Motivational dynamics of self-control.

How people respond to desires varies substantially across time and situations. Building on recent theoretical developments, we propose that motivation plays a central role in the dynamics of self-control as it unfolds across time. We illustrate the role of motivation in self-control by highlighting evidence that pursuing goals for intrinsic (vs.

Striatal response to negative feedback in a stop signal task operates as a multi-value learning signal.

Background And Aim: We examined error-driven learning in fMRI activity of 217 subjects in a stop signal task to obtain a more robust characterization of the relation between behavioral measures of learning and corresponding neural learning signals than previously possible.

Methods: The stop signal task is a two-alternative forced choice in which participants respond to an arrow by pressing a left or right button but must inhibit that response on 1 in 7 trials when cued by an auditory "stop signal." We examined post-error learning by comparing brain activity (BOLD signal) and behavioral responses on trials preceded by successful (correct stop) vs.

Addressing stigma within the dissemination of research products to improve quality of care for pregnant and parenting people affected by substance use disorder.

Substance use disorders are a common and treatable condition among pregnant and parenting people. Social, self, and structural stigma experienced by this group represent a barrier to harm reduction, treatment utilization, and quality of care. We examine features of research dissemination that may generate or uphold stigmatization at every level for pregnant and parenting individuals affected by substance use disorder and their children.

Prepared and reactive inhibition in smokers and non-smokers.

Introduction: Models of addiction have identified deficits in inhibitory control, or the ability to inhibit inappropriate or unwanted behaviors, as one factor in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. Current literature supports disruption of the prefrontal circuits that mediate reactive inhibitory control processes (i.e.

So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory.

Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people's everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm.

Neural Substrates of Food Valuation and Its Relationship With BMI and Healthy Eating in Higher BMI Individuals.

Considerable evidence points to a link between body mass index (BMI), eating behavior, and the brain's reward system. However, much of this research focuses on food cue reactivity without examining the subjective valuation process as a potential mechanism driving individual differences in BMI and eating behavior. The current pre-registered study (https://osf.

Brain Activity Associated With Regulating Food Cravings Predicts Changes in Self-Reported Food Craving and Consumption Over Time.

Neural patterns associated with viewing energy-dense foods can predict changes in eating-related outcomes. However, most research on this topic is limited to one follow-up time point, and single outcome measures. The present study seeks to add to that literature by employing a more refined assessment of food craving and consumption outcomes along with a more detailed neurobiological model of behavior change over several time points.

Neuroeconomics, health psychology, and the interdisciplinary study of preventative health behavior.

The goal of this article is to introduce readers to theories, tools, and evidence from the field of neuroeconomics and to describe how health psychology and neuroeconomics can be mutually informative in the study of preventative health behaviors. Preventative health behavior here refers to both individual actions that impact one's health (e.g.

Reducing mental health disparities by increasing the personal relevance of interventions.

One of the most persistent health disparities is the underutilization of mental health services by people of color. Neither evidence-based treatments (universal focus) nor culturally adapted treatments (group focus) have reduced these disparities. We propose the personal relevance of psychotherapy (PROP) model, which integrates universal, group, and individual dimensions to determine the personal relevance of interventions.

Multivariate neural signatures for health neuroscience: assessing spontaneous regulation during food choice.

Establishing links between neural systems and health can be challenging since there is not a one-to-one mapping between brain regions and psychological states. Building sensitive and specific predictive models of health-relevant constructs using multivariate activation patterns of brain activation is a promising new direction. We illustrate the potential of this approach by building two 'neural signatures' of food craving regulation (CR) using multivariate machine learning and, for comparison, a univariate contrast.

Inequality in personality and temporal discounting across socioeconomic status? Assessing the evidence.

Personality traits such as conscientiousness and impulsivity correlate with temporal discounting, the degree to which individuals discount the value of future relative to present rewards. These variables have, in turn, been hypothesized to relate to income inequality in the United States. A key but untested assumption of this hypothesis is that the association among these variables is distinct across socioeconomic classes.

Levers and barriers to success in the use of translational neuroscience for the prevention and treatment of mental health and promotion of well-being across the lifespan.

Neuroscientific tools and approaches such as neuroimaging, measures of neuroendocrine and psychoneuroimmune activity, and peripheral physiology are increasingly used in clinical science and health psychology research. We define translational neuroscience (TN) as a systematic, theory-driven approach that aims to develop and leverage basic and clinical neuroscientific knowledge to aid the development and optimization of clinical and public health interventions. There is considerable potential across basic and clinical science fields for this approach to provide insights into mental and physical health pathology that had previously been inaccessible.

Comparing two neurocognitive models of self-control during dietary decisions.

