Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Negative urgency, defined as a tendency to act rashly under extreme negative emotion, is strongly associated with tobacco use. Despite the robust cross-sectional and experimental evidence linking negative urgency and tobacco use, neural correlates of negative urgency in tobacco use have not been studied. The purpose of the current study was to 1) identify neural circuits that differ between tobacco users and non-tobacco users and 2) explore the relationship between resting-state seed-based functional connectivity (rsFC) and negative urgency, both in the overall group and between tobacco users and non-tobacco users. Using negative urgency-related brain regions as seed regions (voxel level p = .005, cluster-level a < .05), compared to non-tobacco users (n = 21; mean age = 36.57, 62% female, 76% white), tobacco users (n = 22; mean age = 37.50, 64% female, 77% white) had stronger rsFC strengths in the right amygdala – left medial orbitofrontal cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex circuit and the right nucleus accumbens – right temporoparietal junction circuit. Additionally, rsFC in the bilateral temporal pole – left supramarginal gyrus circuits was positively correlated with negative urgency (Left temporal pole: r = .55, p < .001; Right temporal pole: r = .51, p < .001). The current study extends previous neuroimaging findings, which have mainly focused on how negative urgency is related to brain responses in localized, segregated brain regions, by examining the network-level interactions between different brain regions. This study provides prime preliminary data for future neuroimaging studies of negative urgency by providing potential target networks that would aid the development of novel intervention strategies for negative urgency-based maladaptive behaviors.

Negative emotions can be challenging to regulate, and for some individuals can lead to failures of behavior regulation. The present study is an initial effort to explore the role that mindfulness may play in fostering effective behavior regulation among those prone to high negative urgency (NU). Eighty undergraduate students were recruited based on their high or low scores of NU. First, participants completed a self-report measure of mindfulness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale; MAAS), an Emotional Go/No Go task in an fMRI scanner, and then reported alcohol consumption. Results showed that those with high in NU had low levels of mindfulness compared to those low in NU. Mindfulness predicted substance use at the one- month follow-up after controlling for the predictive roles of NU and gender. Further exploration of the underlying neural mechanisms of mindfulness is needed to better understand its impact on emotion- and self-regulatory processes, especially during difficult emotional experience.

Alcohol use in early adolescence is associated with numerous concurrent and future problems, including diagnosable alcohol use disorders. The trait of negative urgency, the tendency to act rashly when distressed, is an important predictor of alcohol-related dysfunction in youth and adults. The aim of this study was to test a model proposed by Cyders and Smith (2008) specifying a puberty-based developmental increase in negative urgency, which in turn predicts subsequent increases in early adolescent drinking. In a sample of 1,910 youth assessed semi- annually from spring of 5th grade through spring of 8th grade, we found support for this model. Pubertal onset was associated with both a mean increase and subsequent rises in negative urgency over time. Drinking frequency at any wave was predicted by prior wave assessments of drinking frequency, negative urgency, and pubertal onset. The slope of increase in drinking also increased as a function of pubertal onset. This model applied to negative urgency but not to other impulsivity-related traits. These findings highlight the importance of personality change in early adolescence as part of the risk matrix for early onset alcohol consumption.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Marijuana use is associated with many health risks, but is increasingly becoming more accepted; thus, use rates, as well as negative consequences, are growing. There is a need to better understand marijuana use behaviors so as to reduce its negative effects. The current study sought to test the viability of applying urgency theory to marijuana use behaviors by examining several pathways among negative urgency, marijuana-related attentional bias, coping motives, and marijuana use behaviors, across men and women. Participants (n=120, mean age= 26.61 years (SD=9.28), 50% women, 63% White/Caucasian) were recruited from the Indianapolis, IN area to participate in a cross-sectional study in which they completed self-report measures and a visual-probe computer task with eye-tracking following negative mood induction. Regression analyses and the PROCESS macro were used to examine study hypotheses. Several pathways were supported: Negative urgency was significantly associated with coping motives (β=0.24, p=0.01), coping motives were significantly associated with marijuana use behaviors (ΔR2= 0.55, p<0.01), and a serial mediation model was supported, in which the relationship between negative urgency and negative marijuana consequences was mediated by coping motives and then by marijuana use frequency (c’= 0.20, 95%CI= 0.06 to 0.50). Competing models were examined and not supported. There were no statistically significant pathways involving the attentional bias measures; although there was a pattern of small effect sizes demonstrating that attentional biases may relate to marijuana use behaviors in men and not in women. Findings from the current study serve as preliminary support for applying urgency theory to marijuana use behaviors. Overall, these findings suggest that negative urgency is a distal risk factor that influences the development of other, more proximal, predictors of marijuana use and negative marijuana consequences. Future studies should examine the time order of these relationships longitudinally to replicate and provide more confidence in the causal order of the model supported in the present study.

