The relationship between executive functioning and addictive behavior: new insights from a longitudinal community study.

RATIONALE: Although there is evidence that impaired executive functioning plays a role in addictive behavior, the longitudinal relationship between the two remains relatively unknown. OBJECTIVES: In a prospective-longitudinal community study, we tested the hypothesis that lower executive functioning is associated with more addictive behavior at one point in time and over time. METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-eight individuals (19-27 years, 59% female) from a random community sample were recruited into three groups: addictive disorders related to substances (n = 100) or to behaviors (n = 118), or healthy controls (n = 120). At baseline, participants completed nine executive function tasks from which a latent variable of general executive functioning (GEF) was derived. Addictive behavior (i.e., quantity and frequency of use, and number of DSM-5 criteria met) were assessed using standardized clinical interviews at baseline and three annual follow-ups. The trajectories of addictive behaviors were examined using latent growth curve modeling. RESULTS: At baseline, we found weak to no evidence of an associations between GEF and addictive behavior. We found evidence for an association between a lower GEF at baseline and a higher increase in the quantity of use and a smaller decrease in frequency of use over time, but no evidence for an association with an increase in the number of DSM-5 criteria met. CONCLUSIONS: Lower EFs appear to lead to a continuing loss of control over use, whereas addictive disorders may develop secondarily after a long period of risky use. Previous etiological models assuming lower EF as a direct vulnerability factor for addictive disorders need to be refined.

Real-Life Self-Control is Predicted by Parietal Activity During Preference Decision Making: A Brain Decoding Analysis.

Despite its relevance for health and education, the neurocognitive mechanism of real-life self-control is largely unknown. While recent research revealed a prominent role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the computation of an integrative value signal, the contribution and relevance of other brain regions for real-life self-control remains unclear. To investigate neural correlates of decisions in line with long-term consequences and to assess the potential of brain decoding methods for the individual prediction of real-life self-control, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging during preference decision making with ecological momentary assessment of daily self-control in a large community sample (N = 266). Decisions in line with long-term consequences were associated with increased activity in bilateral angular gyrus and precuneus, regions involved in different forms of perspective taking, such as imagining one's own future and the perspective of others. Applying multivariate pattern analysis to the same clusters revealed that individual patterns of activity predicted the probability of real-life self-control. Brain activations are discussed in relation to episodic future thinking and mentalizing as potential mechanisms mediating real-life self-control.

Chronic stress, executive functioning, and real-life self-control: An experience sampling study.

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that chronic stress impairs the use of cognitive control for self-control, we examined how chronic stress affects the relation between individual differences in general executive functioning (GEF) and self-control in real-life situations. METHOD: About 338 young adults with varying degrees of chronic stress underwent experience sampling of real-life self-control for 7 days and completed a battery of nine executive function tasks from which a latent variable representing individual differences in GEF was derived. RESULTS: Structural equation models showed that higher levels of chronic stress were associated with stronger desires and a less negative relationship between GEF and desire strength. Chronic stress and GEF did not predict desire enactment in situations where effortful resistance was attempted. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that chronic stress may impair self-control by reducing the use of cognitive control for "early" desire regulation strategies while leaving "late" resistance strategies unaffected. That relationships between executive functioning and real-life self-control can be moderated by third factors such as chronic stress may to some extent explain the common finding of weak or missing associations between laboratory measures of executive functioning and real-life self-control.

Functional connectivity in a triple-network saliency model is associated with real-life self-control.

Despite its significance for health and education, the neurocognitive mechanism of real-life self-control remains unclear. While recent studies focused on task-related brain activation patterns as predictors of self-control, the contribution and relevance of functional connectivity between large-scale brain networks mediating higher-order cognition is largely unknown. Using a saliency-based triple-network model of cognitive control, we tested the hypothesis that cross-network interactions among the salience network (SN), the central executive network (CEN), and the default mode network (DMN) are associated with real-life self-control. To this end, a large community sample (N = 294) underwent ecological momentary assessment of daily self-control as well as task-free fMRI to examine intrinsic inter-network organization and determine a SN-centered network interaction index (NII). Logistic multilevel regression analysis showed that higher NII scores were associated with increased real-life self-control. This suggests that the assumed role of the SN in initiating switching between the DMN and CEN is an important part of self-control.

