Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Impulsivity is a type of risky behavior or tendency of carrying out such behavior without sufficient consideration of its consequences. It could be represented by impulsive behavior-related personality traits and also delaying discounting or proponent response inhibition. A large number of researches have indicated that the impulsive behavior is implicated in the stages of initiation, maintenance, and relapse of drug-seeking behaviors that are involved in drug addiction. However, how impulsivity influence and facilitate the process of drug addiction is yet to be clarified. Analyzing the impulsivity of the different stages of addiction may lead to further understanding. At the beginning stage of drug use, impulsive personality trait plays a role of motivation to facilitate the drug use behavior. Then continuous operant condition learning leads drug users to enter the goal-oriented stage and presents impulsive selection tendency. At the third stage, classical conditional learning promotes the matching of related cues and drug effects, forming a conditioned reflex. Addicts enter the stage of habitual drug use and show stop impulsivity.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Impulsivity is referred as a predisposition to act rashly on one’s first thoughts, which is usually characterized by little forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences of an action. According to the dual-process framework, components of impulsivity can be classified into affective impulsivity and action/cognitive impulsivity which then integrate into what is called a drive - control construct. These two types of impulsivities are dominated by the socioemotional system (driving force) and the cognitive control system (controlling force) respectively. The dual-process theories offer a novel explanation for the underlying mechanisms of impulsivity, and Mindfulness practices is a type of method that can effectively regulate impulsivity and be well explained by this theory framework. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) emphasize the intentional awareness of individual’s physical and mental experience with a non-judgmental attitude. MBIs comprise both traditional contemplative practices from a few religions and the contemporary mindfulness approaches that form some cognitive-oriented psychotherapies. In recent years, clinical practitioners have proposed and developed a number of MBIs targeting impulsive individuals’ problematical behaviors. Researches into the effectiveness of these MBIs show significant outcomes among different populations, including attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, substance abusers, adolescents with behavioral problems, and obese people with eating disorder. From the dual-processing approach, the positive impact of MBIs on impulsivity has two reasons: one is that MBIs can mitigate the action/cognitive impulsivity triggered by the cognitive control system, and the other is that MBIs can lower the affective impulsivity caused by the socioemotional system. More specifically, MBIs attempts to train individuals to be fully "exposed" to their immediate self-experience with positive attitudes, so as to reduce their reward expectation whilst improving the responsiveness to natural reward, and then realizing the adjustment and reshaping of their reward effects. Meanwhile, MBIs can enhance individual’s ability of “decentering” the feeling of stress and negative affect, thus reducing the perception of distress feeling and providing a necessary buffer to avoid impulsive behaviors. More essentially, MBIs-trained individuals are more sensitive to their own introspection and habitual responses, which helps to weaken the automatic driving force in impulsive behaviors. In addition, MBIs strengthen individuals’ cognitive control and inhibitory control, leading to decreases in the relevant impulsive performance in waiting impulsivity and action impulsivity. Due to differences in processing time and varied directionality between factors driving and controlling impulsivity, MBIs expand the buffer zone between receiving and responding to stimuli, with repeated practice focused on attention and positive attitudes including acceptance and non-response. MBIs not only weaken the motivation of driving factors, but also promotes the effective implementation and participation of controlling factors, thus reducing the confrontation between these two types of components and the interaction of these two factors could then make individual's underlying dynamic system more balanced. To sum up, supported by the dual-processing model and empirical evidence, MBIs can be considered as an effective intervention approach to reduce individual impulsivity.