Impulsive personality traits have been found to be robust predictors of substance use and problems in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Studies examining the relations of substance use and impulsive personality over time indicate bidirectional effects, where substance use is also predictive of increases in later impulsive personality. The mechanism(s) accounting for the impact of substance use on later personality remain unknown. The present study sought to explore the bidirectional relations of alcohol use with the impulsive personality traits over three time points, and to examine two potential mechanisms that could account for the impact of alcohol use on personality: the development of alcohol-related problems and social norms for substance use. Participants were 525 college students (48.0% male, 81.1% Caucasian), who completed self-report measures assessing personality traits and a structured interview assessing past and current substance use. Data collection took place at three different time points: the first occurred during participants’ first year of college (T1), and follow-ups took place approximately one-year (T2) and two-years (T3) later. Bidirectional relations were examined using structural equation modeling to control for the relations among the variables of interest within time points and the stability of the variables across time. T1 sensation seeking and lack of premeditation predicted higher levels of alcohol use at T3, and T1 alcohol use predicted higher levels of all three impulsive traits at T3. T2 friend norms for drug use were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 sensation seeking, and T2 alcohol problems were found to significantly mediate the relation between T1 alcohol use and T3 negative urgency. Findings provide greater resolution in characterizing the bidirectional relation between impulsive personality traits and substance use, and demonstrate that sensation seeking and negative urgency are impacted through distinct mechanisms.

It is well established that there is an increase in substance use among college students. In the literature, this increase in use has been attributed to different personality factors, such as sensation seeking. However, what has not received sufficient attention is the possibility that the new peer groups, afforded by the transition to college, introduce unique influence on the relationship between personality and substance use. The purposes of the current study were to explore whether personality predicted substance use across the transition to college whether peer substance use moderated that relationship. The current study examined developmentally the relations among personality, peers, and substance use as students transitioned to college. It built upon previous work by disentangling how the multifaceted trait of impulsivity may interact with the aspects unique to the transition to college, such as dynamic peer groups and substance use behavior in different contexts. This study added to the literature as it was the first to examine negative urgency and its relation to peer influence. The results of the current study aid in understanding the development of substance use among college students and the environmental contexts likely to influence use across time. Participants (N= 229) were assessed longitudinally in order to examine changes in substance use. The participants completed an array of measures that included personality measures (i.e. sensation seeking and negative urgency), a life history calendar of substance use, a measure of problematic alcohol use, and a questionnaire examining the substance use of peers. The current study suggests differences in the way that sensation seeking and negative urgency predict alcohol use and problematic drinking across the transition to college and demonstrated that peers’ drinking had a moderating effect on the relationship between personality and drinking during particular times during the transition to college.

Background: Individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) experience a loss of control (i.e., poor inhibitory control) during binge eating, where stress is a common antecedent for binge episodes. However, few studies examine acute stress in BED and, to date, psychosocial stress relationships with inhibitory control are unexamined. Purpose: The current study investigated acute psychosocial stress effects on inhibitory control in BED. Additionally, inhibitory control relationships with BED treatment outcome were explored. Methods: Thirty-three individuals with BED were randomized to a stress (n = 17) or no stress condition (n = 16). All completed self-report measures including the Profile of Mood States and the Binge Urge Scale. Following the stressor, individuals completed the Stop-Signal Task (SST), a well-validated measure of inhibitory control. Relationships between post-stress anxiety with inhibitory control and eating pathology were explored. Furthermore, treatment outcome relationships with levels of inhibitory control, and negative urgency (an impulsive personality trait) were explored. Results: In the stress condition, individuals reported increased state anxiety immediately following stress, but experienced a decrease back to baseline levels of anxiety by the end of the SST. Stress resulted in impaired inhibitory control performance on the SST. Binge urges increased across both conditions over time. Measures of inhibitory control and negative urgency did not relate to treatment outcome. Conclusion: This study is novel in directly examining psychosocial stress effects on inhibitory control, which has not been studied in BED. These results show subjective stress effects in BED are short-lived; however, behaviourally, stress has a lingering effect on inhibitory control. Increasing binge urges across the experimental session in the no stress condition suggests a role for generalized anxiety on this impulse. These findings have clinical implications for binge urges as a therapeutic target, and for informing individuals with BED about the implications of stress on their binge eating. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

