So the starting point is the discovery that dopamine D2 receptors are decreased in cocaine addicts. Dopamine is the brain's "happy" drug, so to speak, but is also required for motivation and for attention. The chemical pathway of dopamine includes the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is responsible for many of our attention and planning functions, including also short-term memory. The PFC we can think of as our higher function centre where much processing of “intelligent” action is processed. This reduction of these D2 receptors suggests then that they cannot get enough "happiness" from normal everyday rewards and will potentially search for a new stimulus in drugs. But this research does not answer the obvious question of whether this is cause or effect. Is the reduction in these receptors due to the drug destroying or lowering a person's sensitivity to dopamine or is the drug user taking the drug to supplement their own insufficient dopamine levels.
Now where you may ask does impulsivity tie into this? Well one of the starting points was that research into rats showed that rats that are impulsive have much higher tendency to become addicted to drugs. You may also be wondering how on earth do we find out if a rat is impulsive and whether a rat is or can become and addict. This is done through a series of tests and rewards. One is a so called stop signal test where rats will be rewarded if they go to a light or may be required to stop. Those that run of without waiting for the signal are classed as impulsive. On the other side the research into drug addiction was done by allowing rats to self administer cocaine directly into the brain. Now of course this is a good feeling but again what they noticed is that some rats self administered more and more often and became addicts. So far so good but interestingly this research showed that rats that are impulsive also have a tendency to become addicts.
Into the Brain
What is happening in the brain? Well the two specific areas that are critical here are the striatum, part of the reward structures, and the orbitofrontal cortex. It is specifically the D2/D3 receptors in the striatum which are suggesting impulsivity. And the orbitofrontal cortex is involved heavily in decision making. (more on this when I write about neuroeconomics). This makes sense actually because it would logically follow that a reward centre structure was being someway inhibited and that a decision making and frontal structure also. Also bearing in mind that the PFC can help control and inhibit emotions. Though many may feel that drug addicts may start out as novelty seeking it was noted that novelty seeking predicts propensity to take the drug but impulsivity is a better prediction of addiction
Now comes the question, and this is a big question, is this genetics? Trevor Robbins talked about endophenotypes so genetically similar types that have a propensity to a type of disease or disorder. So taking groups of cocaine addicts they then compared their families (specifically siblings) who were NOT addicts. And lo and behold what they found was that these also had high impulsive traits (though not as high as the addicts themselves). So this suggests that there is some genetic similarity that is causing this and leading to susceptibility (and it is a susceptibility and nothing more and nothing less) to becoming a drug addict of some form. There is still an unanswered question here for me of whether there were environmental issues involved here i.e. nurture issues.
In Business?
So what are the take aways for business though drug addiction may interest us. Well keeping to the topic of drugs there is probably a serious and not spoken issue around drug taking in business. A recent report suggests that Swiss cities have surprisingly high uses of cocaine - this is still a "high-end" drug unlike heroin, for example. So there could be severe problems of drug abuse in companies that is not being spoken about.
Furthermore the take away that the striatum is involved with this is important because the exact same region and the exact same receptors also respond to social status and social reward. What this means is that if you reach a social status with active D2/D3 receptors you will be able to enjoy the benefits of this position and experience life as more fulfilling and rewarding - this will lower stress and increase the positive chemical balance in your brain. If you receptors do not respond so strongly to the reward you will not appreciate your position as much - I speculate that maybe this could also be a key indicator of stress. In addition and I also speculate here this may mean that because the satisfaction with the current social status is not rewarding this can lead to a desire to keep on moving upwards at all costs to search for that reward that will likely never come - because of the decreased number of D2/D3 receptors.
Impulsiveness in general can be negative as the tests show impulsiveness is jumping the gun and ignoring the signals. Though in many situations I presume this can go unnoticed because impulsive people will also be very fast movers. A trait desired in senior management. So we may have a higher proportion of impulsive people in management than is healthy - if indeed an impulsive person can be positive?
The orbitofrontal cortex is strongly associated with decision making and therefore we should be very aware of what this means and what this can have for impacts on a business if impulsivity and orbitofrontal cortex control are indeed linked strongly than we also have quite a simple measure for testing decision making effectiveness, or rather decision making balance and inhibition.
So to summarise: impulsiveness can go unnoticed in business as speed of decision making is so often so important. Yet impulsiveness is also very dangerous for business. Good quick balanced decisions are fantastic, impulsive decisions are bad.
Now the bigger question here is what can we do about it - can we coach or train out impulsiveness - well I will side step that question for the time being as this is something that Dr Srinivasan PIllay is a master of dealing with. His work with myself and the NeruoBusiness Group is specifically targeted at this type of intervention.
And to finish off I would like to touch on some research Trevor Robbins mentioned to me that had been done by his wife. She looked into these traits in managers and entrepreneurs and noticed that entrepreneurs were indeed more likely to be impulsive yet at the same time they also had more cognitive flexibility. This simply means that they will dive quickly into things but will also quickly pull the plug. I will report more on this when I have read the research in detail. The difference between entrepreneurs and managers is always interesting to look at!
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