L2 Volitional dysfunction in self-control failures and addictive behaviours

Background and aims: Conflicts between long-term goals (e.g., maintaining health, achieving good grades) and immediate desires or strong habits (e.g., to smoke; eat a tasty dessert; to watch TV) are frequent in everyday life. Failures of self-control in such conflict situations are sources of a wide range of harmful behaviors including substance-related and addictive disorders (SRAD), which incur immense personal and societal costs. The long-term aim of our project is to investigate whether impaired cognitive control, performance-monitoring, value-based decision-making and dysfunctional interactions between the underlying brain systems constitute vulnerability factors and/or mediating mechanisms underlying non-pathological daily self-control failures (SCFs) as well as addictive behaviors.

Methods: In the first funding period we launched a prospective cohort study using a multi-level approach that combines (i) a comprehensive clinical assessment, (ii) behavioral task batteries assessing cognitive control and decision-making functions, (iii) task-related and resting state fMRI, and (iv) smartphone-based experience sampling of daily SCFs. In the first funding phase, from a representative community sample we recruited three groups of participants (each n = 110; age 20 - 26) with (a) symptoms of non-substance related and (b) substance-related addictive disorders according to DSM-5 and (c) syndrome-free controls.

Results and conclusions of the first funding period: Hypothesis-driven cross-sectional analyses revealed that reduced error-related activity in brain areas involved in performance-monitoring and salience processing (anterior insula; aINS) and inhibitory control (right inferior frontal gyrus; IFG) as well as insufficient modulation of neural value signals in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) by long-term goals predicted higher proneness to daily SCFs. Moreover, reduced conflict-related brain activity in performance-monitoring areas was associated with repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking. These findings are consistent with a working model according to which deficient performance-monitoring, insufficient recruitment of cognitive control networks in response to conflicts or errors, and insufficient top-down modulation of value signals by long-term goals increase proneness to commit daily SCFs and show symptoms of SAD.

Aims of the second funding period: Based on these encouraging results, in the second funding period our project will be expanded into a prospective-longitudinal cohort study with yearly clinical follow-up assessments and continued multi-level assessments 3 and 5 years after initial recruitment. This will provide the unique opportunity to examine with a cross-lagged panel design whether daily SCFs and SAD can be predicted by (a) cognitive control competencies as derived from latent variable analyses of our task battery and by (b) activity in brain areas involved in performance-monitoring, cognitive control, and value-based decision-making. This will not only allow us to investigate with sufficient statistical power (1) commonalities and differences in cognitive control functions between subgroups of SAD, but also (2) to address the central unresolved question whether cognitive control and performance-monitoring impairments are causally involved in the development of real-life SCFs and SAD.

Pls: Prof. Thomas Goschke, Prof. Gerhard Bühringer, Prof. Michael Smolka

Staff: Dr. A. Kräplin, Dr. K.-M. Krönke, Dr. M. Wolff

Funding: DFG, subproject of the SFB940

Duration: 07/2012 – 06/2020 (second funding period)

Homepage: https://www.sfb940.de

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). https://doi.org/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 behavior: New insights from a longitudinal community study. Psychopharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-022-06224-3

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. https://doi.org/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. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619896357

Wolff, M., Enge, S., Kräplin, A., Krönke, K. M., Bühringer, G., Smolka, M. N., & Goschke, T. (2020). Chronic stress, executive functioning, and real‐life self‐control: An experience sampling study. Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12587

Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Benz, A., & Goschke, T. (2015). Successful smoking cessation is associated with prefrontal cortical function during a Stroop task: A preliminary study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 234(1), 52-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.08.005

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 [journal article]. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-018-0593-5

Wolff, M., Krönke, K.-M., & Goschke, T. (2015). Trait self-control is predicted by how reward associations modulate Stroop interference [journal article]. Psychological Research, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0707-4

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. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000229