University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2023 Jun 1;35(6):957-975. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01990.
People often have good intentions but fail to adhere to them. Implementation intentions, a form of strategic planning, can help people to close this intention-behavior gap. Their effectiveness has been proposed to depend on the mental formation of a stimulus-response association between a trigger and target behavior, thereby creating an "instant habit." If implementation intentions do indeed lead to reliance on habitual control, then this may come at the cost of reduced behavioral flexibility. Furthermore, we would expect a shift from recruitment of corticostriatal brain regions implicated in goal-directed control toward habit regions. To test these ideas, we performed a fMRI study in which participants received instrumental training supported by either implementation or goal intentions, followed by an outcome revaluation to test reliance on habitual versus goal-directed control. We found that implementation intentions led to increased efficiency early in training, as reflected by higher accuracy, faster RTs, and decreased anterior caudate engagement. However, implementation intentions did not reduce behavioral flexibility when goals changed during the test phase, nor did it affect the underlying corticostriatal pathways. In addition, this study showed that "slips of action" toward devalued outcomes are associated with reduced activity in brain regions implicated in goal-directed control (ventromedial prefrontal cortex and lateral orbitofrontal cortex) and increased activity of the fronto-parietal salience network (including the insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and SMA). In conclusion, our behavioral and neuroimaging findings suggest that strategic if-then planning does not lead to a shift from goal-directed toward habitual control.
人们常常有良好的意图，但却未能坚持。实施意图作为一种策略性规划形式，可以帮助人们弥合意图与行为之间的差距。人们提出其有效性取决于在触发因素和目标行为之间形成一种刺激-反应联想的心理形成，从而产生一种“即时习惯”。如果实施意图确实导致对习惯性控制的依赖，那么这可能会以降低行为灵活性为代价。此外，我们预计从涉及目标导向控制的皮质纹状体脑区的招募向习惯区域转移。为了检验这些想法，我们进行了一项 fMRI 研究，其中参与者接受了实施或目标意图支持的工具性训练，然后进行结果再评估以测试对习惯性与目标导向控制的依赖。我们发现，实施意图在训练早期提高了效率，表现为准确性更高、反应时更快、前尾状核参与减少。然而，当目标在测试阶段发生变化时，实施意图并没有降低行为灵活性，也没有影响潜在的皮质纹状体通路。此外，这项研究表明，“行动失误”朝着被低估的结果与涉及目标导向控制的脑区（腹内侧前额叶皮层和外侧眶额皮层）的活动减少以及额顶叶突显网络（包括岛叶、背侧前扣带皮层和 SMA）的活动增加有关。总之，我们的行为和神经影像学研究结果表明，策略性的如果-那么计划并不会导致从目标导向控制向习惯性控制的转变。
