Is ADHD a disinhibitory disorder?

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is widely theorized to stem from dysfunctional inhibitory processes. However, the definition of inhibition is imprecisely distinguished across theories. To clarify the evidence for this conception, the author relies on a heuristic distinction between inhibition that is under executive control and inhibition that is under motivational control (anxiety or fear). It is argued that ADHD is unlikely to be due to a motivational inhibitory control deficit, although suggestions are made for additional studies that could overturn that conclusion. Evidence for a deficit in an executive motor inhibition process for the ADHD combined type is more compelling but is not equally strong for all forms of executive inhibitory control. Remaining issues include specificity to ADHD, whether inhibitory problems are primary or secondary in causing ADHD, role of comorbid anxiety and conduct disorder, and functional deficits in the inattentive ADHD subtype. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament

Self-organization can be approached in terms of developmental processes occurring within and between component systems of temperament. Within-system organization involves progressive shaping of cortical representations by subcortical motivational systems. As cortical representations develop, they feed back to provide motivational systems with enhanced detection and guidance capabilities. These reciprocal influences may amplify the underlying motivational functions and promote excessive impulsivity or anxiety. However, these processes also depend upon interactions arising between motivational and attentional systems. We discuss these between-system effects by considering the regulation of approach motivation by reactive attentional processes related to fear and by more voluntary processes related to effortful control. It is suggested than anxious and impulsive psychopathology may reflect limitations in these dual means of control, which can take the form of overregulation as well as underregulation.     

Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes.

This article reviews how a temperament approach emphasizing biological and developmental processes can integrate constructs from subdisciplines of psychology to further the study of personality. Basic measurement strategies and findings in the investigation of temperament in infancy and childhood are reviewed. These include linkage of temperament dimensions with basic affective–motivational and attentional systems, including positive affect/approach, fear, frustration/anger, and effortful control. Contributions of biological models that may support these processes are then reviewed. Research indicating how a temperament approach can lead researchers of social and personality development to investigate important person–environment interactions is also discussed. Lastly, adult research suggesting links between temperament dispositions and the Big Five personality factors is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational influences on response inhibition measures.

Psychological research has placed great emphasis on inhibitory control due to its integral role in normal cognition and clinical disorders. The stop-signal task and associated measure—stop-signal reaction time (SSRT)—provides a well-established paradigm for measuring response inhibition. However, motivational influences on stop-signal performance and SSRT have not been examined. We conceptualize the stop-signal paradigm as a decision-making task involving the trade-off between fast responding and accurate inhibition. In 4 experiments, we demonstrate that performance trade-offs are influenced by inherent motivational biases and explicit strategic control. As a result, SSRT was lower when participants favored correct stopping over fast responding than when the same participants favored fast responding over correct stopping. We present a novel variant of the stop-signal task that uses monetary incentives to manipulate motivated speed-accuracy trade-offs. By sampling performance at multiple-trade-off settings, we obtain a measure of inhibitory ability that is independent of trade-off bias, and thus, more easily interpretable when comparing across participants. We present a working theoretical model to explain the effects of motivational context on response inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament and dyadic contributions to affect regulation: Implications from developmental research for clinical practice.

The temperamental trait of inhibition offers a setting to examine the characteristics of the interplay between intraindividual factors and contextual influences. This article drew from both the developmental psychoanalytic model on mutual regulation of affect and developmental research on temperament to portray the mechanisms and consequences of the dynamic processes of change, in which both the individual and the environment are constantly changing. The portrait presents a unique case of a very inhibited girl at age 3, who gradually shifts from a frozen, fearful stance into a spontaneous, active behavior. The examination uses the paradigm of coconstruction of play narratives, a paradigm that combines both projective techniques and developmental research perspectives. The function of the adults as stress buffers is explored. Possible implications for psychoanalysis, treatment processes and developmental psychopathology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reward improves cancellation and restraint inhibition across childhood and adolescence.

Inhibitory control allows for the regulation of thought and action and interacts with motivational variables, such as reward, to modify behavior adaptively as environments change. The authors examined the effects of reward on two distinct forms of inhibitory control, cancellation and restraint. Typically developing children and adolescents completed 2 versions of the stop signal task (cancellation and restraint) under 3 reward conditions (neutral, low reward, and high reward), where rewards were earned for successful inhibitory control. Rewards improved both cancellation and restraint inhibition, with similar effects of reward on each form of inhibitory control. Rewards did not alter the speed of response execution in either task, suggesting that rewards specifically altered inhibition processes without influencing processes related to response execution. Adolescents were faster and less variable than children when executing and inhibiting their responses. There were similar developmental effects of reward on the speed of inhibitory control, but group differences were found in terms of accuracy of inhibition in the restraint task. These results clarify how reward modulates two different forms of regulatory behavior in children and adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The quest for executive effectiveness: Consultants bridge the gap between psychological research and organizational application.