Impulsive decision-making predicts the course of substance-related and addictive disorders.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated whether patterns of impulsive decision-making (i) differ between individuals with DSM-5 substance use disorders (SUD) or non-substance-related addictive disorders (ND) and healthy controls, and (ii) predict the increase of SUD and ND severity after one year. METHODS: In a prospective-longitudinal community study, 338 individuals (19-27 years, 59% female) were included in one of three groups: SUD (n = 100), ND (n = 118), or healthy controls (n = 120). Group differences in four impulsive decision-making facets were analyzed with the Bayesian priors: delay discounting (mean = 0.37, variance = 0.02), probability discounting for gains and for losses (each - 0.16, 0.02), and loss aversion (- 0.44, 0.02). SUD and ND severity were assessed at baseline and after 1 year (n = 312, 92%). Predictive associations between decision-making and SUD/ND severity changes were analyzed with the Bayesian prior: mean = 0.25, variance = 0.016. RESULTS: Compared with controls, the SUD group displayed steeper delay discounting and lower probability discounting for losses; the ND group displayed lower probability discounting for losses (posterior probabilities > 98%). SUD symptom increase after 1 year was predicted by steeper delay discounting and lower loss aversion; ND symptom increase by lower probability discounting for losses and lower loss aversion (posterior probabilities > 98%). There was low evidence for predictive relations between decision-making and the quantity-frequency of addictive behaviours. DISCUSSION: Impulsive decision-making characterizes SUD and ND and predicts the course of SUD and ND symptoms but not the engagement in addictive behaviours. Strength of evidence differed between different facets of impulsive decision-making and was mostly weaker than a priori expected.

Predicting Real-Life Self-Control From Brain Activity Encoding the Value of Anticipated Future Outcomes.

Deficient self-control leads to shortsighted decisions and incurs severe personal and societal costs. Although neuroimaging has advanced our understanding of neural mechanisms underlying self-control, the ecological validity of laboratory tasks used to assess self-control remains largely unknown. To increase ecological validity and to test a specific hypothesis about the mechanisms underlying real-life self-control, we combined functional MRI during value-based decision-making with smartphone-based assessment of real-life self-control in a large community sample (N = 194). Results showed that an increased propensity to make shortsighted decisions and commit self-control failures, both in the laboratory task as well as during real-life conflicts, was associated with a reduced modulation of neural value signals in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in response to anticipated long-term consequences. These results constitute the first evidence that neural mechanisms mediating anticipations of future consequences not only account for self-control in laboratory tasks but also predict real-life self-control, thereby bridging the gap between laboratory research and real-life behavior.

Monitor yourself! Deficient error-related brain activity predicts real-life self-control failures.

Despite their immense relevance, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying real-life self-control failures (SCFs) are insufficiently understood. Whereas previous studies have shown that SCFs were associated with decreased activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG; a region involved in cognitive control), here we consider the possibility that the reduced implementation of cognitive control in individuals with low self-control may be due to impaired performance monitoring. Following a brain-as-predictor approach, we combined experience sampling of daily SCFs with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a Stroop task. In our sample of 118 participants, proneness to SCF was reliably predicted by low error-related activation of a performance-monitoring network (comprising anterior mid-cingulate cortex, presupplementary motor area, and anterior insula), low posterror rIFG activation, and reduced posterror slowing. Remarkably, these neural and behavioral measures predicted variability in SCFs beyond what was predicted by self-reported trait self-control. These results suggest that real-life SCFs may result from deficient performance monitoring, leading to reduced recruitment of cognitive control after responses that conflict with superordinate goals.

Action versus state orientation moderates the impact of executive functioning on real-life self-control.

