Familial transmission of Continuous Performance Test behavior: attentional and impulsive response characteristics

Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs) provide information on attentional processing and impulsive behavior. The results of previous research that used self-report measures have provided evidence for familial transmission (through genetic and/or environmental influences) of impulsive characteristics. The authors of the present study examined whether the impulsive behavioral parameters that are measured by the CPT also share familial relationships. The researchers asked 26 healthy parent-adolescent pairs to complete the Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks (IMT/DMT; D. M. Dougherty, 1999; D. M. Dougherty, D. M. Marsh, & C. W. Mathias, 2002), a modified CPT (B. A. Cornblatt, N. J. Risch, G. Faris, D. Friedman, & L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling, 1988; H. E. Rosvold, A. Mirsky, I. Sarason, E. D. Breansome, Jr., & L. H. Beck, 1956), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS; J. H. Patton, M. S. Stanford, & E. S. Barratt, 1995), a self-report measure. The main findings can be summarized as follows: (a) commission errors (but not correct detections) on the IMT and DMT were correlated between parents and their adolescent children, (b) adolescents emitted a higher proportion of commission errors than did their parents, and (c) self-reported impulsivity (i.e., BIS) was correlated with commission errors for parents, but not for adolescents. The findings of this study support the use of an objective behavioral measure of impulsivity to assess familial relationships of impulsivity.     

Evaluation of behavioral measures of risk taking propensity with inner city adolescents

The current study examined the utility of behavioral measures of risk-taking propensity in the assessment of self-reported real-world risk-taking behaviors using a sample of 51 high-school-aged inner-city adolescents. Results indicated that performance on one behavioral measure, the balloon analogue risk task, accounted for unique variance in self-reported delinquency/safety risk behaviors as well as substance use risk behaviors, above and beyond that provided with demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs (i.e., impulsivity and sensation seeking). These results are discussed in relation to the potential utility of using a multimethod assessment approach for better understanding risk-taking vulnerability among adolescents.     

Immediate and delayed memory tasks: A computerized behavioral measure of memory, attention, and impulsivity

The Immediate and Delayed Memory Task (IMT/DMT), a variant of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), is a new software package designed to be a flexible research tool for the study of attention, memory, and impulsivity. This package allows researchers to determine the design to be used during a testing session and to manipulate many of the parameters. It features two components: the IMT and the DMT, both of which present sequential 2- to 7-digit stimuli with variable presentation rates and intertrial intervals. Subjects respond to identically matched stimuli presented consecutively, spanning a brief period of time (IMT), or to stimuli spanning a greater period of time (during which intervening stimuli to be ignored appear; DMT). Task complexity can be adjusted to suit applications for both children and adults. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that these laboratory tasks are sensitive to group differences, produce stable baselines of performance, and are sensitive to drug-induced performance decrements.     

Lifetime history of cigarette smoking associated with aggression and impulsivity in both healthy and personality disordered volunteers

Cigarette smoking has been associated with several personality and behavioral traits including impulsivity and aggression, primarily in adolescents and/or pregnant women. In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that history of cigarette smoking is also associated with dimensional measures of aggression and impulsivity in adult subjects. Subjects were 179 personality disordered (PD), and healthy volunteer control (HV), subjects in whom history of cigarette smoking and measures of both aggression and impulsivity were collected. Scores on measures of both aggression and impulsivity were elevated as a function of personality disorder status and history of cigarette smoking status; no interaction between these two factors were noted on these measures. Including socio-economic status and global psychosocial functioning in the model eliminated the difference associated with diagnostic grouping and impulsivity but not the difference in aggression associated with lifetime history of smoking. These data suggest that lifetime history of cigarette smoking is associated with elevations in life history of aggression regardless of the presence of psychiatric disorder in nontreatment seeking individuals.     

Rorschach measures of aggressive drive derivatives: a college student sample

This study investigated measures of aggressive drive derivatives on the Rorschach and Personality Assessment Inventory with 70 college students. As predicted, (a) self-reported physical aggression potential was related to Rorschach measures of identification with the aggressor and aggressive impulses, (b) suicidal ideation with impulsivity was related to a Rorschach measure of aggressive impulses turned toward the self, and (c) the borderline features scale was related to a Rorschach pathological object relations measure. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a Rorschach measure of emotional impulsivity added unique variance to these Rorschach aggression variables in predicting self-reported physical aggression potential, suicidal ideation with impulsivity, and borderline features. Finally, caution is advised in applying our findings when there is motivation to suppress aggressive responses     