Self-control is the process of favoring abstract, distal goals over concrete, proximal goals during decision-making and is an important factor in health and well-being. We directly compare two prominent neurocognitive models of human self-control with the goal of identifying which, if either, best describes behavioral and neural data of dietary decisions in a large sample of overweight and obese adults motivated to eat more healthfully. We extracted trial-by-trial estimates of neural activity during incentive-compatible choice from three brain regions implicated in self-control, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex and assessed evidence for the dual-process and value-based choice models of self-control using multilevel modeling.

Predicting Exercise With a Personality Facet: Planfulness and Goal Achievement.

Establishing reliable predictors of health behavior is a goal of health psychology. A relevant insight from personality psychology is that facets can predict specific behaviors better than broad traits do. We hypothesized that we could predict physical activity with a facet of conscientiousness related to goal pursuit-planfulness.

Acute stress impairs children's sustained attention with increased vulnerability for children of mothers reporting higher parenting stress.

Despite evidence that acute stress impairs attention in adults, there has been minimal research in children. Here, the effects of acute stress on Go/No-go performance were examined in young children (M age = 5.41 years).

The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence: Neural Evidence and Implications for a Value-Based Choice Perspective on Motivated Behavior.

Following a key developmental task of childhood-building a foundation of self-knowledge in the form of domain-specific self-concepts-adolescents begin to explore their emerging identities in ways that foster autonomy and connectedness. Neuroimaging studies of self-related processes demonstrate enhanced engagement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in adolescence, which may facilitate and reflect the development of identity by integrating the value of potential actions and choices. Drawing from neuroeconomic and social cognitive accounts, we propose that motivated behavior during adolescence can be modeled by a general value-based decision-making process centered around value accumulation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Leveraging translational neuroscience to inform early intervention and addiction prevention for children exposed to early life stress.

Substance use and addiction are disproportionately experienced by individuals with a history of exposure to early life stress (ELS), such as maltreatment, domestic violence and parent psychopathology. Unfortunately, extant interventions have mixed effectiveness at improving outcome trajectories for ELS-exposed children, who are often underserved by evidenced-based programs. Here, we employ a translational neuroscience framework to delineate how neuroscience can deepen our understanding of ELS-linked alterations in children's function to inform the development of more targeted, effective early intervention and addiction prevention programs.

Neuroendocrine and immune pathways from pre- and perinatal stress to substance abuse.

Early life adversity is a documented risk factor for substance abuse and addiction. The pre- and perinatal period (i.e.

Brief, computerized inhibitory control training to leverage adolescent neural plasticity: A pilot effectiveness trial.

Adolescence is a time of heightened neural plasticity. Many brain networks show protracted development through this period, such as those underlying inhibitory control (IC), a neurocognitive skill implicated in risk-taking and therefore relevant to public health. Although IC appears to be trainable in adults and young children, whether and how IC may be malleable during adolescence is not fully understood.

Autonomy can support affect regulation during illness and in health.

The benefits of autonomy to self-regulation, health, and well-being are well established. However, relatively few studies have investigated how autonomy might influence affect regulation. In this commentary, we argue that autonomy is an important motivational factor that interacts with affect regulation and may be particularly relevant in health contexts, such as cancer, that can limit individual autonomy.

Efficacy of an SMS-Based Smoking Intervention Using Message Self-Authorship: A Pilot Study.

Introduction: Text-message-based interventions hold great potential for intervention and are increasingly feasible, given advances in information technology.

Aims: This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to compare the efficacy of self-versus expert-authored content delivered via text-messaging for smoking cessation.

Methods: Sixty-two participants aged 25-66 attended laboratory sessions pre- and post-30 days of text-messaging intervention.

Enhancement of Meditation Analgesia by Opioid Antagonist in Experienced Meditators.

Objective: Studies have consistently shown that long-term meditation practice is associated with reduced pain, but the neural mechanisms by which long-term meditation practice reduces pain remain unclear. This study tested endogenous opioid involvement in meditation analgesia associated with long-term meditation practice.

Methods: Electrical pain was induced with randomized, double-blind, cross-over administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (0.

The Neuroscience of Goals and Behavior Change.

The ways that people set, pursue, and eventually succeed or fail in accomplishing their goals are central issues for consulting psychology. Goals and behavior change have long been the subject of empirical investigation in psychology, and have been adopted with enthusiasm by the cognitive and social neurosciences in the last few decades. Though relatively new, neuroscientific discoveries have substantially furthered the scientific understanding of goals and behavior change.

Neural predictors of eating behavior and dietary change.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of human neuroimaging studies seeking to predict behavior above and beyond traditional measurements such as self-report. This trend has been particularly notable in the area of food consumption, as the percentage of people categorized as overweight or obese continues to rise. In this review, we argue that there is considerable utility in this form of health neuroscience, modeling the neural bases of eating behavior and dietary change in healthy community populations.