Associations between trait impulsivity and prepotent response inhibition

Abstract

This study addresses the relationship between trait impulsivity and inhibitory control, two features known to be impaired in a number of psychiatric conditions. While impulsivity is often measured using psychometric self-report questionnaires, the inhibition of inappropriate, impulsive motor responses is typically measured using experimental laboratory tasks. It remains unclear, however, whether psychometrically assessed impulsivity and experimentally operationalized inhibitory performance are related to each other. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between these two traits in a large sample using correlative and latent variable analysis. A total of 504 healthy individuals completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and a battery of four prepotent response inhibition paradigms: the antisaccade, Stroop, stop-signal, and go/no-go tasks. We found significant associations of BIS impulsivity with commission errors on the go/no-go task and directional errors on the antisaccade task, over and above effects of age, gender, and intelligence. Latent variable analysis (a) supported the idea that all four inhibitory measures load on the same underlying construct termed "prepotent response inhibition" and (b) revealed that 12% of variance of the prepotent response inhibition construct could be explained by BIS impulsivity. Overall, the magnitude of associations observed was small, indicating that while a portion of variance in prepotent response inhibition can be explained by psychometric trait impulsivity, the majority of variance remains unexplained. Thus, these findings suggest that prepotent response inhibition paradigms can account for psychometric trait impulsivity only to a limited extent. Implications for studies of patient populations with symptoms of impulsivity are discussed.

Impulsivity and Risk Taking in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

“…Overall, it appears that differences on the two measures between patient groups are owing to the fact that the BIS-11 relies on self-perception, whereas the BART relies on behavioral performance. This is consistent with previous findings that self-reported behavioral styles have low associations with measures of specific behaviors in the laboratory (Aichert et al, 2012).…”

Serotonin Depletion Induces ‘Waiting Impulsivity’ on the Human Four-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task: Cross-Species Translational Significance

“…Interestingly, increased premature responding in TD correlated significantly with individual differences on the motor impulsivity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale. Other studies also pointed to the relationship to some extent between the capacity of inhibition of prepotent response and psychometric impulsivity trait measured by Barratt scale (Aichret et al, 2012).…”

Impulsivity as a vulnerability factor for poor addiction treatment outcomes: A review of neurocognitive findings among individuals with substance use disorders

“…As proximate measures of the neurobiology underlying impulsive behavior, neurocognitive instruments serve as indicators of endophenotypes, which may represent particularly attractive therapeutic targets (Gottesman & Gould, 2003). Although a number of studies suggest some degree of correspondence between self-report and neurocognitive tasks of impulsivity (Christiansen, Cole, Goudie, & Field, 2012), there are more data to suggest that these disparate measures should not be referred to under the same rubric (Aichert et al, 2012;Christiansen et al, 2012;Cyders & Coskunpinar, 2011;Dom, De Wilde, Hulstijn, & Sabbe, 2007;Meda et al, 2009;Reynolds et al, 2006). Indeed, the small magnitude of the observed effect sizes indicates that largely, there is more variability in what is being assessed via self-report and neurocognitive tasks of impulsivity than there is overlapping content domain (Cyders & Coskunpinar, 2011).…”