Polydrug use trajectories and differences in impulsivity among adolescentsTrayectorias de policonsumo y diferencias en impulsividad entre adolescentes

Background/Objective: Although alcohol, tobacco and cannabis are the most widely consumed drugs, sparse data exist regarding polydrug use in adolescents and its relationship with impulsivity. This study aims to identify trajectories of polydrug use and analyze differences in impulsivity between them. Method: A total of 1,565 adolescents (54.4% males; mean age = 13.02, SD = 0.57) were annually assessed over three years using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Zuckerman Impulsive Sensation Seeking Scale, a Stroop Test and a Delay Discounting Task. Frequency of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use, intoxication episodes and problem drinking were also assessed. Polydrug trajectories were identified using latent class mixed modelling. To examine differences in self-reported and behavioral impulsivity two mixed multivariate analyses of covariance were used. Results: Three trajectories of substance use were found. The ‘Experimental use’ and the ‘Early use’ trajectories presented the lowest and highest impulsivity, respectively. Substance use increases in the ‘Telescoped used’ trajectory were associated with parallel increases in impulsivity. Conclusions: individuals with divergent patterns of substance use during adolescence differ in their impulsiveness, primarily in general impulsivity and sensation seeking. Present findings suggest the relevance of these facets as possible targets for interventions preventing the onset and escalation of substance use.     

Developmental and Sex Differences in Types of Conduct Problems

Maternal report of types of conduct problems in a high-risk sample of 228 boys and 80 girls (ages 4–18) were examined, using a version of the Child Behavior Checklist, expanded to include a range of covert and overt antisocial items (stealing, lying, physical aggression, relational aggression, substance use, and impulsivity). Age and sex effects were investigated. Boys were significantly more physically aggressive than girls. There were no sex differences for stealing, lying, relational aggression, and substance use. Lying and substance use increased with age, whereas relational aggression and impulsivity peaked during early adolescence. A small group of girls had pervasive conduct problems across multiple domains. For some domains such as stealing, lying, and relational aggression, girls showed at least as many problems as boys. Girls, in general, tended to have fewer conduct problems. On the other hand, when assessed across multiple domains, conduct problems in high-risk girls were possibly more pervasive than in high-risk boys, suggesting the possibility of a gender paradox.     

Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

The present study (N = 86) sought to evaluate a laboratory-based behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task; BART) and to test associations between this measure and self-report measures of risk-related constructs as well as self-reported real-world risk behaviors. The BART evidenced sound experimental properties, and riskiness on the BART was correlated with scores on measures of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and deficiencies in behavioral constraint. Also, riskiness on the BART was correlated with the self-reported occurrence of addictive, health, and safety risk behaviors, with the task accounting for variance in these behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs. These results indicate that the BART may be a useful tool in the assessment of risk taking.     

Intolerance to delayed reward in girls with multiple suicide attempts

Impulsivity has been conceptualized as influencing the expression of suicidal behavior. Adolescence is a developmental period characterized both by a relatively high rate of suicide attempts and a high level of impulsivity. The current study examined two behavioral measures (delay reward and disinhibition) and one self-report measure of impulsivity among girls with suicide attempt histories. Girls with multiple suicide attempts performed more impulsively on measures of delayed reward, and had higher self-ratings of depression and aggression than girls with either one or no suicide attempts. The multiple attempter girls' preference for immediate gratification may directly increase vulnerability to suicidal acts in the context of distressing states or indirectly increase risk by creating poor life experience over time.     

The displaced aggression questionnaire

Previous measures of aggressive personality have focused on direct aggression (i.e., retaliation toward the provoking agent). An original self-report measure of trait displaced aggression is presented. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a 3-factor conceptualization of the construct. These analyses identified an affective dimension (angry rumination), a cognitive dimension (revenge planning), and a behavioral dimension (general tendency to engage in displaced aggression). The trait measure demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability as well as convergent and discriminant construct validity. Unlike other related personality measures, trait displaced aggression significantly predicted indirect indicators of real-world displaced aggression (i.e., self-reported domestic abuse and road rage) as well as laboratory displaced aggression in 2 experiments.     

