Lenticular nucleus correlates of general self-efficacy in young adults

Abstract

General self-efficacy (GSE) is an important factor in education, social participation, and medical treatment. However, the only study that has investigated the direct association between GSE and a neural correlate did not identify specific brain regions, rather only assessed brain structures, and included older adult subjects. GSE is related to motivation, physical activity, learning, the willingness to initiate behaviour and expend effort, and adjustment. Thus, it was hypothesized in the present study that the neural correlates of GSE might be related to changes in the basal ganglia, which is a region related to the abovementioned self-efficacy factors. This study aimed to identify the brain structures associated with GSE in healthy young adults (n = 1204, 691 males and 513 females, age 20.7 ± 1.8 years) using regional grey matter density and volume (rGMD and rGMV), fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) analyses of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. The findings showed that scores on the GSE Scale (GSES) were associated with a lower MD value in regions from the right putamen to the globus pallidum; however, there were no significant association between GSES scores and regional brain structures using the other analyses (rGMD, rGMV, and FA). Thus, the present findings indicated that the lenticular nucleus is a neural correlate of GSE.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00429-017-1406-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Leveraging Factors of Self-Efficacy and Motivation to Optimize Stroke Recovery

“…Collectively, these findings substantiate the contributions of the putamen in both motor learning and self-efficacy processes. The findings by Nakagawa et al ( 91 ) also align with work illustrating contributions from the globus pallidus in the development and control of learning in humans ( 96 ). The corticostriatal loop connects cortical motor planning regions with subcortical structures, including the thalamus, putamen, and globus pallidus to efficiently execute and control motor behavior ( 97 ).…”

“…Most studies in existence predominantly involve young adults with no significant neurological history. One of the largest studies to date conducted by Nakagawa et al ( 91 ) involved 1,204 young adults ( 91 ). Using a combination of MRI and DTI measures, the investigators determined that higher general self-efficacy scores related to lower mean diffusivity (higher neuronal density) from the lenticular nucleus (putamen and globus pallidus).…”

Putamen volume predicts real‐time fMRI neurofeedback learning success across paradigms and neurofeedback target regions

“…Findings in the current study linked individual brain structural variations in the basal ganglia with neurofeedback learning. Of interest, in a healthy sample self‐efficacy scores were associated with lower mean diffusivity values in the right putamen (Nakagawa et al, 2017), a measurement that has been closely linked to the dopaminergic system which plays a central role in feedback‐guided learning processes (Takeuchi & Kawashima, 2018). Together with the current findings these previous studies suggest that future studies may explore associations between other brain structural indices, self‐efficacy and neurofeedback learning success in healthy individuals and patient populations.…”

Mean diffusivity related to rule-breaking guilt: the Macbeth effect in the sensorimotor regions

“…Finally, as we have previously noted 47,48 , there are a few limitations to the present study that should be mentioned. Because the present study used a cross-sectional design, the results presented here cannot be used to determine causality between RBS scores and various, associated brain regions.…”

“…Next, tissues that were least likely to be grey or white matter were manually removed and the images were smoothed by convolving them using an isotropic Gaussian kernel of 8-mm FWHM. For additional details, please refer to our previous work 47,48 .…”