The anxiety‐specific hippocampus–prefrontal cortex pathways links to procrastination through self‐control

Abstract

Procrastination, which is defined as delaying an intended course of action despite negative outcomes, is demonstrated to have a deal with negative emotion including trait anxiety. Although highly anxious individuals showed impoverished control ability, no studies have indicated the role of self‐control in the relationship between trait anxiety and procrastination, and its neural correlates. To this end, we used the sliding window method to calculate the temporal deviation of dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in 312 healthy participants who underwent the resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. In line with our hypothesis, higher trait anxiety is linked to more procrastination via poorer self‐control. Besides, the dynamic FC analyses showed that trait anxiety was positively correlated with dynamic FC variability in hippocampus–prefrontal cortex (HPC–PFC) pathways, including left rostral hippocampus–left superior frontal gyrus (left rHPC–left SFG), and left rHPC–right middle frontal gyrus (left rHPC–‐MFG). Furthermore, the structural equation modeling (SEM) uncovered a mediated role of self‐control in the association between the anxiety‐specific brain connectivity and procrastination. These findings suggest that the HPC–PFC pathways may reflect impoverished regulatory ability over the negative thoughts for anxious individuals, and thereby incurs more procrastination, which enhances our understanding of how trait anxiety links to procrastination.

Neuro-psicopatología y procrastinación.

“…La ansiedad como rasgo de la personalidad se relaciona con mayor procrastinación, al mostrar la persona peor autocontrol cognitivo. (11) Los trastornos citados en el párrafo precedente conllevan patrones de acción o de no-acción específicos y diferentes, además de la persistente mala gestión del tiempo, común para todos. En los cuadros mentales sintomáticos que sean tipificados apropiadamente como patológicos procrastinar tenderá a convertirse en un modo estable del comportamiento.…”

“…Se ha desarrollado alguno que podría ser válido y fiable para aplicarlo en población de habla hispana (41) . Procrastinar el dormir se ha relacionado con tener sueño insuficiente (42) , y con rasgos caracteriales ansiosos que podrían generar algún déficit en el autocontrol cognitivo (11) . También, con el uso excesivo de ciertas tecnologías sociales, o en relación a su contenido y contexto.…”

Resveratrol attenuates chronic social isolation stress‐induced affective disorders: Involvement of NF‐κB/NLRP3 axis

“…Anxiety and depression are associated with structural and functional changes in the corticolimbic systems such as the HC and prefrontal cortex (PFC), in rodents and humans. [ 50,51 ] Interestingly, reductions in the HC and PFC volumes have been reported in several studies. [ 52–54 ] Decreased HC and PFC volume may be associated with decreased neuroplasticity and neurogenesis and increased glial and neuronal atrophy and dysfunction in depression.…”

The relationship between teacher support and positive emotions in Chinese higher vocational students: multiple mediating effects of procrastination behavior and interpersonal assistance

“…Procrastination behavior may mediate the relationship between teacher support and positive emotions. Steel (2007) suggests that procrastination is generally the behavior of an individual in delaying or avoiding a scheduled action or task despite the expected negative consequences, and it is a failure of self-regulation on the part of the actor ( Mohammadi Bytamar et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ). Procrastination is common in the population, with approximately 15–20% of the general population having problems with procrastination ( Harriott and Ferrari, 1996 ).…”