Self-control is commonly assumed to depend on executive functions (EFs). However, it is unclear whether real-life self-control failures result from deficient EF competencies or rather reflect insufficient conflict-induced mobilization of executive control, and whether self-control depends more critically on function-specific EF competencies or general executive functioning (GEF), that is, common competencies that underlie all EFs. Here we investigated whether failure-related action versus state orientation, a personality trait related to the conflict-induced mobilization of cognitive control, moderates the effect of general and function-specific control competencies on self-control. To this end, 240 young adults completed questionnaire measures of action-state orientation and trait self-control, reported everyday self-control failures during 7 consecutive days via smartphone-based experience sampling, and completed 9 EF tasks from which latent variables reflecting GEF as well as inhibition-, updating-, and shifting-specific competencies were derived. Structural equation models confirmed that the effect of GEF on self-control was moderated by action-state orientation: action-oriented compared with more state-oriented participants showed a stronger inverse association between GEF and everyday self-control failures. Corresponding effects of function-specific competencies on self-control were not found. These results highlight that high executive functioning may enable self-controlled behavior only if control is sufficiently mobilized when needed and suggest that self-control may depend more critically on general than function-specific control competencies. More generally, the present study demonstrates the fruitfulness of combining latent-variable models of well-controlled EF tasks with experience sampling of daily self-control and measures of individual differences in control modes to bridge the gap between laboratory research and real-life behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

Trait self-control is predicted by how reward associations modulate Stroop interference.

Although cognitive control is commonly identified as the basis of self-controlled behavior, correlations found between trait self-control and laboratory measures of cognitive control such as Stroop interference are typically low. Based on the notion that self-control requires the ability to refrain from rewarded behaviors, and inspired by the recent finding that Stroop interference is modulated by reward associations, we propose the idea that the modulation of interference by reward associations (MIRA) is a cognitive marker of trait self-control. Two independent samples of participants completed (1) a modified Stroop task designed to assess MIRA and (2) two common measures of trait self-control: the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). MIRA was strongly correlated with the BSCS and moderately correlated with two of the three subscales of the BIS-11. MIRA thus appears to reflect a cognitive endophenotype of individual differences in self-control, and perhaps of related mental disorders.

Successful smoking cessation is associated with prefrontal cortical function during a Stroop task: A preliminary study.

Although many smokers try to quit, relatively few are successful in their attempts. Here we investigated whether the ability to quit smoking is related to behavioral and neural measures of cognitive control. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study with a counting Stroop task was used to measure cognitive control in ex-smokers (N=10) who had successfully quit smoking and smokers (N=10) who continuously failed to quit smoking. Behavioral results showed a significant Stroop effect in ex-smokers and smokers. Ex-smokers exhibited less Stroop interference, indicating superior cognitive control compared with smokers. Furthermore, when incongruent trials were contrasted with congruent trials, ex-smokers showed stronger BOLD activity than smokers in the right superior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex. Although the present study does not permit us to draw strong conclusions regarding causality, the results suggest that successful smoking cessation may be mediated by superior cognitive control.

Learning by doing? The effect of gestures on implicit retrieval of newly acquired words.

Meaningful gestures enhance speech comprehensibility. However, their role during novel-word acquisition remains elusive. Here we investigate how meaningful versus meaningless gestures impact on novel-word learning and contrast these conditions to a purely verbal training. After training, neuronal processing of the novel words was assessed by blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI), disclosing that networks affording retrieval differ depending on the training condition. Over 3 days participants learned pseudowords for common objects (e.g., /klira/ -cap). For training they repeated the novel word while performing (i) an iconic, (ii) a grooming or (iii) no gesture. For the two conditions involving gestures, these were either actively repeated or passively observed during training. Behaviorally no substantial differences between the five different training conditions were found while fMRI disclosed differential networks affording implicit retrieval of the learned pseudowords depending on the training procedure. Most notably training with actively performed iconic gestures yielded larger activation in a semantic network comprising left inferior frontal (BA47) and inferior temporal gyri. Additionally hippocampal activation was stronger for all trained compared to unknown pseudowords of identical structure. The behavioral results challenge the generality of an 'enactment-effect' for single word learning. Imaging results, however, suggest that actively performed meaningful gestures lead to a deeper semantic encoding of novel words. The findings are discussed regarding their implications for theoretical accounts and for empirical approaches of gesture-based strategies in language (re)learning.