scholarly journals Inhibitory Control Deficits in Overweight Participants are Preserved in a Gamified Stop-Signal Task (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Alexander Schroeder ◽  
Johannes Lohmann ◽  
Manuel Ninaus

BACKGROUND Gamification in mental health could increase training adherence, motivation, and transfer effects, but the external validity of gamified tasks is unclear. The present study documents that gamified task variants can show preserved associations between markers of behavioral deficits and health-related variables. We draw on the inhibitory control deficit in overweight populations to investigate effects of gamification on performance measures in a web-based experimental task. OBJECTIVE This study tested whether associations between inhibitory control and overweight were preserved in a gamified stop-signal task (SST). METHODS Two versions of an adaptive SST were developed and tested in an online experiment. Participants (n=111) were randomized to one of the two task variants and completed a series of questionnaires along with either the gamified SST or a conventional SST. Both variants drew on the identical core mechanics but the gamified variant included an additional narrative, graphical theme, scoring system with visual and emotional feedback, and the presence of a companion character. In both tasks, food and neutral low-poly stimuli had to be classified based on their color tone (go trials), but responses had to be withheld in 25% of the trials (stop-trials). Mean go reaction times and stop signal reaction times (SSRT) were analyzed as measures of performance and inhibitory control. RESULTS Participants in the gamified SST had longer reaction times (803±179 ms vs. 607±90 ms) and worse inhibitory control (SSRT: 383±109 ms vs. 297±45 ms). The association of BMI with inhibitory control was relatively small (r=.155, 95%-CI: .013-.290). Overweight participants had longer reaction times (752±217 ms vs. 672±137 ms) and SSRTs (363±116 ms vs. 326±77 ms). Gamification did not interact with the effect of overweight on mean performance or inhibitory control. There were no effects of gamification on mood and user experience, despite a negative effect on perceived efficiency. CONCLUSIONS The detrimental effects of heightened body-mass index on inhibitory control were preserved in a gamified version of the stop signal task. Overall the effects of overweight were smaller than in previously published web-based and laboratory studies. Gamification elements can impact behavioral performance, but gamified tasks can still assess inhibitory control deficits. Although our results are promising, according validations may differ for other types of behavior, gamification, and health variables.

Author(s):  
Amy Jane Caswell ◽  
Michael John Morgan ◽  
Theodora Duka

Literature on impulsivity regularly claims inhibitory control deficits underlie impulsive behavior. The current study investigated whether taxing inhibitory control will increase reflection (decision making under conditions of uncertainty), temporal (delay of gratification), and motor impulsivity (behavioral disinhibition). Inhibitory control was challenged, via a random letter generation task presented during responding to three impulsivity measures: the Information Sampling Task (IST), Single Key Impulsivity Paradigm, and the Stop Signal Task (SST). Participants (n = 33) were assigned to the inhibitory control challenging (experimental) condition, or to a control condition in which inhibitory control was not challenged. The SST was affected by the inhibitory control challenge: participants in the experimental condition displayed increased motor impulsivity, evidenced in longer stop signal reaction times (SSRTs) compared to the control group. The manipulation did not affect reflection- or temporal- impulsivity measures. These data support the suggestion that the mechanisms underlying the motor subtype of impulsivity are dissociable from the temporal and reflection subtypes, and that engagement of inhibitory control is not necessary to prevent impulsive decision making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish Jaiswal ◽  
Shao-Yang Tsai ◽  
Chi-Hung Juan ◽  
Wei-Kuang Liang ◽  
Neil G. Muggleton

AbstractInhibitory control can be divided into motor and cognitive inhibition. The current research is the first study exploring the impact of brief mindfulness training on motor inhibition, measured by a stop signal task in participants without any meditation experience. Motor inhibition performance was compared before and immediately after three different conditions; a brief mindfulness induction, a resting state and an active control session in which participants listened to their favorite music. Post-test learning effect on go-reaction times was seen for the resting and mindfulness conditions, but was absent in the music session, possibly due to emotional arousal might have led slower responses. Brief mindfulness training did not significantly alter inhibitory control, although marginal improvement in stop signal reaction time following the mindfulness induction was observed. Motor inhibition appears unresponsive to either short-term or long-term mindfulness practice. Future mindfulness studies should explore a broad spectrum of cognitive functions and populations.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Monk ◽  
Adam Qureshi ◽  
Charlotte Rebecca Pennington ◽  
Iain Hamlin