However we picture success for ourselves as consulting psychologists or for the executives and clients with whom we work, the role as pathfinder and mapmaker identifies those who "make a diference." Effectiveness for both consultant and executive calls for competencies in dealing with individual, group, and organizational-level issues. Critical competencies are discussed under the headings vision, motivation, and action. The ability to conceptualize, or to envision, relies on updated mental processes and stagnates without motivational astuteness. Key to motivation is emotional wisdom, the management of vital sign emotions: curiosity, anxiety, and anger. Finally, the invitational leadership approach (ILA) is presented as a synthesis of leadership research to assist a consultant or an executive in execution of the action competencies that get an organization moving in a coordinated, constructive direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood, personality, and self-monitoring: Negative affect and emotionality in relation to frontal lobe mechanisms of error monitoring.

A fundamental question in frontal lobe function is how motivational and emotional parameters of behavior apply to executive processes. Recent advances in mood and personality research and the technology and methodology of brain research provide opportunities to address this question empirically. Using event-related-potentials (ERPs) to track error monitoring in real time, the authors demonstrated that variability in the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN) is dependent on mood and personality variables. College students who are high on negative affect (NA) and negative emotionality (NEM) displayed larger ERN amplitudes early in the experiment than participants who are low on these dimensions. As the high-NA and -NEM participants disengaged from the task, the amplitude of the ERN decreased. These results reveal that affective distress and associated behavioral patterns are closely related with frontal lobe executive functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament and the development of personality.

Presents a psychobiological approach to personality development, incorporating developmental principles outlined by R. B. Cairns (1979). The authors review individual differences in temperament and ask how a temperamental approach to personality might be congruent with these complex and flexible principles. Then, the nature of temperamental processes is illustrated by considering several developmental topics. The interaction of infant distress-proneness and maternal behavior in the development of attachment is considered, and the development of self-regulatory mechanisms, emphasizing development of conscience, aggression, and mastery motivation, is described. Finally, mechanisms of temperament and environment interaction, illustrating these processes through variable developmental pathways for risk of adolescent and adult psychopathology, are reviewed. Throughout, the idea that temperamental models of personality development are dynamic, interactive, and fit well with Cairns's developmental principles is stressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament as a Unifying Basis for Personality and Psychopathology.

Personality and psychopathology long have been viewed as related domains, but the precise nature of their relations remains unclear. Through most of the 20th century, they were studied as separate fields; within psychopathology, clinical syndromes were separated from personality disorders in 1980. This division led to the revelation of substantial overlap among disorders both within and across axes and to the joint study of normal and abnormal personality. The author reviews these literatures and proposes an integrative framework to explain personality-psychopathology relations: Three broad, innate temperament dimensions--negative affectivity, positive affectivity, and disinhibition--differentiate through both biologically and environmentally based developmental processes into a hierarchical personality trait structure and, at their extremes, are risk factors (diatheses) for psychopathology, especially given adverse life experiences (stress). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus-produced reflex inhibition in the rat during induction of and recovery from barbiturate anesthesia.

Reported 3 experiments which show that the inhibitory effect of a preliminary stimulus on the acoustic startle reflex was disrupted during the induction of sodium pentobarbital (40 mg/kg) in a total of 50 male Holtzman rats. In Exp I (n = 35) and II (n = 8), Ss were injected with the barbiturate, and a startle stimulus was presented either alone or preceded by a white noise burst. Results show that (a) stimulus inhibition was present immediately after injection, (b) was lost during a phase of hyperreactivity which accompanied induction of the anesthesia, and (c) recovered as reactivity diminished in the anesthetic state. Exp III showed that inhibition recovered during an intervening stage prior to complete areflexia and that this recovery revealed that the earlier and later inhibitory failure cannot be ascribed to a drug-dependent degradation in a hypothetical inhibitory system. It was suggested that the expression of reflex inhibition depends on the balanced interplay of excitatory and inhibitory processes which are differentially sensitive to drug intake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral disinhibition: Liability for externalizing spectrum disorders and its genetic and environmental relation to response inhibition across adolescence.

Behavioral disinhibition has been characterized as a generalized vulnerability to externalizing disorders. Despite increasing evidence for its validity and heritability, the structural stability of behavioral disinhibition across adolescence and the strength and etiology of its relation to executive functions have not been studied. In this multivariate twin study, the authors assessed behavioral disinhibition using measures tapping substance use, conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and novelty seeking at ages 12 and 17. Executive functions were assessed with laboratory-based cognitive tasks at age 17. Results indicated that, at age 12, behavioral disinhibition was dominated by ADHD and conduct problems and was highly heritable. At age 17, the contributions of the 4 components were more balanced, and the proportion of variance attributable to genetic factors was somewhat smaller, with additional variance due to shared environmental influences. At both ages, behavioral disinhibition was more closely related to response inhibition than other executive functions (working memory updating and task-set shifting), and this relationship was primarily genetic in origin. These results highlight the dynamic nature of behavioral disinhibition across adolescence and suggest that response inhibition may be an important mechanism underlying vulnerability to disinhibitory psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term aftereffects of response inhibition: Memory retrieval, task goals, and cognitive control.

