Negative urgency moderates reactivity to laboratory stress inductions.

Impulsive personality traits refer to a group of self-reported dispositions about self-regulatory capacity, several of which have been linked to diverse forms of psychopathology. One of these is negative urgency (NUR), the propensity to act out when experiencing negative emotions, which has been linked to substance use disorders and eating disorders. However, few laboratory studies have investigated the extent to which self-reported NUR relates to an individual's in vivo emotional and behavioral responses. Harmonizing two archival data sets on alcohol and high-energy-dense (HED) food motivation, the current study investigated NUR as a moderator of reactivity to stressful situations elicited by two commonly used stress manipulations, the Trier Social Stress Test and a stress imagery induction. A sample of 148 adults was assessed for NUR, severity of alcohol misuse or binge eating, and measures of negative affect and psychophysiological arousal (i.e., heart rate and blood pressure) prior to and following one of the two manipulations. In addition, a behavioral multiple-choice procedure assessing the relative reinforcing value of alcohol or HED foods followed the manipulations. As predicted, NUR positively moderated the effects of stress induction on self-reported negative affect and relative reinforcing value, although not arousal. Individuals exhibiting elevated NUR also exhibited greater alcohol misuse, although not greater binge eating severity. These findings provide in vivo validation of the construct of NUR and its measurement using the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. More broadly, these findings inform the understanding of deficits that are characteristic of self-regulatory disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record

Lower subcortical gray matter volume in both younger smokers and established smokers relative to non-smokers.

Although established adult smokers with long histories of nicotine dependence have lower neural tissue volume than non-smokers, it is not clear if lower regional brain volume is also observed in younger, less established smokers. The primary goal of this study was to investigate neural tissue volume in a large group of smokers and non-smokers, with a secondary goal of measuring the impact of age on these effects. We used voxel-based morphometry to compare regional gray matter volume in 118 individuals (59 smokers, 59 age- and gender-matched non-smokers). Younger smokers had significantly lower gray matter volume in the left thalamus and the left amygdala than their non-smoking peers (family-wise error-corrected clusters, P < 0.05). There was no correlation between smoking use variables and tissue volume among younger smokers. Established smokers had significantly lower gray matter volume than age-matched non-smokers in the insula, parahippocampal gyrus and pallidum. Medial prefrontal cortex gray matter volume was negatively correlated with pack-years of smoking among the established smokers, but not the younger smokers. These data reveal that regional tissue volume differences are not limited exclusively to established smokers. Deficits in young adults indicate that cigarette smoking may either be deleterious to the thalamus and amygdala at an earlier age than previously reported, or that pre-existing differences in these areas may predispose individuals to the development of nicotine dependence.