Mechanisms and Modulators of Self Control

The aim of our research is to elucidate mechanisms underlying volitional self-control, i.e. the ability to resist temptation and inhibit impulsive responses in favor of long-term goals. We propose that attentional filtering and value modulation serve as two sub-mechanisms by which anticipated future outcomes may promote self-control. We conducted a series of mouse-tracking experiments to specifically examine the dynamics of attentional filtering. One key finding was the apparent lack of self-control in samples of healthy young adults, unless subjects were prompted to think of the long-term consequences. Although participants then displayed more “self-control”, their behavior reversed again when they were not asked to attend to long-term consequences. These results raise the questions whether (a) permanent reminders of long-term implications are essential for self-controlled behavior and (b) which processes seemingly impulsive choices are based on. To tackle the sub-mechanism of value modulation, we applied inhibitory 1 Hz rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) before a decision task. The dlPFC is thought to modulate value representations in the ventromedian PFC through anticipation of long-term consequences. The task comprised everyday-life conflict situations, in which subjects either had to resist a temptation or endure an aversion. Results indicated that, regardless of conflict type, subjects are generally hesitant to agree to an action in our control stimulation condition. In contrast, participants were less likely to resist a temptation when dlPFC function was perturbed, i.e. they displayed less self-control.

We will discuss an analysis concerned with fatigue influence on behavioral restraint, presenting findings from a recent study (experiment) designed to test it. The analysis argues that fatigue should not impact behavioral restraint directly, but rather should do so indirectly by determining how intensively people resist urges to act. It argues further that fatigue influence on the intensity is multifaceted, depending on the level of fatigue, the magnitude of the unwanted urge, and the importance of resistance. In theory, fatigue should have potential (1) for prompting people to resist urges more intensively, (2) for prompting people to give in to urges to act, or (3) for confirming people’s pre-existing inclination to give in to urges to act. The analysis implies that fatigue should consistently impair control only under certain restraint conditions. It also addresses key concerns that have been raised in relation to the influential limited resource analysis of self-control developed by Baumeister and colleagues.

The interoceptive inference framework suggests that our brain continuously anticipates future states of our body and aims to avoid events that might counteract homeostasis by minimizing prediction errors through active inference; e.g. appropriate actions. If predicted interoceptive models are inaccurate, behavior inconsistent with our long-term homeostatic goals may result; e.g. in failures in self-control. Using a within-subject design including an inspiratory breathing-load task to examine the prediction of aversive interoceptive perturbation and a craving-regulation for palatable foods task, we examined the relationship between self-control and aversive interoceptive predictive models. Those individuals who were more accurate in predicting their interoceptive state with respect to anticipated versus experienced dyspnea were significantly more effective in the down-regulation of craving using negative future-thinking strategies. These individuals also scored higher on a measure of trait self-control. In a subsequent fMRI study, these behavioral findings were successfully replicated. On a neural level, the anterior insula (AI) and presupplementary motor area (preSMA), recruited in both tasks, partly accounted for these effects: levels of AI activation during the interoceptive anticipation were associated with self-controlled behavior in the craving-task, whereas levels of interoceptive prediction during the breathing task were conversely associated with activation in preSMA during the down-regulation of craving, whose anticipatory activity was correlated with self-control success. These findings highlight that AI and preSMA may create processing advantages in self-control situations referring to the prediction of future internal states.

Self-control is among the most researched concepts in psychology. The most popular theoretical account on self-control has been the strength model of self-control which postulates that the capacity for self-control relies on a limited global resource that can become temporarily depleted, resulting in a state called ego depletion. However, the validity of the ego depletion effect has recently been questioned. Here, we suggest that inconsistencies in ego depletion literature might be caused in part by a confound that has unknowingly but systematically been introduced into ego depletion research: Boredom. It has been proposed that boredom occurs due to a mismatch between task-imposed attentional demands and one’s mental resources. We suggest that the control conditions that are frequently used in ego depletion research induce this type of mismatch and hence elicit boredom. Surprisingly, the role of boredom in ego depletion research has been largely overlooked so far. We propose that boredom might have influenced results of ego depletion studies by 1) placing an unwanted self-control demand due to the need to keep working on a boring task, and by 2) signaling that one should explore behavioral alternatives. Building upon recent theoretical accounts that conceptualize self-controlled behavior as the outcome of an ongoing cost-benefit analysis, we suggest that boredom and the sensation of applying self-control (i.e., perceived exertion) contribute distinctively to the outcome of this cost-benefit analysis and thereby to the resultant behavior.