Cognitive control theories attribute control to executive processes that adjust and control behavior online. Theories of automaticity attribute control to memory retrieval. In the present study, online adjustments and memory retrieval were examined, and their roles in controlling performance in the stop-signal paradigm were elucidated. There was evidence of short-term response time adjustments after unsuccessful stopping. In addition, it was found that memory retrieval can slow responses for 1-20 trials after successful inhibition, which suggests the automatic retrieval of task goals. On the basis of these findings, the authors concluded that cognitive control can rely on both memory retrieval and executive processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent stress and coping: implications for psychopathology during adolescence

Stressful experiences and efforts to cope with stress are central to understanding psychological distress and psychopathology during adolescence. Depressive phenomena during adolescence offer a particularly interesting opportunity for understanding the role of stress and coping processes in adolescent psychopathology. Research concerned with stress and coping during adolescence is reviewed, using depression as a key example of a consequence of stress and coping processes. Based on this research, it is hypothesized that exposure to and appraisals of interpersonal stress combine with aspects of biological development and the use of maladaptive coping strategies to account for the emergence of significant gender differences in depression and other forms of psychopathology during adolescence. Directions for future research in this area are highlighted.     

A goal systems–self-regulatory perspective on personality, psychopathology, and change.

A motivational framework is presented linking personal goals and self-regulatory functions to normal personality, psychopathology, and the processes of change. First, the utility of goals as a "final common analytic pathway" or integrative unit is considered. Next, the premises of an emerging, goal-centered conception of adaptive functioning are discussed as a prelude to the author's outlining of a multidimensional working model of "goal systems." Reactive depression is reconceptualized in terms of specific self-regulatory dysfunctions under the influence of goal systems to illustrate how dysfunctional goal systems can serve as the central organizing component of psychopathology. A set of 10 propositions pinpoints goal-based sources of vulnerability to self-regulatory dysfunction in depression. A set of 5 propositions details the potential goal-based sources of maintenance of self-regulatory deficits. Finally, 14 theory-based principles of psychotherapeutic change are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarities of inhibition in the different sense organs.

Discriminates 2 parts in different sense organs: (1) the transducer which transforms the physical stimulus into a set of nervous discharges, and (2) a nervous system to evaluate the discharges. Since nature seems to have a tendency to use similar elements for very different purposes there is the possibility that the different sense organs have different transducers but at the same time the evaluating nervous system is very similar. From this it is concluded that there should be similarities between the different sense organs for phenomena in which the transducer as such does not enter. Lateral inhibition represents such a type of phenomena. Many of the inhibitory processes are well-known and in a historical introduction the importance of inhibition is reviewed. It is indicated that there are lateral inhibitory phenomena in sense organs which are similar not only in quality but also in a quantitative way. This similarity was experimentally shown for the sense of hearing, vibrations on the skin, taste, and smell. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prefrontal cognitive processes: Working memory and inhibition in the antisaccade task.

Recent research suggests 2 principal processes are assessed in many neuropsychological tests of prefrontal functioning: the ability to keep transient information on-line (working memory) and the ability to inhibit prepotent, but incorrect, responses. The current studies examined the hypothesis that taxing working memory beyond some threshold can result in decreased inhibition, resembling the errors committed by patients with prefrontal dysfunctions. Across 3 studies, 70 nonpatient subjects were tested on the antisaccade (AS) task (D. Guitton et al, 1985)—a task sensitive to inhibitory deficits. Subjects were required to look in the opposite direction of a flashed cue, inhibiting the reflexive tendency to saccade to the cue. Subjects performed concurrent tasks that varied working-memory load. The results indicated that conditions with the highest working-memory load produced inhibitory errors comparable to patients with prefrontal dysfunctions. The findings are discussed in terms of the interaction between working memory and the inhibition of prepotent responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive control in set switching: Residual switch cost and task-set inhibition.

Executive processes necessary for flexible switching between different tasks were studied using a set switching paradigm that requires Ss to rapidly switch between different tasks across consecutive trials. Switch cost reflects poorer performance for task-switch trials than for consecutive same-task trials. 34 Ss (aged 18–48 yrs) participated in the study. Significant switch cost was observed even with considerable preparation time before a task-switch, an effect known as residual switch cost. The study tested the hypothesis that one process underlying residual switch cost is inhibition of the previous task-set. The authors used semantic categorization tasks to compare switch cost between alternating task series (ABA) and nonalternating series (ABC) in order to test the generality of a task-set inhibition effect previously observed with perceptual judgment tasks. The results yielded significant switch cost only for alternating tasks, in both response times and errors resulting from performance of the wrong task. Thus, resolving inhibition associated with previously abandoned task-sets may be the main process underlying residual switch costs, suggesting that task-set inhibition is an important executive control process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)