Differences between low and high trait impulsivity are not associated with differences in inhibitory motor control

Abstract

The present study investigates whether there is an association between trait impulsivity in the normal population and inhibitory motor control as assessed by the stop task. Low- and high-impulsive participants (as assessed by the I7 questionnaire; both groups n = 31) performed the stop task. Differences in performance were analyzed by an independent samples t-test. Furthermore, a short meta-analysis was performed on this study and three previous studies with a similar aim. The low- and high-impulsive groups did not differ on the speed to stop the response (SSRT). However, the meta-analysis revealed that high-impulsives are marginally slower in stopping than low-impulsives (effect size = -0.26, p= 0.06). There is only minor evidence that impulsivity inthe common population is associated with poor inhibitory motor control.