BackgroundPrior research demonstrates that individuals who consume alcohol show diminished inhibitory control towards alcohol-related cues. However, such research contrasts predominantly alcoholic appetitive cues with non-alcoholic, non-appetitive cues (e.g., stationary items). As such, it is not clear whether it is specifically the alcoholic nature of the cues that influences impairments in inhibitory control or whether more general appetitive processes are at play.AimsThe current study examined the hitherto untested assertion that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol-related stimuli might generalise to other appetitive liquid stimuli, but not to non-appetitive liquid stimuli.MethodFifty-nine participants (Mage = 21.63, SD = 5.85) completed a modified version of the Stop Signal Task, which exposed them to visual stimuli of three types of liquids: Alcoholic appetitive (e.g., wine), non-alcoholic appetitive (e.g., water) and non-appetitive (e.g., washing-up liquid).ResultsConsistent with predictions, Stop-signal reaction time was significantly longer for appetitive (alcoholic, non-alcoholic) compared to non-appetitive stimuli. Participants were also faster and less error-prone when responding to appetitive relative to non-appetitive stimuli on go-trials. There were no apparent differences in stop signal reaction times between alcoholic and non-alcoholic appetitive products.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that decreases in inhibitory control in response to alcohol-related cues might generalise to other appetitive liquids, possibly due to evaluative conditioning. Implications for existing research methodologies include the use of appetitive control conditions and the diversification of cues within tests of alcohol-related inhibitory control.


Author(s):  
Graciela C. Alatorre-Cruz ◽  
Heather Downs ◽  
Darcy Hagood ◽  
Seth T. Sorensen ◽  
D. Keith Williams ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S63-S63
Author(s):  
Ya Wang ◽  
Lu-xia Jia ◽  
Xiao-jing Qin ◽  
Jun-yan Ye ◽  
Raymond Chan

Abstract Background Schizotypy, a subclinical group at risk for schizophrenia, have been found to show impairments in response inhibition. Recent studies differentiated proactive inhibition (a preparatory process before the stimuli appears) and reactive inhibition (the inhibition of a pre-potent or already initiated response). However, it remains unclear whether both proactive and reactive inhibition are impaired in schizotypy and what are the neural mechanisms. The present event-related potential study used an adapted stop-signal task to examine the two inhibition processes and the underlying neural mechanisms in schizotypy compared to healthy controls (HC). Methods A total of 21 individuals with schizotypy and 25 matched HC participated in this study. To explore different degrees of proactive inhibition, we set three conditions: a “certain” go condition which no stop signal occurred, a “17% no go” condition in which stop signal would appear in 17% of trials, and a “33% no go” condition in which stop signal would appear in 33% of trials. All participants completed all the conditions, and EEG was recorded when participants completed the task. Results Behavioral results showed that in both schizotypy and HC, the reaction times (RT) of go trials were significantly prolonged as the no go percentage increased, and HC showed significantly longer go RT compared with schizotypy in both “17% no go” and “33% no go” conditions, suggesting greater proactive inhibition in HC. Stop signal reaction times (SSRTs) in “33% no go” condition was shorter than “17% no go” condition in both groups. Schizotypy showed significantly longer SSRTs in both “17% no go” and “33% no go” conditions than HC, indicating schizotypy relied more on reactive inhibition. ERP results showed that schizotypy showed larger overall N1 for go trials than HC irrespective of condition, which may indicate a compensation process in schizotypy. Schizotypy showed smaller N2 on both successful and unsuccessful stop trials in “17% no go” conditions than HC, while no group difference was found in “33% no go” conditions for stop trials, which may indicate impaired error processing. Discussion These results suggested that schizotypy tended to be impaired in both proactive control and reactive control processes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1601-1614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey N. White ◽  
Eliza Congdon ◽  
Jeanette A. Mumford ◽  
Katherine H. Karlsgodt ◽  
Fred W. Sabb ◽  
...  

