Is There a Common Neural Mechanism for Self-Control?

描述（由申请人提供）：目的：自我控制的丧失是药物滥用的一个定义特征。然而，有许多不同类型的自我控制。例如，当一个孩子跑到你的车前时踩刹车，从一场成功的扑克比赛中走开，以免冒失去奖金的风险，把薪水存起来而不是立即花掉，或者抑制愤怒，以便在专业场合看起来很平静，所有这些都需要以截然不同的方式进行自我控制。有证据表明，滥用药物的人可能缺乏这些形式的自我控制。在实验室中，他们被证明在运动抑制任务、冒险和延迟满足等行为选择任务以及需要抑制“热”情绪系统以允许“冷”认知系统做出决定的情绪调节任务中存在缺陷。因此，缺乏自制力可能是发展药物滥用的一个危险因素。以前的研究假设所有形式的自我控制都依赖于一个单一的神经机制，涉及右腹外侧前额叶皮层（rVLPFC），但这一理论尚未得到直接验证。因此，该建议旨在揭示是否有一个单一的自我控制系统，直接相关的行为表现和神经活动在多个任务，需要不同形式的自我控制。实验方法：行为和功能磁共振成像研究将在健康成年人中进行，这些研究涉及上述四个自我控制领域的任务表现。在两项研究中，每项任务的自我控制能力将相互关联，并与自我报告问卷的回答有关，这些问卷探讨了冲动和危险行为。fMRI研究将进一步探讨在需要自我控制的行为中招募的区域是否有重叠，特别是关注rVLPFC，以及行为表现是否与rVLPFC的参与程度有关。据推测，一个单一的自我控制系统将被注意到，如相关的行为表现的所有任务和共同的rVLPFC参与，增加相对于提高性能。相关性：这项研究将导致对成功的自我控制的细微差别的理解。这是至关重要的，因为更好地了解完整的自我控制机制可能会导致新的治疗方法，有效地针对自我控制系统，并帮助患有诸如药物滥用和依赖等疾病的个人，这些疾病是由于自我控制不足造成的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): OBJECTIVE: A loss of self-control is a defining feature of substance abuse. However, there are many different types of self-control. For example, slamming on the brakes when a child runs in front of one's car, walking away from a successful poker game so as not to risk losing one's winnings, putting a paycheck into savings instead of spending it immediately, or suppressing anger so as to seem composed in a professional situation all require self-control in vastly different ways. Evidence suggests individuals with substance abuse may be deficient in each of these forms of self-control. In the laboratory, they have been shown to be deficient in motor inhibition tasks, behavioral choice tasks such as risk-taking and delaying gratification, and emotion regulation tasks that require inhibition of the "hot" emotional system to allow the "cool" cognitive system to make decisions. It is therefore possible that deficient self-control is a risk factor for developing substance abuse. Previous research has assumed all forms of self-control rely on a single neural mechanism involving the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC), yet this theory has not been directly tested. Thus, this proposal aims to reveal whether there is a single self-control system by directly relating both behavioral performance and neural activity in multiple tasks requiring different forms of self-control. METHOD: Both a behavioral and an fMRI study will be conducted in healthy adults relating performance on tasks in the four self-control domains mentioned above. Self-control ability on each task will be related to one another and to responses on self-report questionnaires probing impulsivity and risky behavior in both studies. The fMRI study will further explore whether there is overlap in the regions recruited during acts requiring self-control, specifically focusing on the rVLPFC, and whether behavioral performance relates to degree of rVLPFC involvement. It is hypothesized that a unitary self-control system will be noted, as indicated by related behavioral performance on all tasks and common rVLPFC involvement that increases relative to improved performance. RELEVANCE: This research will lead to an increased understanding of the nuances of successful self-control. This is crucial considering that a greater understanding of an intact self-control mechanism may lead to new treatments that efficiently target the self-control system and help individuals with disorders such as substance abuse and dependence that result from deficient self-control.