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： There are different theoretical views in the embodied cognition camp, and there is sometimes even conflict among them. Enactive cognition is a new version of recently developed embodied cognition approaches. It claims that the explanation of human cognitive processes across the board should not make any appeal to internal representational or computational states. According to the traditional computation-representation theory of mind, cognitive processes are mechanistically realized in computational processes of building, storing and manipulating detached and abstract internal representations. This cognitivist paradigm has dominated mainstream cognitive psychology for decades. The key assumptions that characterize this representation- centered theory of mind are including that cognition might be understood as computation over mental representations, and that models of cognition should take into account only the inner states of a cognitive individual. But recently this framework has been challenged and criticized. Out of this challenge and criticism emerged the beginnings to an enactive cognition paradigm. The enactive approach to cognitive science proposed a new set of theoretical assumptions for understanding what cognition is and how it works that aims to break the tight conceptual connection between cognition and representation. It takes as its starting point that cognition must not be understood as a capacity for getting an internal representation of a corresponding external reality, which in turn would provide a foundation for supporting thinking, learning, and problem solving. Instead, cognitive processes are deeply entangled in action. Cognition is thus best understood as “enactive”; that is, as a form of practice itself. From the point view of enactive cognition, cognition comes from bodily action and serves bodily action, that is, cognition is embodied action. The key postulate of enactive Cognition is action-related and action-oriented, with the capacity to generate environmental structure by action. Cognition is thus best understood as “enactive”; that is, as embedded action it comes from bodily action and serves bodily action. At the same time, advocates of enactivism state that despite the emphasis on the function of the organism’s action of the mind, the model cannot be equated with behaviorism; action, in contrast to behavior, is purposeful and has a cognitive component. Key aspects of enactive cognition are: (1) perception consists in perceptually guided action and (2) cognitive structures emerge from the recurrent sensorimotor patterns that allow action to be perceptually guided. There are three enactive theories in cognitive science. Autopoietic enactivism emphasizes the deep continuity between life and mind; sensorimotor enactivism focuses on analyzing perceptual consciousness in terms of sensorimotor contingency, and radical enactivism focuses on rejecting representationalism in favour of explanatory strategies that emphasize patterns of embodied interaction. These perspectives on enactive cognition are more informed by phenomenology and pragmatism than were earlier versions of embodied cognition. Therefore, we can say that phenomenology and pragmatism constitute the theoretical origin of enactive cognition. The enactive cognition view is not only theoretically viable, but also supported by substantial experimental evidence demonstrating that cognitive processes can be reinterpreted using this new conceptual framework. The theoretical premises of enactive cognition open up new prospects for improving theoretical research and the practical application of cognitive science in the future.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Impulsivity is a typical characteristic of drug addiction. In addition to the problems of inhibition and executive control, the driving force from multiple dimensions is also an important reason for impulsive drug use. The psychological drive stems from a variety of sources, including reward effect, S-R related cue response through conditioning. Low levels of inhibition are insufficient to resist the effects of the drive. This leads to an unbalanced state, which results in habitual behavior tendency. Impulsivity has both a behavioral and neural basis. Although impulsivity may be a precursor of drug use, long-term use may also damage brain structures and functions related to the inhibition of impulsive behavior. There is an open question about whether these structures and functions recover after withdrawal. In this research we used multiple imaging methods to study the extent of recovery in heroin addicts who had been abstinent for several years on average. Thirty-five abstinent heroin addicts (26 males; average period of abstinence = 43.55 months) and 26 healthy controls (26 males) were recruited using advertisements in the community. The heroin group and the healthy control group were compared on multiple measures of brain structure and function related to inhibition using the imaging methods of voxel-based morphometry (VBM), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Based on the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), right inferior frontal gyrus (15, 60, -6) was selected as the region of interest in which to study functional connectivity (FC). Heroin addicts showed damage in inhibition-related brain structures and functions an average of 44 months after withdrawal, and the extent of damage was correlated with lifetime dose. (1) Compared to the healthy control group, the heroin group had significantly (a) lower gray matter volume (p = 0.03) and lower whole-brain volume (p = 0.05); (b) lower gray matter in the right superior frontal gyrus (pAlphaSim < 0.01); (c) higher regional homogeneity in right posterior central gyrus and lower regional homogeneity in right middle frontal gyrus of the orbitofrontal cortex (pAlphaSim < 0.01); (d) lower amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation in right inferior frontal gyrus of the orbitofrontal cortex and left hippocampus (pAlphaSim < 0.01); (e) higher functional connectivity between