has important effects to lower suicidal behaviour, a property that may be linked to its ability to diminish impulsive, aggressive behaviour. The antioxidant drug, ebselen, has been proposed as a possible lithium-mimetic based on its ability in animals to inhibit inositol monophosphatase (IMPase), an action which it shares with lithium. The aim of the study was to determine whether treatment with ebselen altered emotional processing and diminished measures of risk-taking behaviour. We studied 20 healthy participants who were tested on two occasions receiving either ebselen (3600 mg over 24 h) or identical placebo in a double-blind, randomized, cross-over design. Three hours after the final dose of ebselen/placebo, participants completed the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) and a task that required the detection of emotional facial expressions (facial emotion recognition task (FERT)). On the CGT, relative to placebo, ebselen reduced delay aversion while on the FERT, it increased the recognition of positive vs negative facial expressions. The study suggests that at the dosage used, ebselen can decrease impulsivity and produce a positive bias in emotional processing. These findings have implications for the possible use of ebselen in the disorders characterized by impulsive behaviour and dysphoric mood.

Dopaminergic modulation of the orbitofrontal cortex affects attention, motivation and impulsive responding in rats performing the five-choice serial reaction time task.

PubMed

Winstanley, Catharine A; Zeeb, Fiona D; Bedard, Amanda; Fu, Kent; Lai, Barbara; Steele, Christina; Wong, Adeline C

2010-07-11

Understanding the neurobiological factors underlying individual differences in impulsivity may provide valuable insight into vulnerability to impulse control disorders. Recent data implicate both the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the dopaminergic system in psychiatric disorders associated with high levels of impulsivity, including substance abuse, mania and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, the consequences of modulating dopaminergic activity within the OFC on impulsive behaviour are largely unknown. The effects of direct intra-OFC infusions of agonists and antagonists at the dopamine D(1) and D(2) receptors were therefore assessed in rats performing the five-choice serial reaction time test (5CSRT) of attention and motor impulsivity. Intra-OFC administration of SCH23390, a D(1) receptor antagonist, decreased impulsive responding in highly impulsive (HI) rats, but did not affect behaviour in less impulsive (LI) animals. Furthermore, the D(2) agonist quinpirole caused significant deficits in task performance, impairing accuracy, increasing omissions and decreasing the number of trials completed, which resembled the effects of systemic administration. In contrast, the D(1) agonist SKF 81297 had little effect on behaviour. Neither agonist increased impulsivity. These data provide partial support for the suggestion that high levels of impulsivity are associated with increased dopamine levels within the OFC, but further indicate that simulating dopamine's actions selectively at the D(1) or D(2) receptor cannot reproduce a highly impulsive phenotype. Dopaminergic activity within the OFC may therefore modulate impulsivity indirectly, perhaps in conjunction with other neurotransmitter systems. Furthermore, D(2)-mediated neurotransmission within the OFC could make a more fundamental contribution to cognitive behaviour. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nonsuicidal self-injury: relationship to behavioral and self-rating measures of impulsivity and self-aggression.

PubMed

McCloskey, Michael S; Look, Amy E; Chen, Eunice Y; Pajoumand, Golnaz; Berman, Mitchell E

2012-04-01

Previous research using self-report measures has shown an association between nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI) and impulsive tendencies. However, self-injurers have not been shown to be different from comparison groups on laboratory tasks putatively assessing impulsive behavior. One explanation for these contradictory findings is that self-report and laboratory measures of impulsive behavior tap into distinct but related constructs. Moreover, performance on laboratory measures of impulsive behavior can be influenced by myriad contextual and affective factors not present during past self-reported NSSI events. Accordingly, a relationship between behavioral tasks of impulsivity and self-injurious behavior could emerge if both are assessed relatively close in time under controlled laboratory conditions. To test this possibility, both self-ratings and laboratory task measures of self-injurious and impulsive behavior were employed in the current study. This multi-modal assessment approach revealed that self-rated impulsivity was associated with both self-report and behavioral measures of self-injurious behavior. Moreover, behavioral measures of impulsivity were associated with self-injurious behavior, but not NSSI history. These results provide support for the notion that a multi-modal approach to assessing self-injurious behavior is important for better understanding the correlates of nonsuicidal self-injury. © 2012 The American Association of Suicidology.

Cognitive impulsivity and the development of delinquency from late childhood to early adulthood: Moderating effects of parenting behavior and peer relationships.

PubMed

Menting, Barbara; Van Lier, Pol A C; Koot, Hans M; Pardini, Dustin; Loeber, Rolf

2016-02-01

Cognitive impulsivity may increase children's risk of developing delinquent behavior. However, the influence of cognitive impulsivity may depend on social environmental risk factors. This study examined the moderating effect of late childhood parenting behaviors and peer relations on the influence of children's cognitive impulsivity on delinquency development across adolescence and early adulthood, while taking possible interactions with intelligence also into account. Delinquent behavior of 412 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study was measured annually from ages 13 to 29 years with official arrest records. Cognitive impulsivity (neurocognitive test scores) and intelligence were assessed at age 12-13. Parenting behaviors (persistence of discipline, positive reinforcement, and parental knowledge), peer delinquency, and peer conventional activities were assessed between ages 10 and 13 years. Results showed that, while controlling for intelligence, the influence of youths' cognitive impulsivity on delinquency depended on their parents' behaviors. An interaction was found among cognitive impulsivity, intelligence, and peer delinquency, but instead of cognitive impulsivity, the effect of intelligence on delinquency was particularly moderated. Overall, findings suggest that when there was moderation, high cognitive impulsivity and low intelligence were associated with an increased probability for engaging in delinquency predominantly among boys in a good social environment, but not in a poor social environment.