Biology subjects

Endrass, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Endrass, T..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Impaired Control Symptoms in Alcohol Use Disorder Show Convergent Associations Across Behavioral and Neural Markers of Inhibitory Control and Drinking Behavior

Background: Deficits in inhibitory control are considered a central feature of alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet behavioral and neuroimaging findings have been inconsistent. One potential explanation is the marked heterogeneity of AUD, which encompasses multiple symptom dimensions that may differ in their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. In this study, we investigated whether behavioral and neural markers of inhibitory control are associated with specific DSM-5 AUD symptom domains. Methods: A total of 589 participants (432 with non-treatment seeking AUD, 157 controls) completed a Stop-Signal Task (SST) during fMRI. Associations between DSM-5 symptom domains (impaired control over alcohol use, risky use, social problems, physical dependence) and SST performance, inhibition-related brain activation, and alcohol consumption were examined. Real-life drinking behavior was additionally assessed over 12 months using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Results: Greater impaired control symptom severity was associated with poorer performance on go trials and diminished post-error slowing during SST. At the neural level, higher impaired control symptom severity was associated with reduced activation across fronto-insular, parietal, cingulate, supplementary motor, and cerebellar regions. In contrast, other symptom domains showed little to no associations with inhibition-related behavioral or neural measures. Higher impaired control symptom severity was associated with greater alcohol consumption across questionnaire-based and EMA-based assessments. Conclusions: In this large cohort, altered behavioral performance and recruitment of inhibition-related brain regions in the SST was selectively linked to impaired control symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of symptom-based approaches for understanding heterogeneity in addiction and may inform the development of more targeted interventions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Interaction of automatic motor and goal-directed behavior under time pressure

Human behaviour consists in large parts of action sequences that are often repeated in mostly the same way. Through extensive repetition, sequential responses become automatic or habitual, but our environment often confronts us with events to which we have to react flexibly and in a goal-directed manner. To assess how implicitly learned action sequences interfere with goal-directed control, we developed a novel behavioural paradigm in which we combined action sequence learning through repetition with a goal-directed task component. So-called dual-target trials require the goal-directed selection of the response with the highest reward-probability in a fast succession of trials with short response deadlines. Importantly, the response primed by the learned action sequence is sometimes different from that required by the goal-directed task. As expected, we found that participants learned the action sequence through repetition, as evidenced by reduced reaction times and error rates, while still acting in a goal-directed manner in dual target trials. Specifically, we found that the learned action sequence biased choices in the goal-directed task towards the sequential response, and this effect was more pronounced the better individuals had learned the sequence. Our novel task may help shed light on the acquisition of automatic behavioural patterns and habits through extensive repetition, allows to assess positive features of habitual behaviour (e.g. increased response speed and reduced error rates), and importantly also the interaction of habitual and goal-directed behaviours under time pressure.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2019

Neural correlates of response inhibition and performance monitoring in binge watching

With the increasing popularity of internet streaming portals, the question why people develop binge-watching behavior has become a focus of scientific research and its addictive potential is discussed. The current study examined neural correlates of binge-watching during inhibition in a go/nogo task and performance monitoring using electroencephalography. Participants reported high binge-watching behavior (HBW, n = 35) or no binge-watching (NBW, n = 33) episode during the past four weeks. Compared to the NBW group, HBW showed larger P3 during response inhibition and larger error-related negativity (ERN) for errors in the flanker task. Group differences in behavioral measures were not observed. The current results suggest that binge watching may be related to both (1) increased neural recruitment during response inhibition as indicated by the increased P3 to facilitate normal inhibitory performance and (2) enhanced performance monitoring as indicated by the increased ERN. As this neurocognitive profile differs from observations in other addictive and excessive behaviors, implications for this budding field are discussed.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Differentiating electrophysiological indices of internal and external performance monitoring: Relationship with perfectionism and locus of control

The impact of individual differences on performance monitoring and psychopathology is a question of active debate. Personality traits associated with psychopathology may be related to poor internal performance monitoring (as measured by the error-related negativity [ERN]) but intact external performance monitoring (as measured by the reward positivity [RewP]), suggesting that there are underlying neural differences between internal and external performance monitoring processes. We tested the relationships between individual difference measures of perfectionism, locus of control, and ERN, Pe, and RewP component difference amplitude in a healthy undergraduate sample. A total of 128 participants (69 female, M(SD)age= 20.6(2.0) years) completed two tasks: a modified version of the Eriksen Flanker and a doors gambling task along with the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism scale, the Rotter Locus of Control scale, and the Levenson Multidimensional Locus of Control scale to quantify perfectionism and locus of control traits, respectively. Linear regressions adjusting for age and gender showed that neither {Delta}ERN nor {Delta}RewP amplitude were significantly moderated by perfectionism or locus of control scores. Findings suggest that, in psychiatrically-healthy individuals, there is not a strong link between perfectionism, locus of control, and ERN or RewP amplitude. Future research on individual difference measures in people with psychopathology may provide further insight into how these personality traits affect performance monitoring.

neuroscience↗