Dimensionality of brain networks linked to life-long individual differences in self-control – Cover

Date: 2013-02-01

Reference number: OPUSeJ 201302011718DBN

Links: published article http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/full/ncomms2374.html

Forum: http://www.opusej.org/library/dimensionality-of-brain-networks-linked-to-life-long-individual-differences-in-self-control-forum/

Title: Dimensionality of brain networks linked to life-long individual differences in self-control

Authors: Marc G. Berman, Grigori Yourganov, Mary K. Askren, Ozlem Ayduk, B. J. Casey, Ian H. Gotlib, Ethan Kross, Anthony R. McIntosh, Stephen Strother, Nicole L. Wilson,Vivian Zayas, Walter Mischel, Yuichi Shoda and John Jonides.

Abstract: The ability to delay gratification in childhood has been linked to positive outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Here we examine a subsample of participants from a seminal longitudinal study of self-control throughout a subject’s life span. Self-control, first studied in children at age 4 years, is now re-examined 40 years later, on a task that required control over the contents of working memory. We examine whether patterns of brain activation on this task can reliably distinguish participants with consistently low and high self-control abilities (low versus high delayers). We find that low delayers recruit significantly higher-dimensional neural networks when performing the task compared with high delayers. High delayers are also more homogeneous as a group in their neural patterns compared with low delayers. From these brain patterns, we can predict with 71% accuracy, whether a participant is a high or low delayer. The present results suggest that dimensionality of neural networks is a biological predictor of self-control abilities.

Author bio:  N/A

Sponsor editor:  N/A

Affiliations/disclaimers/funding/acknowledgements:

Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6A 2E1: Marc G. Berman, Grigori Yourganov, Anthony R. McIntosh & Stephen Strother

Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA: Marc G. Berman

Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8: Grigori Yourganov

Integrated Brain Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA: Mary K. Askren

Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA: Ozlem Ayduk

Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, Manhattan, New York 10065, USA: B. J. Casey

Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA: Ian H. Gotlib

Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA: Ethan Kross & John Jonides

Department of Medical Biophysics and Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8: Stephen Strother

Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 18195, USA: Nicole L. Wilson & Yuichi Shoda

Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA: Vivian Zayas

Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA: Walter Mischel

All authors helped to write the manuscript and review results. M.G.B., M.K.A., B.J.C., O.A., Y.S., I.H.G., J.J., W.M. and N.W. helped to design the study and to collect the data. M.G.B., G.Y., M.K.A., J.J., S.S. and A.R.M. helped to analyse the data.

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding author: Marc G. Berman

Keywords:  N/A

Subject:  Science/ self control

Language: English

Bibliography: (alphabetical) N/A

Citation: Berman, M G et al, 2013, “Dimensionality of brain networks linked to life-long individual differences in self-control”, Nature Communications 4:1373, Published online 22 January 2013, doi:10.1038/ncomms2374. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/full/ncomms2374.html

References: see Forum http://www.opusej.org/library/dimensionality-of-brain-networks-linked-to-life-long-individual-differences-in-self-control-forum/

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