Right prefrontal and ventral striatum interactions underlying impulsive choice and impulsive responding

Abstract

Although a multifaceted concept, many forms of impulsivity may originate from interactions between prefrontally-mediated cognitive control mechanisms and limbic, reward or incentive salience approach processes. We describe a novel task that combines reward and control processes to probe this putative interaction. The task involves elements of the monetary incentive delay task (Knutson et al., [2000]: Neuroimage 12:20-27) and the Go/No-Go task (Garavan et al., [1999]: Neuroimage 17:1820-1829) and requires human subjects to make fast responses to targets for financial reward but to occasionally inhibit responding when a NoGo signal rather than a target is presented. In elucidating the dynamic between reward anticipation and control we observed that successful inhibitions on monetary trials, relative to unsuccessful inhibitions, were associated, during the anticipation phase, with increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), decreased activity in the ventral striatum (VS), and altered functional connectivity between the two. Notably, this rIFG area had a small overlap but was largely distinct from an adjacent rIFG region that was active for the subsequent motor response inhibitions. Combined, the results suggest a role for adjacent regions of the rIFG in impulsive choice and in impulsive responding and identify a functional coupling between the rIFG and the VS.

The anticipation and outcome phases of reward and loss processing: A neuroimaging meta‐analysis of the monetary incentive delay task

“…Other studies used data from practice trials to inform reaction times, and used a success rates of 40–80% (Bustamante et al, ; Choi et al, ; Costumero et al, ; Jung et al, ; Kirk et al, ; Weiland et al, ). The remaining studies did not report the task success rate, but reported participants’ were successful on approximately 55‐80% of trials (Behan, Stone, & Garavan, ; Boecker et al, ).…”

Altered Functional Connectivity of the Insula and Nucleus Accumbens in Internet Gaming Disorder: A Resting State fMRI Study

“…Further study demonstrated that the FC of nucleus accumbens, particularly its interaction with the prefrontal lobe, was associated with impulsivity [23] . Both exposures to methylphenidate or alcohol cues could decrease its FC to the frontal lobe [24,25] .…”

“…As the loss of control in online gaming is one essential criterion of IGD [4] , high impulsivity could make subjects yield to the rewarding effect of gaming and contribute to the vulnerability of IGD. Further, the impulsivity has been reported to correlate with FC of the insula and nucleus accumbens [17,23] , particularly to the frontal lobe [15] . Thus, we hypothesized that impulsivity may influence the vulnerability of IGD by impacting its neurobiological underpinnings in FC of the insula and nucleus accumbens.…”

“…According to previous studies, we hypothesized that the FC of the insula over the prefrontal lobe and contralateral insula and that of the nucleus accumbens over the prefrontal lobe and insula were altered among adults with IGD. Further, FCs of these brain regions play essential roles in impulsivity [17,23] , which is one possible mechanism of IGD. Thus, we evaluated the correlation between the FCs of the insula and nucleus accumbens and impulsivity in this study.…”

The Right Superior Frontal Gyrus and Individual Variation in Proactive Control of Impulsive Response

“…We showed that activity to conflict anticipation in the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) Granger caused activity in the posterior pre-SMA, and bilateral anterior insula during go response slowing . Along with other studies, the latter work characterized the neural circuits for proactive control (Jaffard et al, 2008;Jahfari et al, 2010;Grinband et al, 2011;Criaud et al, 2012;Zandbelt et al, 2013;van Belle et al, 2014;Behan et al, 2015). Individuals vary in impulsivity, which may conduce to undesirable consequences (Grant and Chamberlain, 2014;Smith et al, 2014).…”