The stop-signal task, in which participants must inhibit prepotent responses, has been used to identify neural systems that vary with individual differences in inhibitory control. To explore how these differences relate to other aspects of decision making, a drift-diffusion model of simple decisions was fitted to stop-signal task data from go trials to extract measures of caution, motor execution time, and stimulus processing speed for each of 123 participants. These values were used to probe fMRI data to explore individual differences in neural activation. Faster processing of the go stimulus correlated with greater activation in the right frontal pole for both go and stop trials. On stop trials, stimulus processing speed also correlated with regions implicated in inhibitory control, including the right inferior frontal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, and BG. Individual differences in motor execution time correlated with activation of the right parietal cortex. These findings suggest a robust relationship between the speed of stimulus processing and inhibitory processing at the neural level. This model-based approach provides novel insight into the interrelationships among decision components involved in inhibitory control and raises interesting questions about strategic adjustments in performance and inhibitory deficits associated with psychopathology.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram B. Zandbelt ◽  
Mirjam Bloemendaal ◽  
Janna Marie Hoogendam ◽  
René S. Kahn ◽  
Matthijs Vink

Stopping an action requires suppression of the primary motor cortex (M1). Inhibitory control over M1 relies on a network including the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) and the supplementary motor complex (SMC), but how these regions interact to exert inhibitory control over M1 is unknown. Specifically, the hierarchical position of the rIFC and SMC with respect to each other, the routes by which these regions control M1, and the causal involvement of these regions in proactive and reactive inhibition remain unclear. We used off-line repetitive TMS to perturb neural activity in the rIFC and SMC followed by fMRI to examine effects on activation in the networks involved in proactive and reactive inhibition, as assessed with a modified stop-signal task. We found repetitive TMS effects on reactive inhibition only. rIFC and SMC stimulation shortened the stop-signal RT (SSRT) and a shorter SSRT was associated with increased M1 deactivation. Furthermore, rIFC and SMC stimulation increased right striatal activation, implicating frontostriatal pathways in reactive inhibition. Finally, rIFC stimulation altered SMC activation, but SMC stimulation did not alter rIFC activation, indicating that rIFC lies upstream from SMC. These findings extend our knowledge about the functional organization of inhibitory control, an important component of executive functioning, showing that rIFC exerts reactive control over M1 via SMC and right striatum.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire O'Callaghan ◽  
Frank Hubert Hezemans ◽  
Rong Ye ◽  
Catarina Rua ◽  
P Simon Jones ◽  
...  

Cognitive decline is a common feature of Parkinson's disease, and many of these cognitive deficits fail to respond to dopaminergic therapy. Therefore, targeting other neuromodulatory systems represents an important therapeutic strategy. Among these, the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system has been extensively implicated in response inhibition deficits. Restoring noradrenaline levels using the noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine can improve response inhibition in some patients with Parkinson's disease, but there is considerable heterogeneity in treatment response. Accurately predicting the patients who would benefit from therapies targeting this neurotransmitter system remains a critical goal, in order to design the necessary clinical trials with stratified patient selection to establish the therapeutic potential of atomoxetine. Here, we test the hypothesis that integrity of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus explains the variation in improvement of response inhibition following atomoxetine. In a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised crossover design, 19 people with Parkinson's disease completed an acute psychopharmacological challenge with 40 mg of oral atomoxetine or placebo. A stop-signal task was used to measure response inhibition, with stop-signal reaction times obtained through hierarchical Bayesian estimation of an ex-Gaussian race model. Twenty-six control subjects completed the same task without undergoing the drug manipulation. In a separate session, patients and controls underwent ultra-high field 7T imaging of the locus coeruleus using a neuromelanin-sensitive magnetisation transfer sequence. The principal result was that atomoxetine improved stop-signal reaction times in those patients with lower locus coeruleus integrity. This was in the context of a general impairment in response inhibition, as patients on placebo had longer stop-signal reaction times compared to controls. We also found that the caudal portion of the locus coeruleus showed the largest neuromelanin signal decrease in the patients compared to controls. Our results highlight a link between the integrity of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and response inhibition in Parkinson's disease patients. Furthermore, they demonstrate the importance of baseline noradrenergic state in determining the response to atomoxetine. We suggest that locus coeruleus neuromelanin imaging offers a marker of noradrenergic capacity that could be used to stratify patients in trials of noradrenergic therapy and to ultimately inform personalised treatment approaches.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Chevrier ◽  
Russell J. Schachar

