NEW research suggests that two areas of the brain work together in response to serotonin to promote the ability to wait patiently and practice impulse control. This finding may aid the development of targeted treatments for individuals who are less able to suppress impulsive and impatient behavior.
As the saying goes, “Patience is considered a virtue.” However, for some people, this attribute is challenging to manage, causing issues with relationships, employment, finances, and educational pursuits.
Well-documented research already exists on the relationship between serotonin — a neurochemical responsible for feelings of well-being — and social and emotional behaviors, including impulsivity.
For instance, one study on mice, which the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute conducted, showed a possible link between a lack of serotonin receptors in the brain and impulsive behavior.
As experts do not fully understand the neurological process for regulating patience and impulse control, the researchers behind the new study aimed to look into how serotonin acts on specific regions of the brain to regulate the ability to wait for a desired reward.
The Neural Computation Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) ran the study, which appears in the journal Science Advances.
In the study, the researchers focused on three regions of the brain: a brain structure called the nucleus accumbens (NAc), regions of the frontal lobe called the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).
The team chose these brain areas because research shows that damage to them leads to an increase in impulsive behaviors.
“Impulse behaviors are intrinsically linked to patience -— the more impulsive an individual is, the less patient — so these brain areas were prime candidates.”
In a 2018 study appearing in the journal Nature Communications, this same team of scientists investigated what role the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), a part of the brain that contains serotonin-releasing neurons, has in promoting a mouse’s ability to wait patiently. They found a causal relationship between the action that serotonin has on this brain region and patience for anticipated rewards.
To take their previous research a few steps further, the research team used mice genetically engineered to have specialized proteins that release serotonin on exposure to photostimulation.
