title: Dissociable frontostriatal white matter connectivity underlies reward and motor impulsivity.
abstract: Dysfunction of cognitive control often leads to impulsive decision-making in clinical and healthy populations. Some research suggests that a generalized cognitive control mechanism underlies the ability to modulate various types of impulsive behavior, while other evidence suggests different forms of impulsivity are dissociable, and rely on distinct neural circuitry. Past research consistently implicates several brain regions, such as the striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex, in impulsive behavior. However the ventral and dorsal striatum are distinct in regards to function and connectivity. Nascent evidence points to the importance of frontostriatal white matter connectivity in impulsivity, yet it remains unclear whether particular tracts relate to different control behaviors. Here we used probabilistic tractography of diffusion imaging data to relate ventral and dorsal frontostriatal connectivity to reward and motor impulsivity measures. We found a double dissociation such that individual differences in white matter connectivity between the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with reward impulsivity, as measured by delay discounting, whereas connectivity between dorsal striatum and supplementary motor area was associated with motor impulsivity, but not vice versa. Our findings suggest that (a) structural connectivity can is associated with a large amount of behavioral variation; (b) different types of impulsivity are driven by dissociable frontostriatal neural circuitry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA; Decision Neuroscience, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA.
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Hampton
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA.
authors.forename: Kylie H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Alm
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University, USA; Decision Neuroscience, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA.
authors.forename: Vinod
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Venkatraman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA.
authors.forename: Tehila
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nugiel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA; Decision Neuroscience, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, USA. Electronic address: iolson@temple.edu.
authors.forename: Ingrid R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Olson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D065786:Delay Discounting / Q000502:physiology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D066127:White Matter / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision making; Impulsivity; Reward; Ventral striatum; White matter