AbstractBackgroundAltered brain activity that has been observed in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while performing cognitive control tasks like the stop signal task (SST), has generally been interpreted as reflecting either weak (under-active) or compensatory (over-active) versions of the same functions as in healthy controls. If so, then regional activities that correlate with the efficiency of inhibitory control (i.e. stop signal reaction time, SSRT) in healthy subjects should also correlate with SSRT in ADHD. Here we test the alternate hypothesis that BOLD differences might instead reflect the redirection of neural processing resources normally used for task-directed inhibitory control, toward actively managing symptomatic behavior. If so, then activities that correlate with SSRT in TD should instead correlate with inattentive and hyperactive symptoms in ADHD.MethodsWe used fMRI in 14 typically developing (TD) and 14 ADHD adolescents performing the SST, and in a replication sample of 14 healthy adults. First we identified significant group BOLD differences during all phases of activity in the SST (i.e. warning, response, reactive inhibition, error detection and post-error slowing). Next, we correlated these phases of activity with SSRT in TD, and with SSRT, inattentive and hyperactive symptom scores in ADHD. We then identified whole brain significant correlations in regions of significant group difference in activity.ResultsOnly three regions of significant group difference were correlated with SSRT in TD and replication groups (left and right inferior frontal gyri (IFG) during error detection, and hypothalamus during post-error slowing). Consistent with regions of altered activity managing symptomatic behavior instead of task-directed behavior, left IFG correlated with greater inattentive score, right IFG correlated with lower hyperactive score, and hypothalamus correlated with greater inattentive score and oppositely correlated with SSRT compared to TD.ConclusionsResults are consistent with stimuli that elicit task-directed integration of neural processing in healthy subjects, instead directing integrated function towards managing symptomatic behavior in ADHD. The ability of the current approach to determine whether altered neural activities reflect comparable functions in ADHD and control groups has broad implications for the development and monitoring of therapeutic interventions.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Javad Dale Allen ◽  
D.Phil. Jill Miranda Hooley

Negative urgency, the self-reported tendency to act impulsively when distressed, increases risk for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Prior research also suggests that NSSI is associated with impaired negative emotional response inhibition (NERI), a cognitive process theoretically related to negative urgency. Specifically, individuals with a history of NSSI had difficulty inhibiting behavioral responses to negative affective images in an Emotional Stop-Signal Task, but not to those depicting positive or neutral content. The present study sought to replicate this finding, determine whether this deficit extends to an earlier stage of NERI, and explore whether impairment in these two stages of emotional inhibitory control helps explain the relationship between negative urgency and NSSI. To address these aims, 88 adults with NSSI histories (n = 45) and healthy control participants (n = 43) without NSSI history or psychopathology completed a clinical interview, symptom inventories, an impulsivity questionnaire, and behavioral impulsivity tasks measuring early and late emotional response inhibition. The NSSI group had worse late NERI than the control group on the Emotional Stop-Signal Task, but no group differences were observed in early NERI on an Emotional Go/no-go task. However, both early and late stages of NERI accounted for independent variance in negative urgency. We additionally found that late NERI explained variance in the association between negative urgency and NSSI. These results suggest that impulsive behavior in NSSI may involve specifically impaired inhibitory control over negative emotional impulses during late response inhibition, and that this cognitive deficit might reflect one mechanism or pathway to elevated negative urgency among people who self-injure.


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