Inhibition and impulsivity: Behavioral and neural basis of response control
Section snippets
Historical introduction
In the words of the father of American psychology William James (1842–1910) inhibition [Lat. inhibere, to restrain] is “… not an occasional accident; it is an essential and unremitting element of our cerebral life” (James, 1890; Vol. II, p. 583). Scientists and philosophers have long been interested in the nature of inhibitory processes at the psychological, neurophysiological and cognitive level. Plato's allegory of the human soul viewed as a charioteer driving a chariot pulled by two horses
Failure of the inhibitory processes: impulsivity
“If the centres of inhibition, and thereby the faculty of attention, are weak, or present impulses unusually strong, volition is impulsive rather than deliberate”. (Ferrier, 1876, p. 287).
Impulsivity [or impulsiveness] is generally regarded as a consequence of impaired executive functioning. More specifically, an impulsive action is determined by the co-occurrence of dysfunctional inhibitory processes and strong ‘impulsions’ (or impulses), plus being triggered and modulated by dispositional and
Neural substrates of response inhibition
“The centres of inhibition being thus the essential factor of attention, constitute the organic basis of all the higher intellectual faculties. And in proportion to their development we should expect a corresponding intellectual power”. (Ferrier, 1876, p. 287)
The investigation of the neural substrates of response inhibition has been pursued using a variety of techniques and approaches. Animal models offer the possibility of testing the effects of drugs and discrete brain lesions on impulsive
Comparison with choice impulsivity and reversal learning
“Whenever choice appears in any form – as rivalry between appetites which cannot be simultaneously satisfied, as a perceived meaning attached to an ambiguous stimulus, as a planned decision between two courses of action, as a symbolic fulfillment of an unsuspected wish – it always involves an element of inhibition”. (Diamond et al., 1963; p. 145)
As previously discussed, two other families of behavioral tasks have been used to measure behavioral inhibition in clinical and preclinical settings:
Summary, conclusions and future perspectives
“I have nothing to say on the nature of the inhibitory process. I would urge, however, that here, as in all other cases, we should distinguish between the psychical and the physical; we cannot legitimately speak of any mental states as inhibitory of any physical processes, any more than we can speak of them as producing movements. I have long urged that controlling as well as directive action is displayed throughout the nervous system.” (Jackson, 1931b, p. 481)
The aim of the first part of the
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thankfully acknowledge the work of two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. AB was supported by an MRC U.K. Studentship. The review was completed within the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, supported by a joint award from the MRC and Wellcome Trust. Dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague Daina Economidou.
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