# Core components of emotional impulsivity: A mouse-cursor tracking study

## TL;DR

This study explores how emotions influence impulsive behaviors like poor decision-making and lack of self-control using mouse-cursor tracking in nonclinical populations.

## Contribution

The study provides new evidence that emotions affect impulsivity primarily by disrupting attentional control, not just through maladaptive actions.

## Key findings

- Emotions increase impulsive behavior by impairing attentional control in nonclinical individuals.
- Positive Urgency is significantly linked to difficulties in inhibitory control.
- Emotional states alter behavioral measures of impulsivity beyond clinical populations.

## Abstract

Impulsive individuals exhibit abnormal reward processing (heightened preference for immediate rewards, i.e., impulsive choice, IC) and a penchant for maladaptive action (the inability to inhibit inappropriate actions, i.e., impulsive action, IA). Both impulsive choice and impulsive action are strongly influenced by emotions (emotional impulsivity); yet how emotions impact impulsive behavior remains unclear. The traditional theory suggests that emotions primarily exacerbate impulsive action and prompts impulsive choice. The alternative theory states that emotions disrupt attention (attentional impulsivity, AImp) and prompt impulsive choice. However, the empirical evidence supporting these theories is inconsistent—few correlations have been reported between self-report measures of emotional impulsivity and behavioral measures of impulsivity beyond clinical populations. In two studies, we probed the interplay among emotions, impulsive action (IA), attentional impulsivity (AImp), and impulsive choice (IC). We elicited positive and negative emotions using emotional pictures and examined the extent to which elicited emotions altered behavioral indices of impulsivity. Our findings suggest that, in a nonclinical population, emotions accentuate impulsive behavior by disrupting attentional control. In particular, Positive Urgency plays an important role in inhibitory control. Keywords: impulsivity, emotions, mouse-cursor tracking.