right inferior frontal gyrus of the orbitofrontal cortex and the right caudate, and lower functional connectivity between the right inferior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus as well left precentral gyrus (pAlphaSim < 0.01). (2) Within the heroin group, higher lifetime dose of heroin was significantly associated with lower gray matter volume in the right middle temporal gyrus and left middle cingulate (pAlphaSim < 0.01). The results showed that compared to healthy controls, heroin addicts had significant damage in brain structure and functions related to impulsivity even after an average period of 44 months of abstinence. In addition, the extent of damage was correlated with the lifetime dose of heroin. These results suggest that heroin addicts could continue to show impulsive behavior even after several years of abstinence, perhaps explaining the high rate of relapse in this population. Future research could test this conclusion by examining correlations between brain damage in areas related to inhibition and behavioral measures of impulsivity after a period of abstinence. The current evidence underscores the need to take impulsivity into account in relapse prevention programs for heroin addicts.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Under relevant cues, people who are addicted tend to use drugs with little attention, purpose or cognitive effort, conforming to an automated “habitual” response behavior. When the substance is not available, this habitual response behavior will be transformed into psychological craving. A common goal of addiction treatment is to reduce cue-induced reactivity that has automatic and unconscious features. Based on previous research, this study used a self-report questionnaire, two behavioral experiments, and measures of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore the characteristics and neural mechanisms of cue-induced reactivity in heroin addicts under drug-related cues. On this basis, a training program using Virtual Reality (VR) technology and an Approach-Avoidance task (AAT) was designed to weaken the association between drug-related cues and automatic drug use behavior. In Study 1, the participants (N= 38) were men who were addicted to heroin (n=19) and a matched sample of healthy controls (n = 19). The Visual Analog Craving Scale (VAS) was used to investigate cue-induced reactivity by self-report. We then assessed ERPs to explore the nature and neural mechanism of cue-induced reactivity. We hypothesized that compared to the healthy controls, the participants who were addicted to heroin would show more cue-induced reactivity in the form of automatic response outside of awareness. Corroborating our hypotheses in Study 1, we proceeded to Study 2. N= 60 men who were addicted to heroin were equally divided into a treatment group (n= 30) and a no-treatment group (n= 30). The treatment was VR-AAT training for 10 sessions over the course of two months, with the goal of reducing or eliminating cue-induced reactivity. Before and after the treatment, VR-AAT and the Craving Automatized Scale-Substances (CAS-S) questionnaire were used to test the difference between the two groups. The results showed that 1) In between-group comparisons, VAS scores were higher in the addicts than in the control group. And in Study 2, the within-group analyses showed that self-reports of drug use behavior being “unconscious” and “involuntary” were significantly correlated with the duration of addiction. 2) In within-group analyses, N1 amplitude was smaller, latency was shorter, and reaction time was longer in response to drug-related cues versus neutral cues. Other between-group analyses of the ERP data, addicts demonstrated smaller N1 amplitude and longer reaction time in response to drug-related cues compared to the healthy controls, and these differences were concentrated in the central regions of the brain (i.e., the parietal lobe). 3) After the VR-AAT training, the physiological index (based on temperature, diastolic pressure and systolic pressure) decreased significantly, and the coefficient of approach bias of AAT [(Avoid behavior RTs drug-related- Approach behavior RTs drug-related) - (Avoid behavior RTs neutral- Approach behavior RTs neutral)] was significantly smaller than before training. The results were the same at a two-month follow-up. Our findings revealed that cue-induced reactivity showed characteristics of being automatic and unconscious, with greater N1 reactivity in sensorimotor and related brain areas. The VR-AAT training was effective in reducing cue-induced reactions among men addicted to heroin, suggesting that this method has potential applied value in treating heroin addiction and in designing relapse prevention programs. This research contributes to the addiction literature in two ways. First, AAT training has been used in the treatment of alcohol addiction, but not for other forms of addiction. This is the first research to use AAT training to treat heroin addiction. Second, the treatment in the current study is the first one to combine AAT with virtual reality technology. The VR-AAT method might also be a feasible approach for other substance abuse treatments, although more experimental evidence would be needed to support this. One limitation of this study was that the basis of automatic drug use behavior and automatic refusing drug use behavior cannot be distinguished. This issue can be investigated in future research.
