Executive function, impulsivity, and risky behaviors in young adults.

Abstract

Objective: Among patients with brain damage, executive function deficits and impulsivity correspond with propensity to engage in risky behaviors. Less research has addressed this issue in healthy adults, and fewer still have simultaneously evaluated the importance of executive function and impulsive personality. Additionally, most research has focused exclusively on substance use while ignoring other domains of risky behavior such as sexual activity and antisocial practices. Toward this end, we examined the association of risky behaviors with executive function and self-reported impulsivity. Method: Healthy undergraduates (n = 56) were administered the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and UPPS-P impulsivity questionnaire. A self-report questionnaire assessed risky sexual activities, drug use, and antisocial behaviors over a 2-month interval. Results: After accounting for social desirability and performance effort, multiple regression analyses revealed a robust relationship between executive function and risk-taking. Specifically, WCST performance correlated with risky sexual and substance use behavior, whereas the IGT was uniquely linked with antisocial acts. Trait impulsivity was positively associated with sexual behavior. Conclusions: Extending previous research, executive function accounted for more variance in risky behaviors than self-reported impulsivity, but this was mediated by facet of executive function. Decision-making under risk seemed to better account for antisocial acts, whereas perseveration was more strongly linked to sexual activity and substance misuse. These data imply that poor executive function increases the likelihood that healthy young adults will engage in risky and potentially dangerous acts, extending the ecological validity of the WCST and IGT.

Neonatal spectral EEG is prognostic of cognitive abilities at school age in premature infants without overt brain damage

“…2 Scatterplots of performance to the visual attention task in the total delta, theta, alpha, and beta bands (raw data) increase dramatically. In the life of each person, executive functions have a crucial role in adaptive functioning, with consequent effects on quality of life, and recent research indicated executive dysfunctions as the core problem of some psychiatric conditions [72][73][74][75]. Furthermore, executive deficits are a frequent report after premature birth [76].…”

Driving Behaviors in Iran: Comparison of Impulsivity, Attentional Bias, and Decision-Making Styles in Safe and High-Risk Drivers

“…Also, high-risk behaviors are characterized by dysfunction of attentional processes. Individuals with high-risk behaviors pay attention only to affect-eliciting events (winning and losing); therefore, they are not able to learn from their mistakes ( 59 ). Moreover, decision-making difficulty in individuals with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions is related to blindness to the results and consequences of future actions (more immediate profit and fewer harm).…”

Does living close to a petrochemical complex increase the adverse psychological effects of the COVID-19 lockdown?

“…We believe this is an important characteristic, since impulsivity is an important aspect of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [53][54][55]. We should also bear in mind that poor executive function increases the likelihood that healthy young adults will engage in risky and potentially dangerous acts [56]. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid the fact that the pandemic will be traumatic for children, and a history of childhood trauma in OCD patients has indirect effects on the severity of the OCD and depressive symptoms and is associated with more severe anxiety, higher levels of impulsivity, a higher prevalence of ADHD and lower levels of education [57].…”