Animal Research Uncovers Neurological Roots of Impulse Control

Canadian researchers have discovered how the rat brain triggers and suppresses impulsive behavior, which could lead to new methods for diagnosing and treating addiction in humans, Postmedia News reported Sept. 21.

Poor impulse control had been implicated in a range of complex health problems including addiction, ADHD, and schizophrenia. To find out how the brain mediates impulsive behavior, researchers examined synaptic changes in rats trained to control their impulsive response to a given signal.

Behavioral training not only inhibited the impulsive response in the rats, but it also led to specific changes in the prefrontal cortex, suggesting a neuronal mechanism behind impulsiveness that might be amenable to new therapies.

“A clear-cut case of an addiction is choosing the pleasure of the immediate sensation of the drug over the long-term damage and problems that it causes,” said Scott Hayton, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at Queen’s University in Ontario and lead author of the study.

Understanding the neurological mechanism behind such impulses may aid in the development of new drugs to inhibit them, he concluded.

The findings were published in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.