The Emergence of Self-Control: Comparative Beh. and Neurobiological Assessments

比较的视角为理解自我控制的基本机制提供了一个很好的方法。 与人类研究相比，动物研究对环境方面提供了更高水平的控制， 作为满足感和动力，并允许随着时间的推移进行重复测试的更多机会。此外，动物 研究允许自我控制评估不同于其他普遍的认知和社会能力 在人类中（例如，语言和文化影响）。尽管我们的首要任务是证明非人类 动物可以调节他们的冲动倾向，我们的最终目标是确定这是如何发生的。什么 生物体是如何维持自我控制的注意力是如何被引导的，行为策略是什么 有效地支持自我控制？其他动物的行为在自我控制中起什么作用， 社会环境的变化能提高自我控制能力吗自我控制能力是一种有限的资源吗？ 记忆力或甚至肌肉运动）？哪些大脑区域支持这些动物的抑制过程， 与人体内发现的一致吗[最后，发展如何与这些问题相互作用？] 这些研究的意义在于更好地理解自我控制失败的原因，以及这种失败是如何联系在一起的 环境和生物的影响，以及什么策略可以用来提高自我控制， 在这种情况下，冲动是有机体的可能反应。自我控制失败的后果 怎么说都不过分暴饮暴食，吸毒，危险的性行为，强迫性赌博，和身体 攻击性都是因为缺乏行为约束而发生的，它们对健康有直接的负面影响， 幸福和社会。所有这些行为都是由于在评估结果时目光短浅， 冲动的特点。关于延迟折扣的成熟文献清楚地表明， （包括人类）通常重视时间上较近的事物而贬低未来较远的事物（例如，埃斯特勒和 例如，2007;绿色等人，2004; Kagel等人，1986; Logue，1988; Odum & Rainuad，2003）。当然，在一些 在某些情况下，鉴于未来的不确定性，短期利益应按溢价估值。从未 知道什么时候会遇到充足的食物来源或交配机会意味着活动 在这里和现在都是非常有价值的。然而，随着面向未来的进程的发展， 作为规划，以及对过去所采取和避免的机会的准确记忆的出现，生物体 可以预测未来更好的奖励的可能性以及获得或避免当前奖励的成本。

A comparative perspective offers an excellent means for understanding the basic mechanisms of self-control. In comparison to human studies, animal studies offer higher levels of control over environmental aspects such as satiation and motivation and allow greater opportunity for repeated testing over time. In addition, animal studies allow for self-control assessments distinct from other cognitive and social capacities that are universal in humans (e.g., language and cultural influences). Although our initial task is to demonstrate that nonhuman animals can regulate their impulsive tendencies, our ultimate goal is to determine how that happens. What does the organism do to assert self-control? How is attention directed, and what behavioral strategies are efficient in supporting self-control? What role does the behavior of other animals play in self-control and can changes in social situations improve self-control? Are self-control capacities a limited resource (like aspects of memory or even muscle exertion)? What brain regions support inhibitory processes in these animals, and do they match those found in humans? [Finally, how does development interact with each of these questions?] The significance of these studies is a better understanding of why self-control fails, how such failures are linked to environmental and biological influences, and what strategies might be used to improve self-control in situations in which impulsivity is the likely response of the organism. The consequences of self-control failures cannot be overstated. Overeating, drug use, risky sexual behavior, compulsive gambling, and physical aggression all occur because of a lack of behavioral restraint, and they have direct negative effects on health, wellbeing, and society. All of these behaviors result from short-sightedness in evaluating outcomes, a central feature of impulsivity. The well-established literature on delay discounting indicates clearly that animals (including humans) typically value things nearer in time while devaluing those further in the future (e.g., Estle et al., 2007; Green et al., 2004; Kagel et al., 1986; Logue, 1988; Odum & Rainuad, 2003). Of course, in some instances short-term interests should be valued at a premium given uncertainty about the future. Never knowing when one would next encounter a plentiful food source or an opportunity to mate meant that activities available here and now were highly valued. However, with the development of future-oriented processes such as planning, and the emergence of accurate memories of past opportunities taken and avoided, organisms could anticipate the likelihood of better future rewards and the cost of taking or avoiding current rewards.