Self-control beyond impulse inhibition: Neuro-cognitive mechanisms, impairment, and enhancement of dissociable self-control strategies

• Applicant: Dr. Alexander Soutschek
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402383523

Self-control is key to human success and well-being. Self-control refers to the ability to pursue long-term goals (for example, avoiding overweight or saving money for the future) and to resist immediate temptations (delay of gratification). Deficits in the ability to delay gratification belong to the core symptoms of several clinical disorders. It is thus important to obtain a deeper understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying decisions to delay gratification. According to an influential neural model, decisions to delay gratification crucially rely on the neural reward system and the frontoparietal control network. However, the precise roles of these brain networks is far from understood. (1) Regarding the neural reward system, neuroscientific investigations often assume that the reward system represents the subjective value of future rewards as computed via economic choice models (hyperbolic discounting). Contrary to this, however, psychological research suggests that humans often make choices between future rewards not based on the subjective values of these rewards as determined by economic discount functions but rather based on heuristic rules. In this project, I will therefore investigate whether the neural reward system represents the value of reward options not according to economic models but according to heuristic choice rules. (2) Regarding the frontoparietal control network, previous research investigated the roles of the prefrontal and the parietal cortex for delay of gratification only in isolation. However, it remains unknown how the interplay between these regions contributes to decision making. The second goal of this project therefore is to determine how synchronous neural activation in the prefrontal and the parietal cortex influences delay of gratification. Together, this project will clarify the neurocomputational roles of central brain mechanisms for decisions to delay gratification. This will contribute to a better understanding of the neural basis of impulsiveness deficits in clinical disorders like addiction or obesity.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups