ScienceDaily
Your source for the latest research news
Follow Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe RSS Feeds Newsletters
New:
  • Old-Growth Trees More Drought Tolerant
  • Early Life Experiences: Long-Lasting Impact ...
  • Nanomaterial Cuts Fat in Specific Parts of Body
  • 3D Printing Metal-Plastic Composite Structures
  • 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck: Complex Trade
  • Mammoth Problem With Extinction Timeline
  • Landslide Risk Remains Long After a Quake
  • Physicists Observe Wormhole Dynamics
  • New Method of Spinal Cord Tissue Repair
  • How Giant-Faced Owls Snag Voles Hidden in Snow
advertisement
Follow all of ScienceDaily's latest research news and top science headlines!
Science News
from research organizations

1

2

Mechanisms Of Self-control Pinpointed In Brain

Date:
May 1, 2009
Source:
California Institute of Technology
Summary:
When you're on a diet, deciding to skip your favorite calorie-laden foods and eat something healthier takes a whole lot of self-control -- an ability that seems to come easier to some of us than others. Now, scientists have uncovered differences in the brains of people who are able to exercise self-control versus those who find it almost impossible.
Share:
FULL STORY

When you're on a diet, deciding to skip your favorite calorie-laden foods and eat something healthier takes a whole lot of self-control--an ability that seems to come easier to some of us than others. Now, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered differences in the brains of people who are able to exercise self-control versus those who find it almost impossible.

advertisement

The key? While everyone uses the same single area of the brain to make these sorts of value-laden decisions, a second brain region modulates the activity of the first region in people with good self-control, allowing them to weigh more abstract factors--healthiness, for example--in addition to basic desires such as taste to make a better overall choice.

These findings not only provide insight into the interplay between self-control and decisionmaking in dieters, but may explain how we make any number of decisions that require some degree of willpower.

"A very basic question in economics, psychology, and even religion, is why some people can exercise self-control but others cannot," notes Antonio Rangel, a Caltech associate professor of economics and the paper's principal investigator. "From the perspective of modern neuroscience, the question becomes, 'What is special about the circuitry of brains that can exercise good behavioral self-control?' This paper studies this question in the context of dieting decisions and provides an important insight."

That insight was the result of an innovative experiment: A group of volunteers--all self-reported dieters--were shown photos of 50 foods, including everything from Snickers bars to Jello to cauliflower. The participants were asked to rate each of the foods based on how good they thought that food would taste. Afterwards, they were shown the same slides again and asked to rate each of the foods based on its supposed health benefits.

From those ratings, the researchers selected an "index food" for each volunteer--a food that fell about in the middle of the pack in terms of tastiness and supposed health benefits.

advertisement

The participant was then shown the 50 items one final time and was asked to choose between it and the index item. (To keep the choosers "honest" without forcing them to eat 50 different foods in one sitting, the researchers would randomly select a number corresponding to one of the slides, and the participant would have to eat whichever food had been chosen at that point.)

All three viewings of the slides were done with the participant inside an MRI scanner, so that the blood-oxygen level dependent signal (a proxy for neuronal activity) in specific areas of the brain could be measured.

After all the choices had been made, the researchers were able to pick out 19 volunteers who showed a significant amount of dietary self-control in their choices, picking mostly healthy foods, regardless of taste. They were also able to identify 18 additional volunteers who showed very little self-control, picking what they believed to be the tastier food most of the time, regardless of its nutritional value.

When they looked at the brain scans of the participants, they found significant differences in the brain activity of the self-control group as compared to the non-self-controllers.

Previous studies have shown that value-based decisions--like what kind of food to eat--are reflected in the activity of a region in the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or vmPFC. If activity in the vmPFC goes down, explains Todd Hare, a postdoctoral scholar in neuroeconomics and the first author on the Science paper, "it means the person is probably going to say no to that item; if it goes up, they're likely to choose that item."

In the non-self-controllers, Rangel notes, the vmPFC seemed to only take the taste of the food into consideration in making a decision. "In the case of good self-controllers, however, another area of the brain--called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]--becomes active, and modulates the basic value signals so that the self-controllers can also incorporate health considerations into their decisions," he explains. In other words, the DLPFC allows the vmPFC to weigh both taste and health benefits at the same time.

advertisement

"The vmPFC works during every decision," says Hare. "The DLPFC, on the other hand, is more active when you're employing self-control."

"This, ultimately, is one reason why self-controllers can make better choices," Rangel adds.

Still, the DLPFC can only do so much. For instance, it can't override a truly negative reaction to a food, notes Hare. "We rarely got people to say they'd eat cauliflower if they didn't like cauliflower," he says. "But they would choose not to eat ice cream or candy bars, knowing they could eat the healthier index food instead."

"After centuries of debate in social sciences we are finally making big strides in understanding self-control from watching the brain resist temptation directly," says Colin Camerer, the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics in Caltech's Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and another of the paper's coauthors. "This study, and many more to come, will eventually lead to much better theories about how self-control develops and how it works for different kinds of temptations."

The next step, the researchers say, is to come up with ways to engage the DLPFC in the decisions made by people with poor self-control under normal conditions. For instance, Hare says, it might be possible to kick the DLPFC into gear by making the health qualities of foods more salient for people, rather than asking them to make the effort to judge a food's health benefits on their own. "If we highlight the fact that ice cream is unhealthy just before we offer it," he notes, "maybe we can reduce its value in advance, give the person a head start to making a better decision."

Whether this is indeed feasible remains to be tested. But clearly, the possibilities are tantalizing, since these same sorts of value-based choices are at the root of everything from addictions like smoking to risky financial decisions.

"Imagine how much better life could be if we knew how to flex the willpower muscles in the brain and strengthen them with exercises," says Camerer.

This research was funded by the Moore Foundation and the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Behavioral Health Economics Research on Dietary Choice and Obesity.

make a difference: sponsored opportunity

Story Source:

Materials provided by California Institute of Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Todd A. Hare, Colin F. Camerer, and Antonio Rangel. Self-Control in Decision-Making Involves Modulation of the vmPFC Valuation System. Science, 2009; 324 (5927): 646-648 DOI: 10.1126/science.1168450

Cite This Page:

  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
California Institute of Technology. "Mechanisms Of Self-control Pinpointed In Brain." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090430144543.htm>.
California Institute of Technology. (2009, May 1). Mechanisms Of Self-control Pinpointed In Brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 1, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090430144543.htm
California Institute of Technology. "Mechanisms Of Self-control Pinpointed In Brain." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090430144543.htm (accessed December 1, 2022).

  • RELATED TOPICS
    • Health & Medicine
      • Nutrition
      • Staying Healthy
      • Medical Topics
      • Psychology Research
    • Mind & Brain
      • Nutrition Research
      • Dieting and Weight Control
      • Consumer Behavior
      • Brain-Computer Interfaces
advertisement

  • RELATED TERMS
    • Illusion of control
    • Brain
    • Delayed sleep phase syndrome
    • Raw food diet
    • Anaerobic exercise
    • South Beach diet
    • Mediterranean diet
    • Bruxism
advertisement

  Print   Email   Share

advertisement

1

2

3

4

5
Most Popular
this week

HEALTH & MEDICINE
Put the Kettle On! How Black Tea (and Other Favorites) May Help Your Health Later in Life
Differences Between Brains of Primates Are Small but Significant, Study Shows
Human Evolution Wasn't Just the Sheet Music, but How It Was Played
MIND & BRAIN
525-Million-Year-Old Fossil Defies Textbook Explanation for Brain Evolution
How Women Can Reduce the Risk of Hip Fracture
Artificial Neural Networks Learn Better When They Spend Time Not Learning at All
LIVING & WELL
Why Some People Are Mosquito Magnets
Wireless Earphones as Inexpensive Hearing Aids
Cancer Scientist Finds Dramatic Rise in Anal Cancer in Midwest and Southeast US
advertisement

Strange & Offbeat
 

HEALTH & MEDICINE
Green Means GO! Ultra-Violet Means STOP!
AI-Generated X-Ray Images Fooled Medical Experts and Improved Osteoarthritis Classification
Synthetic Biology Meets Medicine: 'Programmable Molecular Scissors' Could Help Fight COVID-19 Infection
MIND & BRAIN
525-Million-Year-Old Fossil Defies Textbook Explanation for Brain Evolution
Witchcraft Beliefs Are Widespread, Highly Variable Around the World, Study Finds
Artificial Neural Networks Learn Better When They Spend Time Not Learning at All
LIVING & WELL
AI Helps Researchers Design Microneedle Patches That Restore Hair in Balding Mice
Cats Distinguish Between Speech Directed at Them and Humans, Study Finds
Unlocking the Power of Our Emotional Memory
Explore More
from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES