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2022-08-24
Abstract：
Mindfulness can be defined as the intentional awareness of individual’s physical and mental experiences with a non-judgmental attitude. From the perspective of dual-process theories, Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) show observable effects on the different components of impulsivity. On the one hand, MBIs help to diminish the driving forces caused by the socioemotional system: by reducing individual reward evaluation and expectation, alleviating the distress and negative emotion, and weakening the connection and intensity of automatic responses. On the other hand, MBIs enhance the controlling force of impulsivity and mitigate the action/cognitive impulsivity regulated by the cognitive control system: by enhancing individual's capabilities of cognitive control and inhibitory control, and diminishing waiting impulsivity. Due to different processing sequence and intensity of the two components of impulsivity, MBIs facilitate the positive interactions between the two components, minimize the imbalance between the driving forces and the controlling force, providing a favorable buffer for individuals to better respond to their own and external stimuli. In sum, MBIs are effective intervention means to reduce individual’s impulsivity.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2022-04-13
Abstract：
Under relevant cues, people who are addicted tend to use drugs with little attention, purpose or cognitive effort, conforming to an automated "habitual" response behavior. When the substance is not available, this habitual response behavior will be transformed into psychological craving.
A common goal of addiction treatment is to reduce cue-induced reactivity that has automatic and unconscious features. Based on previous research, this study used a self-report questionnaire, two behavioral experiments, and measures of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore the characteristics and neural mechanisms of cue-induced reactivity in heroin addicts under drug-related cues. On this basis, a training program using Virtual Reality (VR) technology and an Approach-Avoidance task (AAT) was designed to weaken the association between drug-related cues and automatic drug use behavior.
In Study 1, the participants (N = 38) were men who were addicted to heroin (n =19) and a matched sample of healthy controls (n = 19). The Visual Analog Craving Scale (VAS) was used to investigate cue-induced reactivity by self-report. We then assessed ERPs to explore the nature and neural mechanism of cue-induced reactivity. We hypothesized that compared to the healthy controls, the participants who were addicted to heroin would show more cue-induced reactivity in the form of automatic response outside of awareness.
Corroborating our hypotheses in Study 1, we proceeded to Study 2. N = 60 men who were addicted to heroin were equally divided into a treatment group (n = 30) and a no-treatment group (n = 30). The treatment was VR-AAT training for 10 sessions over the course of two months, with the goal of reducing or eliminating cue-induced reactivity. Before and after the treatment, VR-AAT and the Craving Automatized Scale-Substances (CAS-S) questionnaire were used to test the difference between the two groups.
The results showed that 1) In between-group comparisons, VAS scores were higher in the addicts than in the control group. And in Study 2, the within-group analyses showed that self-reports of drug use behavior being "unconscious" and "involuntary" were significantly correlated with the duration of addiction. 2) In within-group analyses, N1 amplitude was smaller, latency was shorter, and reaction time was longer in response to drug-related cues versus neutral cues. Other between-group analyses of the ERP data, addicts demonstrated smaller N1 amplitude and longer reaction time in response to drug-related cues compared to the healthy controls, and these differences were concentrated in the central regions of the brain (i.e., the parietal lobe). 3) After the VR-AAT training, the physiological index (based on temperature, diastolic pressure and systolic pressure) decreased significantly, and the coefficient of approach bias of AAT [(Avoid behavior RTs drug-related -Approach behavior RTs drug-related) - (Avoid behavior RTs neutral - Approach behavior RTs neutral)] was significantly smaller than before training. The results were the same at a two-month follow-up.
