People with good executive control can regulate their actions and think ahead. Failures to regulate impulsive actions are linked to various clinical and behavioural disorders. So, understanding impulse control and how to improve it could help individuals and society. But many questions still need to be answered. This is because people focus on how to stop themselves from acting and on practising actions. To make progress, we need new models that link different aspects of impulsive action and executive control. The research programme aims to answer five key questions. (1) Can new impulsive actions happen during preparation?; (2) What role do negative events play in impulsive actions?; (3) How does learning affect impulsive behaviour?; (4) When are impulsive actions (dys)functional?; and (5) How is state impulsivity linked to trait impulsivity? To answer these questions, we used special behavioural tests, neuroscience techniques, physiological measures, mathematical models and animal models. Several key findings emerged from the project.
Self-paced preparation is a reliable predictor of accurate performance across different age groups, but this effect is context specific. People also gamble faster after losing. This behaviour has also been seen in real-life gambling and in animals, suggesting it is common. These findings contradict several theories of action control, but are consistent with theories focusing on the appraisal of negative events and with (non-human) work on frustration. The role of early life learning in action control has been investigated across species, with results suggesting that both ancestral environment (explaining differences between species) and current environment (explaining individual differences within species) play a critical role. Across species, we also found that impulsivity was found to be functional in certain contexts, particularly when the costs of preparation and control outweigh the benefits. No consistent relationship has been found between state and trait impulsivity, raising questions about current preclinical models. Studies in birds have highlighted the influence of the early postnatal and prenatal environment on trait impulsivity.
Overall, this work will allow us to further develop detailed, multifaceted models that can explain impulsivity and control across time and space. Ultimately, our cross-species approach will also contribute to a better understanding of the causes of individual differences in impulsivity and the many behavioural problems associated with impulse control deficits.