Isoflavones, in Tofu and Plant Proteins, Associated With Lower Heart Disease Risk
Mar. 23, 2020 — People who regularly ate tofu and other foods containing isoflavones had a moderately lower risk of developing heart disease. However, people who eat isoflavones and adhere to a healthier diet in ...
Hold the Fries! How Calorie Content Makes You Rethink Food Choices
Dec. 20, 2018 — Seeing pictures of food with calorie information not only makes food less appetizing but it also appears to change the way your brain responds to the food, according to a new study. When food images ...
Saliva Could Influence Taste Preferences
Aug. 20, 2018 — Saliva is crucial for tasting and digesting food. But scientists have now found that saliva could also be part of a feedback loop that influences how food tastes to people -- and by extension, what ...
Learning to Make Healthy Choices Can Counter the Effects of Large Portions
Jan. 25, 2018 — Researchers have found that after going through a training program designed to help people control portion sizes, participants still ate larger portions but chose healthier foods, lowering their ...
advertisement


SD
  • SD
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Home
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Health
    • View all the latest top news in the health sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Health & Medicine
      • Allergy
      • Alternative Medicine
      • Birth Control
      • Cancer
      • Diabetes
      • Diseases
      • Heart Disease
      • HIV and AIDS
      • Obesity
      • Stem Cells
      • ... more topics
      Mind & Brain
      • ADD and ADHD
      • Addiction
      • Alzheimer's
      • Autism
      • Depression
      • Headaches
      • Intelligence
      • Psychology
      • Relationships
      • Schizophrenia
      • ... more topics
      Living Well
      • Parenting
      • Pregnancy
      • Sexual Health
      • Skin Care
      • Men's Health
      • Women's Health
      • Nutrition
      • Diet and Weight Loss
      • Fitness
      • Healthy Aging
      • ... more topics
  • Tech
    • View all the latest top news in the physical sciences & technology,
      or browse the topics below:
      Matter & Energy
      • Aviation
      • Chemistry
      • Electronics
      • Fossil Fuels
      • Nanotechnology
      • Physics
      • Quantum Physics
      • Solar Energy
      • Technology
      • Wind Energy
      • ... more topics
      Space & Time
      • Astronomy
      • Black Holes
      • Dark Matter
      • Extrasolar Planets
      • Mars
      • Moon
      • Solar System
      • Space Telescopes
      • Stars
      • Sun
      • ... more topics
      Computers & Math
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Communications
      • Computer Science
      • Hacking
      • Mathematics
      • Quantum Computers
      • Robotics
      • Software
      • Video Games
      • Virtual Reality
      • ... more topics
  • Enviro
    • View all the latest top news in the environmental sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Plants & Animals
      • Agriculture and Food
      • Animals
      • Biology
      • Biotechnology
      • Endangered Animals
      • Extinction
      • Genetically Modified
      • Microbes and More
      • New Species
      • Zoology
      • ... more topics
      Earth & Climate
      • Climate
      • Earthquakes
      • Environment
      • Geography
      • Geology
      • Global Warming
      • Hurricanes
      • Ozone Holes
      • Pollution
      • Weather
      • ... more topics
      Fossils & Ruins
      • Ancient Civilizations
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • Dinosaurs
      • Early Humans
      • Early Mammals
      • Evolution
      • Lost Treasures
      • Origin of Life
      • Paleontology
      • ... more topics
  • Society
    • View all the latest top news in the social sciences & education,
      or browse the topics below:
      Science & Society
      • Arts & Culture
      • Consumerism
      • Economics
      • Political Science
      • Privacy Issues
      • Public Health
      • Racial Disparity
      • Religion
      • Sports
      • World Development
      • ... more topics
      Business & Industry
      • Biotechnology & Bioengineering
      • Computers & Internet
      • Energy & Resources
      • Engineering
      • Medical Technology
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Transportation
      • ... more topics
      Education & Learning
      • Animal Learning & Intelligence
      • Creativity
      • Educational Psychology
      • Educational Technology
      • Infant & Preschool Learning
      • Learning Disorders
      • STEM Education
      • ... more topics
  • Quirky
    • Top News
    • Human Quirks
    • Odd Creatures
    • Bizarre Things
    • Weird World
Free Subscriptions

Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader:

  • Email Newsletters
  • RSS Feeds
Follow Us

Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Have Feedback?

Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?

  • Leave Feedback
  • Contact Us
About This Site  |  Staff  |  Reviews  |  Contribute  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy  |  Editorial Policy  |  Terms of Use
Copyright 1995-2022 ScienceDaily or by other parties, where indicated. All rights controlled by their respective owners.
Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.
Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners.
Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated.
— CCPA: Do Not Sell My Information — GDPR: Privacy Settings —