Dark triad and impulsivity – an ecological momentary assessment approach

Previous studies have shown that the Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism) are associated with impulsivity. However, prior work has relied exclusively on retrospective assessment via self-report questionnaires or on one-time behavioral measures of impulsive behavior. Therefore, we examined how the Dark Triad traits relate to moment-to-moment impulsivity as people navigate through their natural environment in a given day. For 14 days, 283 non-clinical adult volunteers carried smartphone devices to monitor their daily impulsive behaviors. Participants were randomly prompted five times per day. In addition, the pattern of correspondence between the moment-to-moment impulsivity monitoring and the already established impulsivity assessment methods (retrospective self-report questionnaire, i.e., 48-item Discounting Inventory; behavioral task, i.e., Delay-Discounting task with pairs of hypothetical choices) was tested. Strong correlations were found between psychopathy, narcissism, and self-reported impulsivity. Moreover, those traits showed weaker (but still significant) correlations with both, the one-time behavioral and the momentary monitoring measures of impulsivity. Machiavellianism did not correlate with any type of impulsivity assessment. When testing the association between the self-report, behavioral, and momentary measures of impulsivity, analysis revealed weak to moderate correlations. Reliably, these results support other recent findings suggesting that those three impulsivity tasks probably measure different constructs.

     

Impulsivity in schizophrenia: A comprehensive update

Impulsivity has been repeatedly identified as a major problem in schizophrenia. The literature revealed several ways of defining and conceptualizing impulsivity as well as a variety of measures and an analysis of the consequences of impulsivity. Thus, we review the lack of agreement in the conceptualization and measurement of impulsivity. We also review the latest evidence that impulsivity may have an important role in the etiology of substance use, aggression, violence, and suicide in schizophrenia. In addition, we outline the recent findings in neuroimaging research to elucidating the neurobiological deficits underlying pathological impulsivity in schizophrenia.     

Executive cognitive functioning and aggression: Is it an issue of impulsivity?

A large body of research has documented a relation between the executive cognitive functions (ECFs) and interpersonal aggressive behavior. A predominant theory proposes that individuals with poor ECFs are more aggressive because they are unable to inhibit impulsive behaviors. However, evidence for this relationship is typically indirect. In this study, 46 healthy men and women completed measures of ECF, the Taylor Aggression Paradigm, and the Go/No‐Go discrimination task, a behavioral measure of impulsivity. Also, impulsiveness of participant responses during the aggression task was directly assessed by measuring latency of responses to provocation (“set‐time”). It was hypothesized that low‐quartile–scoring ECF men and women would perform more aggressively and more impulsively than high‐quartile peers. Consistent with expectations, results indicated that ECF was related to aggression and to impulsivity on the Go/No‐Go task. However, low‐ECF men and women did not have shorter set‐times; in fact, on this task, low‐ECF participants' behavioral decisions seemed slightly slower than those of high‐ECF participants. In light of these results, the authors speculate that a social information‐processing problem may mediate the ECF aggression relationship rather than altered impulsivity per se. Aggr. Behav. 29:15–30, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The relationships between functional and dysfunctional impulsivity and aggression across different samples

E. S. Barratt proposed the term impulsive aggression to define a kind of aggression that is characterized by acting without thinking because of high levels of impulsivity. Previous research using psychometric measures has shown that impulsivity and aggression are related as far as psychometric measures are concerned. Nevertheless, most of the research has been done with samples of university students. Our research tests whether this relationship is stable across different samples; university students, teenagers and workers. Our results show that impulsivity and aggression have a consistent pattern of relationships across these samples, with impulsivity being specially related to emotional and instrumental aspects of aggression. Furthermore, the effects of anger on aggression seem to show a pattern of relationship that depends on age, with a tendency to physical aggression in young people and verbal aggression in adults.     

Trait aggression is related to anger-modulated deficits in response inhibition

The goal of the present study was to investigate the role of emotion-modulated response inhibition in individual difference in the disposition towards aggressive behavior (i.e. trait aggression). One hundred and twelve undergraduate participants completed a behavioral measure of emotion modulated response inhibition (an emotional go/no-go task), self-report measures previously shown to predict aggression (Big-5 traits, impulsivity), and the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) as a measure of trait aggression. Results show that deficient inhibition to angry, but not happy, faces were related to trait aggression but not to other traits. These findings provide support for the role of specific top down executive control mechanisms in the regulation of aggressive tendencies and highlight the importance of examining these mechanisms in an emotional context.     

Marital disturbance and child problems: A cautionary note regarding hyperactive children

In previous work, investigators have found a relationship between marital discord and childhood conduct problems (aggression) in clinic samples. Given the wide variability of aggression found among hyperactive children,it would follow from previous work that child aggression may be associated with marital discord in a hyperactive population. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 23 boys (ages 5 to 8) diagnosed as attention deficit with hyperactivity. Aggressive behaviors were tracked by the children's teachers for 12 school days. Parental and teacher ratings of conduct problems were also obtained. Additionally, the auditory version of the laboratory Continuous Performance Test was administered. Marital adjustment, overt hostility, and conflict tactics, as reported by the mothers, were not significantly correlated with any of the measures of aggression or conduct problems. In other words, marital discord in families with a hyperactive boy did not explain differential rates of aggressive behavior despite definite variability in both the marital and child behavioral measures. Marital discord was marginally related to severity of attentional deficit on the Continuous Performance Test. The results underscore the need for caution in attempting to extend findings from a general population (i.e., undifferentiated clinicreferred children) to a specific diagnostic subgroup (i.e., attention-deficit hyperactive children).     

