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Volitional dysfunction in self-control failures and addictive behaviors

Failures of self-control during conflicts between long-term goals and immediate desires are a key characteristic of many harmful behaviors, including unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise and problematic substance use, which of- ten have adverse personal consequences and incur great societal costs. The aim of project C1 is to elucidate whether impairments of cognitive control, performance-monitoring, and value-based decision-making and dysfunctional inter- actions between underlying brain systems are mediating mechanisms and vulnerability factors for daily self-control failures as well as substance-related and addictive disorders (AD)1. To this end, we launched a prospective cohort study comprising a multi-level assessment combining (i) clinical assessments, (ii) cognitive control and decision-making task batteries, (iii) task-related and resting state fMRI, and (iv) experience-sampling of daily self-control failures. From a representative community sample (N> 18000) of young adults we recruited participants with symptoms of substance use disorders (alcohol and tobacco) (N=100) or behavioral addictions (N=118) and healthy controls (N=120). After baseline assessments, additional three yearly clinical and one three-year multi-level follow-up assessment have been completed. Results obtained so far provide converging evidence that task performance as well as brain activity in monitoring, control, and valuation networks is reliably associated with the propensity to commit real-life self-control failures. Results support a process model, according to which deficient performance-monitoring leads to an insuffi- cient recruitment of control networks, which attenuates the impact of long-term goals on neural value signals and increases the likelihood of self-control failures. In the third funding period, we will extend the clinical follow-up period to 7 years including a third multi-level assessment. In addition, we will assess stress markers as possible moderators of self-control. With our cross-lagged panel design we expect the project to make a substantial contribution to the central unresolved question whether dysfunctions of cognitive control are causally involved in the development and trajectories of self-control failures and addictive behaviors, as well as to the disputed question of communalities and differences between different addictive disorders. Thereby, we hope to contribute to mechanism-based models of self-control impairments as a foundation for improved prevention and therapy.

Project Members

Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. phil. Thomas Goschke
CRC 940 Spokesperson; Professor for General Psychology (W3)
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-34695
E-Mail:

Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Gerhard Bühringer
Senior Professor
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-39828
E-Mail:

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Smolka
Deputy Spokesperson CRC 940; Professor for Systems Neuroscience (W2)
Phone: +49 351 46342201
E-Mail:

Staff

Dr. Christian Bäuchl
Postdoctoral Researcher
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-31931
E-Mail:

M.Sc. Juliane Hilde Fröhner
Doctoral Researcher
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-42210
E-Mail:

Dr. rer. nat. Anja Kräplin
Postdoctoral Researcher
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-39848
E-Mail:

Past staff
Dr. rer. nat. Max Wolff

Dr. rer. nat. K.-Martin Krönke

Supporting students

The project would not be possible without the great support of numerous SHKs, interns and students with final theses in the project. A big thank you to them all!

Present: Melina Buchholz, Arndt Gillert, Paula Schmidt, Caroline Claßen

Past: Hannah Baumeister, Vera Fieber, Guanyu Huang, Linda Heinrich, Friederike Helbig, Valentina Jehn, Paula Kleeberg, Käthe Kupka, Hannah Matthäus, Solvej Nickel, Constanze Nicklisch, Kyra Pahlke, Anna-Lisa Pfarr, Lisa Reinicz, Nicole Rothe, David Schackmann, Lisa Schmidko, Sascha Schneider, Lea Winkelius, Theresa Wirkus, Laura Zehlein, Myriam Zschieschang-König

Thesis Defense

2017

"Real-Life Self-Control Failures: Examining the Role of Individual Differences in the Mobilization of Cognitive Control", Dipl.-Psych. Max Wolff (Supervisor Prof. Thomas Goschke)

2014

"Impulsivity in pathological gambling: Decomposing the construct to detect disorder-specific characteristics", Dipl.-Psych. Anja Kräplin (Supervisor Prof. Gerhard Bühringer)

