Cited by 683Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorBehavioral Health and Interventions

Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later

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Casey, B. J., Somerville, Leah H., Gotlib, Ian H., Ayduk, Ozlem, Franklin, Nicholas T., Askren, Mary K., Jonides, John, Berman, Marc G. +6 more·2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

We examined the neural basis of self-regulation in individuals from a cohort of preschoolers who performed the delay-of-gratification task 4 decades ago. Nearly 60 individuals, now in their mid-forties, were tested on “hot” and “cool” versions of a go/nogo task to assess whether delay of gratification in childhood predicts impulse control abilities and sensitivity to alluring cues (happy faces). Individuals who were less able to delay gratification in preschool and consistently showed low self-control abilities in their twenties and thirties performed more poorly than did high delayers when having to suppress a response to a happy face but not to a neutral or fearful face. This finding suggests that sensitivity to environmental hot cues plays a significant role in individuals’ ability to suppress actions toward such stimuli. A subset of these participants ( n = 26) underwent functional imaging for the first time to test for biased recruitment of frontostriatal circuitry when required to suppress responses to alluring cues. Whereas the prefrontal cortex differentiated between nogo and go trials to a greater extent in high delayers, the ventral striatum showed exaggerated recruitment in low delayers. Thus, resistance to temptation as measured originally by the delay-of-gratification task is a relatively stable individual difference that predicts reliable biases in frontostriatal circuitries that integrate motivational and control processes.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1108561108

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Authors
Casey, B. J., Somerville, L. H., Gotlib, I. H., Ayduk, O., Franklin, N. T., Askren, M. K., Jonides, J., Berman, M. G., Wilson, N. L., Teslovich, T., Glover, G., Zayas, V., Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y.
Affiliations
  • Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; and
  • Columbia University (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2011-09
Volume
108
Issue
36
Pages
14998-15003
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W1985709069
Cited by
683
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 85 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 40 · 2013: 52 · 2012: 30
FWCI
20.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (K99MH087813)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA018879)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD069178)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
Keywords
delay of gratification, self-regulation, impulse control, go/no-go task, response suppression, frontostriatal circuits, ventral striatum, prefrontal cortex, individual differences, longitudinal follow-up, preschool children, resistance to temptation
MeSH terms
Adult, Basal Ganglia, Behavior, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Male, Perception, Cohort Studies, Prefrontal Cortex

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