L’Urgence négative est un trait caractéristique du trouble de personnalité limite. Cependant ce modèle des traits ne permet pas d’expliquer les variétés des formes d’expression ni le niveau de sévérité de gestes impulsifs, qu’ils soient dirigés contre soi ou contre autrui. L’intégration du modèle des relations d’objet à celui des traits offre une meilleure compréhension de cette variabilité. Dans la théorie des relations d’objet, la diffusion de l’identité est spécifique aux organisations limites de la personnalité. Elle est caractérisée par un manque d’intégration des représentations de soi et d’autrui à cause d’une séparation excessive des affects positifs et négatifs investis dans les images de soi et d’autrui. Elle est associée à un manque d’intégration des structures psychiques du Moi et du Surmoi. Le niveau de l’intégration de l’identité agirait en modulant la relation en un trait d’urgence négative élevé et l’expression des gestes impulsifs. Cette étude, réalisée auprès d’étudiants, était la première à tester une telle hypothèse. Bien qu’elle n’ait pas permis de démontrer une telle relation de modération, compte tenu de certaines limites, il apparaît nécessaire de réévaluer ce modèle modérateur au sein d’un d’échantillon de plus grande taille. / Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by negative Urgency, one of the impulsivity facets. However the model of personality traits can’t explain the varieties of expression and severity of impulsive behaviors which can be directed against self or others in BPD. Integrating the object relations model with the personality traits leads to an improved understanding of this variability. In object relations theory, identity diffusion is specific to borderline organization. It is characterized by a lack of integration of the conceptions of self and others derived from an excessive split between positive and negative affects invested in self and others images. This diffusion is associated with a deficit of Ego and Superego structures. Level of identity integration would modulate the relationship between high negative urgency and the forms and severity of impulsive behaviors. This study is the first to evaluate this hypothesis. Data collected from students sample have not demonstrated any moderating effect because of some limitations in the study. Nevertheless, the Identity diffusion index was as expected negatively correlated with many variables related to impulsivity such as borderline impulsivity (r=-.23), physical aggression (r=-.31), urgency trait (r=-.31) and acting out (r=-30). However, this hypothesis needs to be tested with larger samples.

L’Urgence négative est un trait caractéristique du trouble de personnalité limite. Cependant ce modèle des traits ne permet pas d’expliquer les variétés des formes d’expression ni le niveau de sévérité de gestes impulsifs, qu’ils soient dirigés contre soi ou contre autrui. L’intégration du modèle des relations d’objet à celui des traits offre une meilleure compréhension de cette variabilité. Dans la théorie des relations d’objet, la diffusion de l’identité est spécifique aux organisations limites de la personnalité. Elle est caractérisée par un manque d’intégration des représentations de soi et d’autrui à cause d’une séparation excessive des affects positifs et négatifs investis dans les images de soi et d’autrui. Elle est associée à un manque d’intégration des structures psychiques du Moi et du Surmoi. Le niveau de l’intégration de l’identité agirait en modulant la relation en un trait d’urgence négative élevé et l’expression des gestes impulsifs. Cette étude, réalisée auprès d’étudiants, était la première à tester une telle hypothèse. Bien qu’elle n’ait pas permis de démontrer une telle relation de modération, compte tenu de certaines limites, il apparaît nécessaire de réévaluer ce modèle modérateur au sein d’un d’échantillon de plus grande taille. / Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by negative Urgency, one of the impulsivity facets. However the model of personality traits can’t explain the varieties of expression and severity of impulsive behaviors which can be directed against self or others in BPD. Integrating the object relations model with the personality traits leads to an improved understanding of this variability. In object relations theory, identity diffusion is specific to borderline organization. It is characterized by a lack of integration of the conceptions of self and others derived from an excessive split between positive and negative affects invested in self and others images. This diffusion is associated with a deficit of Ego and Superego structures. Level of identity integration would modulate the relationship between high negative urgency and the forms and severity of impulsive behaviors. This study is the first to evaluate this hypothesis. Data collected from students sample have not demonstrated any moderating effect because of some limitations in the study. Nevertheless, the Identity diffusion index was as expected negatively correlated with many variables related to impulsivity such as borderline impulsivity (r=-.23), physical aggression (r=-.31), urgency trait (r=-.31) and acting out (r=-30). However, this hypothesis needs to be tested with larger samples.

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