Our findings revealed that cue-induced reactivity showed characteristics of being automatic and unconscious, with greater N1 reactivity in sensorimotor and related brain areas. The VR-AAT training was effective in reducing cue-induced reactions among men addicted to heroin, suggesting that this method has potential applied value in treating heroin addiction and in designing relapse prevention programs. This research contributes to the addiction literature in two ways. First, AAT training has been used in the treatment of alcohol addiction, but not for other forms of addiction. This is the first research to use AAT training to treat heroin addiction. Second, the treatment in the current study is the first one to combine AAT with virtual reality technology. The VR-AAT method might also be a feasible approach for other substance abuse treatments, although more experimental evidence would be needed to support this. One limitation of this study was that the basis of automatic drug use behavior and automatic refusing drug use behavior cannot be distinguished. This issue can be investigated in future research.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2021-11-19
Abstract： " Substance addicts show significant impulsivity, which manifests as substance abuse and difficulty in withdrawing. In addition to the problems of inhibition and executive control, driving force from multiple psychological dimensions is also an important reason for impulsive substance use. This drive stems from a variety of sources, including reward effect, S-R related cue response through conditioning and sensation-seeking personality trait. Low levels of inhibition are insufficient to resist the effects of the drive. Consequently, this unbalanced state will lead to a habitual tendency in behaviour or compulsion to use substances under addicts’ craving. These two types of behavior are the manifestation of addictive impulsivity. "
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2021-03-26
Abstract： "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Physiological Psychology submitted time 2019-11-08
Abstract： Persons who are addicted are known to show cue-induced responses (such as psychological craving) to drug-related cues. Previous research showed that both tool-related (e.g., syringe) and action-related (e.g., use of the syringe) drug cues can elicit craving. However, whether the two types of drug related cues can elicit the same brain reactivity and similar degree of disinhibition is still unclear, especially because of the scarcity of ERP studies on this topic. Using a behavioral task and the ERP technique, the present study investigated the behavior reactivity and EEG characteristics shown by men addicted to heroin and healthy controls in response to tool-related and action-related drug cues. Participants were 36 men, 19 of whom were addicted to heroin and 17 of whom were healthy non-drug users, matched on age and years of education. Participants engaged in the two-choice Oddball task, which included two conditions: A. the tool condition, with a picture of a “cup” serving as the standard stimulus and pictures of drug-use tools serving as deviant stimuli; B. the action condition, with a picture of “drinking water” serving as the standard stimulus and pictures of drug-use actions serving as deviant stimuli. In this experiment, the probabilities of standard stimuli and deviant stimuli were 70% and 30%. Participants were asked to press different keys on the keyboard in response to standard stimuli and deviant stimuli as rapidly and accurately as possible. Behavioral results indicated that in men who were addicted to heroin, greater disinhibition was seen in a longer reaction time in response to action cues than tool cues. Between-group analyses of the ERP data showed that compared to the healthy controls, men who were addicted to heroin demonstrated a smaller N2 and larger P3 amplitude in response to drug related cues. Moreover, action cues elicited a smaller N2 amplitude in the heroin addicted group than the control group, especially in the frontal, central and central-parietal areas of the brain, and a larger P3 amplitude, especially in the central and parietal areas of the brain. Within-group analyses in just the heroin addicted group showed that the N2 was smaller in response to action cues versus tool cues. Meanwhile, the action cues elicited a larger amplitude of P3 than the tool cues, especially in the central, central-parietal and parietal regions of the brain. These findings provide behavioral and ERP evidence for the hypothesis that different types of drug-related cues produce different cue-induced reactivity. More specifically, drug use action stimuli, which appear to trigger greater disinhibition and greater ERP reactivity in the brain areas associated with motor resonance, should be considered in the treatment of addiction and in relapse prevention.
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