Probing compulsive and impulsive behaviors, from animal models to endophenotypes: a narrative review

Abstract

Failures in cortical control of fronto-striatal neural circuits may underpin impulsive and compulsive acts. In this narrative review, we explore these behaviors from the perspective of neural processes and consider how these behaviors and neural processes contribute to mental disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and impulse-control disorders such as trichotillomania and pathological gambling. We present findings from a broad range of data, comprising translational and human endophenotypes research and clinical treatment trials, focussing on the parallel, functionally segregated, cortico-striatal neural projections, from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to medial striatum (caudate nucleus), proposed to drive compulsive activity, and from the anterior cingulate/ventromedial prefrontal cortex to the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens shell), proposed to drive impulsive activity, and the interaction between them. We suggest that impulsivity and compulsivity each seem to be multidimensional. Impulsive or compulsive behaviors are mediated by overlapping as well as distinct neural substrates. Trichotillomania may stand apart as a disorder of motor-impulse control, whereas pathological gambling involves abnormal ventral reward circuitry that identifies it more closely with substance addiction. OCD shows motor impulsivity and compulsivity, probably mediated through disruption of OFC-caudate circuitry, as well as other frontal, cingulate, and parietal connections. Serotonin and dopamine interact across these circuits to modulate aspects of both impulsive and compulsive responding and as yet unidentified brain-based systems may also have important functions. Targeted application of neurocognitive tasks, receptor-specific neurochemical probes, and brain systems neuroimaging techniques have potential for future research in this field.

Figure 1

Compulsivity and impulsivity: candidate neural processes contributing to mental disorders. Although impulsive and compulsive disorders can be thought of as polar opposites, failures in cortical control of fronto-striatal neural circuits may underpin both compulsivity (orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)—caudate) and impulsivity (right inferior frontal cortex (RIFC)—globus pallidus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC)—ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (NA) shell), and contribute to these disorders.