Self-control can be difficult \u2014 sticking with a diet or trying to focus attention on a boring textbook are hard things to do. Considerable research suggests one potential explanation for this difficulty: Exerting self-control for a long period seems to \u201cdeplete\u201d our ability to exert self-control effectively on subsequent tasks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is as if self-control is a limited resource that \u2018runs out\u2019 if it is used too much<\/strong>,\u201d says lead researcher Chandra Sripada of the University of Michigan. \u201cIf we could figure out the brain mechanisms that cause regulatory depletion, then maybe we could find a way to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n Previous research has implicated the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in regulatory processing<\/strong>. Sripada and University of Michigan collaborators Daniel Kessler and John Jonides decided to see whether manipulating levels of these transmitters might affect regulatory depletion.<\/p>\n The researchers tested 108 adult participants, all of whom took a drug capsule 60 minutes prior to testing<\/strong>. Half of the participants received a capsule that contained methylphenidate, a medication used to treat ADHD that increases brain dopamine and norepinephrine. The other half received a placebo capsule. The study was double-blind, so neither the participants nor the researchers knew at the time of testing who had received which capsule.<\/p>\n The participants then completed a computer-based task in which they were required to press a button when a word containing the letter\u00a0e\u00a0<\/i>appeared on screen. Some were given modified instructions that asked them to refrain from pressing the button if the letter\u00a0e<\/i>\u00a0was next to or one extra letter away from another vowel \u2014 this version of the task was designed to tax participants\u2019 self-control.<\/p>\n All of the participants then completed a second computer task aimed at testing their ability to process competing information and exert regulatory control in order to make a correct response.<\/p>\n In line with the researchers\u2019 hypotheses, participants who received the placebo and performed the taxing version of the first task showed greater variability in how quickly they responded in the second task<\/strong>, compared to those whose self-control hadn\u2019t been depleted in the first task.<\/p>\n But for those participants who took the methylphenidate capsule, the first task didn\u2019t have an effect on later performance \u2014 the methylphenidate seemed to counteract the self-regulatory depletion incurred by the harder version of the first task.<\/p>\n \u201cThese results indicate that depletion of self-control due to prior effort can be fully blocked pharmacologically<\/strong>,\u201d says Sripada. \u201cThe task we give people to deplete their self-control is pretty cognitively demanding, so we were surprised at how effective methylphenidate was in blocking depletion of self-control.\u201d<\/p>\n Sripada and colleagues suggest that methylphenidate may help to boost performance of the specific circuits in the brain\u2019s prefrontal cortex that are normally compromised after sustained exertion of self-control.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t mean, however, that those of us looking to boost our self-control should go out and get some Ritalin:<\/p>\n \u201cMethylphenidate is a powerful psychotropic medicine that should only be taken with a prescription<\/strong>,\u201d says Sripada. \u201cWe want to use this research to better understand the brain mechanisms that lead to depletion of self-control, and what interventions \u2014 pharmacological or behavioral \u2014 might prevent this.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant K23-AA-020297 and the John Templeton Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the APS media release: Methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, may prevent the depletion of self-control, according to\u00a0research published in\u00a0Psychological Science, a journal of the\u00a0Association for Psychological Science. Self-control can… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[319,6,60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16661,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16657\/revisions\/16661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"adhd](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/adhd_spacing_child.jpg\")
<\/a>Methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, may prevent the depletion of self-control<\/strong>, according to\u00a0research published in\u00a0Psychological Science<\/i>, a journal of the\u00a0Association for Psychological Science.<\/p>\n