自我控制减少拖延行为的认知神经机制

The cognitive mechanism and neural substrates enabling self-control to reduce the decision to procrastinate

拖延行为常常阻碍个人、企业和政府按时完成既定任务,妨害了人们的工作、学业以及疾病防治等方方面面。自我控制是自主减少拖延行为的主要能力,但却是一种相对有限的认知资源。探明自我控制的作用机制有助于更高效地减少拖延行为。然而,由于缺乏合适的认知机制理论和脑成像实验范式,国内外研究多从现象层面探索自我控制、拖延行为和神经指标之间的关系。研究团队提出的“时间决策模型”通过揭示人们如何做出拖延决策,为认知机制的研究和脑成像实验范式的设计提供了理论支持。基于时间决策模型中“现在做还是以后做”的决策机制,本项目拟:(1)结合横向和纵向研究,考察自我控制作用的认知机制及其稳定性;(2)开发拖延的脑成像实验范式,结合多模态MRI技术,揭示自我控制减少拖延决策的神经基础;(3)利用神经刺激技术,考察“基于自我控制脑区的神经干预”的效果及作用机制。研究成果有望为拖延行为提供更加综合的理论框架和新的干预方案。

Procrastination frequently hinders individuals,enterprises,and governments from completing tasks as planned,harming work efficiency,academic achievement and,medical treatments.Self-control is the primary approach that allows people to overcome procrastination independently but is a relatively limited cognitive resource.Hence,if researchers have clarified how self-control successfully inhibits procrastination,people could utilize self-control more efficiently.However,most researchers only investigate correlations among self-control,procrastination,and neural measures because of the lack of appropriate cognitive models and procrastination paradigms for neuroimaging studies.The temporal decision model proposed by the author has revealed how people decide to procrastinate,providing theoretical supports for studying the cognitive mechanism and developing procrastination paradigms for neuroimaging studies.Based on the temporal decision model,the present study intends to:(1)investigate the cognitive mechanism with both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies,and identify practical ways for self-control to reduce the decision to procrastinate;(2)develop a procrastination paradigm for neuroimaging studies,and investigate the neural substrates enabling self-control to reduce the decision to procrastinate with multimodal MRI;(3)test whether stimulation over self-control brain regions could reduce the decision to procrastinate and its implicated mechanism.This work is likely to provide a comprehensive framework and new approaches for reducing procrastination.