Publications

Kräplin, A., Kupka, K. F., Fröhner, J. H., Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G. & Goschke, T. (2022). Personality Traits Predict Non-Substance Related and Substance Related Addictive Behaviours. SUCHT, 68(5). doi:10.1024/0939-5911/a000780
Kräplin, A., Joshanloo, M., Wolff, M., Krönke, K.-M., Bühringer, G., Goschke, T., & Smolka, M. N. (2022). The relationship between executive functioning and addictive behaviors: New insights from a longitudinal community study. Psychopharmacology. https://rdcu.be/cWQO4
Kräplin, A., Scherbaum, S., Kraft, E.-M., Rehbein, F., Bühringer, G., Goschke, T. & Mößle, T. (2021). The role of inhibitory control and decision-making in the course of Internet gaming disorder. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9(4), 990-1001. doi:10.1556/2006.2020.00076
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Shi, Y., Kräplin, A., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2020). Functional connectivity in a triple-network saliency model is associated with real-life self-control. Neuropsychologia, 149, 107667. DOI
Wolff, M., Enge, S., Kräplin, A., Krönke, K., Bühringer, G., Smolka, M. N., & Goschke, T. (2020). Chronic stress, executive functioning, and real‐life self‐control: An experience sampling study. Journal of Personality, 46(6)
Kräplin, A., Höfler, M., Pooseh, S., Wolff, M., Krönke, K.-M., Goschke, T., Bühringer, G. & Smolka, M. N. (2020). Impulsive decision-making predicts the course of substance-related and addictive disorders. Psychopharmacology. doi:10.1007/s00213-020-05567-z
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Mohr, H., Kräplin, A., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2020). Predicting Real-Life Self-Control From Brain Activity Encoding the Value of Anticipated Future Outcomes. Psychological Science, 31(3), 268–279. DOI
Kräplin, A., Scherbaum, S., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2019). Decision-making and inhibitory control after smoking-related priming in nicotine dependent smokers and never-smokers. Addictive Behaviors, 88, 114-121. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.08.020
Kräplin, A., Scherbaum, S., Bühringer, G., Goschke, T., & Schmidt, A. (2018). Negative interpersonal scenes decrease inhibitory control in healthy individuals but not in gambling disorder patients. International Gambling Studies, 18(2), 178-194. doi:10.1080/14459795.2018.1448426
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Mohr, H., Kräplin, A., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G. & Goschke, T. (2018). Monitor yourself! Deficient error-related brain activity predicts real-life self-control failures. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 18(4), 622-637. doi: 10.3758/s13415-018-0593-5
Wolff, M., Krönke, K.-M., Venz, J., Kräplin, A., Bühringer, G., Smolka, M. N., & Goschke, T. (2016). Action versus state orientation moderates the impact of executive functioning on real-life self-control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1635–1653. doi: 10.1037/xge0000229
Wolff, M., Krönke, K.-M. & Goschke, T. (2016). Trait self-control is predicted by how reward associations modulate Stroop interference. Psychological Research. doi: 10.1007/s00426-015-0707-4
Kräplin, A., Behrendt, S., Scherbaum, S., Dshemuchadse, M., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2015). Increased impulsivity in pathological gambling: Considering nicotine dependence. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 37(4), 367-378. doi:10.1080/13803395.2015.1018145
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Benz, A. & Goschke, T. (2015). Successful smoking cessation is predicted by prefrontal brain activity during a Stroop task: a preliminary study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.08.005
Kräplin, A., Bühringer, G., Oosterlaan, J., van den Brink, W., Goschke, T., & Goudriaan, A. E. (2014). Dimensions and disorder specificity of impulsivity in pathological gambling. Addictive Behaviors, 39(11), 1646-1651. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.05.021
Kräplin, A., Dshemuchadse, M., Behrendt, S., Scherbaum, S., Goschke, T., & Bühringer, G. (2014). Dysfunctional decision-making in pathological gambling: Pattern specificity and the role of impulsivity. Psychiatry Research, 215(3), 675–682. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.041

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