Self-control is a key factor of behavior, which can vary depending on the importance of a decision, or when the decisionmaker is asked to make a choice, according to researchers from Arizona State University (ASU), who used neuroimaging to arrive at their conclusion. The researchers plan to use this insight to explore brain function and decision-making in people with neurological disorders.

The study was led by Samuel M. McClure, associate professor of psychology at ASU, and researcher Ian Ballard.

The research paper, “More is Meaningful: The Magnitude Effect in Intertemporal Choice Depends on Self-Control,” was recently published in the journal Psychological Science.

“Self-control is a critical component of behavior,” McClure told The University Network (TUN). “It is also subject to failure, which leads to a wide range of undesirable outcomes. Of course, neuroscientists would love to understand how self-control arises from brain function. This would open the door to understanding how control processes may go awry in diseases such as addiction and ADHD – and would help us understand our own frailties.”

It has long been understood that self-control is managed by the frontal lobe portion of the brain. This is the same portion credited with controlling “executive functions,” such as the ability to set goals, manage time, and pay attention.

Previously, the only way scientists could test executive functions was through behavioral experiments that often required the scientist to instigate an executive function. For example, if a researcher wanted to determine how temperature affects a person’s ability to sleep, the researcher may turn up the temperature in the room, but that method doesn’t take into account that it could be stress, and not the increase in temperature, that keeps that person from falling asleep.

“That’s where neuroimaging comes in,” McClure said in a statement. “Because if you can isolate some set of behaviors that are related to self-control, then you can see which brain areas correspond to those behaviors. Then you don’t have to manipulate behavior, you can just measure it to see how those brain areas are related to self-control processes.”

During the first test in their study, the researchers asked subjects to choose between a small amount of money now or a larger amount later. Researchers noticed that when subjects were offered the money, there was heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain, which is the area associated with self-control. When the researchers introduced the idea of a larger sum of money, the activity was even greater. This demonstrates a concept called the magnitude effect.

In the next experiment, the researchers repeated the first experiment, but asked the subjects to rate their level of hunger. The researchers noticed that those who were hungrier were more likely to take the smaller amount of money, which was immediately available to them.

In the final experiment, the researchers introduced a situation where the subjects won the money in the lottery. Just like before, the subjects could choose to take a small amount immediately, or wait a month for a larger sum. The researchers asked the subjects to write out a justification for their reasoning and found that, in this instance, they were much more patient and preferred to wait for the larger sum.

The researchers seem confident that the results from this study will have implications for neurological health problems, such as ADHD, addiction, and obesity.

“Many health problems are self-control problems,” McClure told TUN. “Obesity and addiction are both associated with higher impulsivity and, equivalently, lower self-control. Impulsivity is also involved in non-compliance in taking prescription drugs, ADHD, and risk-taking in adolescence. In all of these cases, the hope is that gaining a better understanding of how self-control manifests in the brain will improve our understanding and ability to intervene in the health problem. These are still early days, but addressing health is certainly the aim of our work.”

Scientists wish to change the way people’s environment shapes their choices. Early examples of this are the FDA’s new rule requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations to display calorie count, and cities’ efforts to create more bike lanes to encourage physical activity.

McClure and Ballard also believe that this study could change the way people look at information.

“If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s kind of disappointing when you only lose half a pound in two weeks,” Ballard said in a statement. “But if you set a goal to lose 500 grams a week, you feel more accomplished.”

The researchers recently received funding to use the same neuroimaging technique to conduct research on ADHD. The team intends to eventually introduce interventions to help minimize the disease’s severity.

This research is promising but far from complete. McClure and Ballard are eager to further the study to help expand the understanding and implications of neurological disorders.

“Neuroscience is still a very young science, and theories are still incomplete,” McClure told TUN. “We have a basic understanding for how self-control works in terms of brain function, but there is still a lot to discover. My hope is that, as we put the puzzle together, then our understanding of human behavior – and disease – will also evolve.”