Impulse control.

We all have issues with it…

But?

To varying degrees:

[via ScienceDaily]Apr. 3, 2013 — Why is it so hard for some people to resist the least little temptation, while others seem to possess incredible patience, passing up immediate gratification for a greater long-term good?

The answer, suggests a new brain imaging study from Washington University in St. Louis, lies in how effective people are at feeling good right now about all the future benefits that may come from passing up a smaller immediate reward. Researchers found that activity in two regions of the brain distinguished impulsive and patient people.

“Activity in one part of the brain, the anterior prefrontal cortex , seems to show whether you’re getting pleasure from thinking about the future reward you are about to receive,” explains study co-author Todd Braver, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences. “People can relate to this idea that when you know something good is coming, just that waiting can feel pleasurable.”

The study, which was published in the first issue of the Journal of Neuroscience this year, was designed to examine what happens in the brain as people wait for a reward, especially whether people characterized as “impulsive” would show different brain responses than those considered “patient.”

The lead author of the study was Koji Jimura, then a postdoctoral researcher in Braver’s Cognitive Control and Psychopathology Laboratory, and now a research associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in Japan.

Unlike previous research on delayed gratification that had people choose between hypothetical rewards of money over long delays (e.g, $500 now or $1,000 a year from now), this Washington University study presented their participants with real rewards of squirts of juice that they chose to receive either immediately or after a delay of up to a minute.

“It’s kind of funny because we treated the people in our study like researchers that work with animals do, and we actually squirted juice into their mouths,” Braver says.

Results show that a brain region called the ventral striatum (VS) ramped up its activity in impulsive people as they got closer and closer to receiving their delayed reward. The VS activity of patient people, on the other hand, stayed more constant.

The researchers interpreted these different brain responses to mean that impulsive people initially did not find the prospect of waiting for a reward very appealing. However, as they approached the time they’d receive that reward, they became more excited and their VS reflected that excitement.

“This gradual increase may reflect impatience or excessive anticipation of the upcoming reward in impulsive individuals,” says Jimura. This was unlike patient people, who were likely content with waiting for the reward from the start, as no changes in VS activity were observed for them.

…[Read More]

For example?

Giving babies cool but dangerous gifts.

after all, I am sure the purchase of such gifts sounds like a good idea at the time?

Just know, caving to such impulses can have disastrous consequences.

Published on Apr 2, 2013

Just try and get a lightsaber out of a toddler’s hands. It’s easier said than done when you’re unarmed.

This was shot using various iphones and android phones.
We used After Effects for the lightsaber, finger, and railing shots.

Created by: Joel and Jared Erickson
Unwilling participants: Coen Erickson, Sawyer Erickson, Sage Lewis, Hunter Lewis, Brandan Lewis, Anthony Richards

Lesson to be learned here:

No matter how much you MIGHT wanna buy your baby the newest lightsaber? (Cause we both know you are really just buying it so YOU can play with it later *raises eyebrow*)

Practice a little impulse control.

Trust me…

All of you fingers and toes will thank you later.

[Source]