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Updated: May 18, 2026
16:08
Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition
Published on: February 1, 2012
Imaging depletion: fMRI provides new insights into the processes underlying ego depletion*
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
|September 22, 2012
Abstract:
'Ego depletion' refers to the phenomenon of diminished ability to enact self-regulation with repeated efforts. Several models offer process accounts of how ego depletion works, but few studies directly investigate these processes. A study in this issue of Social, Cognitive, & Affective Neuroscience by Wagner and Heatherton is among the first to do so. Their results substantiate one possible mechanism of ego depletion and, more broadly, illustrate how neuroscience data can further social psychological theory.
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