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The anxiety-specific hippocampus-prefrontal cortex pathways links to procrastination through self-control
Rong Zhang1, Zhiyi Chen1, Bowen Hu1
1Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Human Brain Mapping
|December 25, 2021
Summary
High trait anxiety leads to more procrastination through reduced self-control. This is linked to altered brain connectivity in hippocampus-prefrontal cortex pathways, impacting emotional regulation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Procrastination is linked to negative emotions like trait anxiety.
- The role of self-control in anxiety-driven procrastination and its neural basis are unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the mediating role of self-control in the relationship between trait anxiety and procrastination.
- Identify the neural correlates of this relationship using dynamic functional connectivity.
Main Methods:
- Resting-state fMRI scans were acquired from 312 healthy participants.
- Sliding window method analyzed dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in hippocampus-prefrontal cortex (HPC-PFC) pathways.
- Structural equation modeling (SEM) examined mediation effects.
Main Results:
- Higher trait anxiety correlated with increased procrastination, mediated by poorer self-control.
- Trait anxiety positively correlated with dynamic FC variability in left rHPC-left SFG and left rHPC-right MFG pathways.
- SEM confirmed self-control mediated the link between anxiety-related brain connectivity and procrastination.
Conclusions:
- Self-control mediates the association between trait anxiety and procrastination.
- Altered HPC-PFC dynamic connectivity in anxious individuals may reflect impaired regulation of negative thoughts, leading to procrastination.
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