![]() ![]() For example, the ability to control appetitive impulses that might be in the focus of working memory should help individuals resist immediate temptation on the classic marshmallow test 3. One potential driving mechanism for delaying gratification is the ability to keep unwanted or inappropriate information out of working memory so that this information does not unduly influence cognitive processing. In this study we examined whether patterns of brain activation on this task could distinguish reliably between participants with consistently low and high self-control abilities. A subsample of these participants was tested some 40 years later, on a task that required self-control over the contents of working memory. The current study draws on a seminal longitudinal examination of self-control over much of the life span, first measured in children at 4 years of age. The neural mechanisms that underlie this association, however, are not understood. The ability to delay gratification as a child has been linked to many important health, social and cognitive outcomes later in life 1, 2, 3, 4. The present results suggest that dimensionality of neural networks is a biological predictor of self-control abilities. From these brain patterns, we can predict with 71% accuracy, whether a participant is a high or low delayer. High delayers are also more homogeneous as a group in their neural patterns compared with low delayers. We find that low delayers recruit significantly higher-dimensional neural networks when performing the task compared with high delayers. ![]() We examine whether patterns of brain activation on this task can reliably distinguish participants with consistently low and high self-control abilities (low versus high delayers). Self-control, first studied in children at age 4 years, is now re-examined 40 years later, on a task that required control over the contents of working memory. Here we examine a subsample of participants from a seminal longitudinal study of self-control throughout a subject’s life span. The ability to delay gratification in childhood has been linked to positive outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. ![]()
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