Commission error rates on a continuous performance test are related to deficits measured by the Benton Visual Retention Test

This study is one in a series investigating the relationship between impulsive behavior on a Continuous Performance Test (i.e., the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task) and other cognitive deficits measured by clinical instruments. Forty-two adolescents were selected for two groups, controls and hospitalized patients with disruptive behavior disorders. Each adolescent completed the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task and the Benton Visual Retention Test. Our main findings were that, even when controlling for IQ, the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task commission errors were associated with adverse Benton performance, but only in the patient group. These results may be explained by a shared association between processes of impulsivity and other deficits of executive control that may interfere with successful performance of the Benton.     

Waiting impulsivity: a distinctive feature of ADHD neuropsychology?

Impulsivity is a core feature of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It has been conceptualized in a number of different ways. In the current article, we examine how the new concept of “waiting impulsivity”, which refers to premature responding before a scheduled target appears, adds to our understanding of impulsivity in ADHD. Sixty children (8–12 years old; 30 ADHD; 30 typically developing controls) completed the 4-choice serial reaction time task, a measure of waiting impulsivity, alongside tasks measuring inhibitory control and temporal discounting and questionnaires measuring behavioral disorder symptoms, delay aversion, and various aspects of impulsivity. A multiple logistic regression model was used to explore the contribution of the primary task outcomes to predict group membership. Children with ADHD displayed more waiting impulsivity and less inhibitory control; they did not differ in temporal discounting. There was no correlation between waiting impulsivity and inhibitory control. Waiting impulsivity was correlated with parent-reported ratings of hyperactivity/impulsivity, inattention, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) and with self-reported delay aversion ratings. Only waiting impulsivity was a significant predictor of ADHD status. In conclusion, waiting impulsivity is distinct from inhibitory control deficits and predicts ADHD status independently of it. Future research needs to examine the relationship with delay aversion and ODD/CD more thoroughly.     

Do executive and reactive disinhibition mediate the effects of familial substance use disorders on adolescent externalizing outcomes?

The present study examined the potential mediating roles of executive and reactive disinhibition in predicting conduct problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and substance use among adolescents with and without a family history of substance use disorders. Using data from 247 high-risk adolescents, parents, and grandparents, structural equation modeling indicated that reactive disinhibition, as measured by sensation seeking, mediated the effect of familial drug use disorders on all facets of the adolescent externalizing spectrum. Executive disinhibition, as measured by response disinhibition, spatial short term memory, and "trait" impulsivity, was associated with ADHD symptoms. Moreover, although executive functioning weakness were unrelated to familial substance use disorders, adolescents with familial alcohol use disorders were at risk for "trait" impulsivity marked by a lack of planning. These results illustrate the importance of "unpacking" the broad temperament style of disinhibition and of studying the processes that underlie the commonality among facets of the externalizing spectrum and processes that predict specific externalizing outcomes.     

Nonsuicidal self-injury: relationship to behavioral and self-rating measures of impulsivity and self-aggression

Previous research using self-report measures has shown an association between nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI) and impulsive tendencies. However, self-injurers have not been shown to be different from comparison groups on laboratory tasks putatively assessing impulsive behavior. One explanation for these contradictory findings is that self-report and laboratory measures of impulsive behavior tap into distinct but related constructs. Moreover, performance on laboratory measures of impulsive behavior can be influenced by myriad contextual and affective factors not present during past self-reported NSSI events. Accordingly, a relationship between behavioral tasks of impulsivity and self-injurious behavior could emerge if both are assessed relatively close in time under controlled laboratory conditions. To test this possibility, both self-ratings and laboratory task measures of self-injurious and impulsive behavior were employed in the current study. This multi-modal assessment approach revealed that self-rated impulsivity was associated with both self-report and behavioral measures of self-injurious behavior. Moreover, behavioral measures of impulsivity were associated with self-injurious behavior, but not NSSI history. These results provide support for the notion that a multi-modal approach to assessing self-injurious behavior is important for better understanding the correlates of nonsuicidal self-injury.