Does self-control end up hurting you? New research pinpoints its negative affects

Self-discipline may negatively affect memory

In a test involving 120 images of faces, a new study claims self-discipline is negatively affecting our ability to recall information. Researchers hope the new findings will help develop treatments for certain conditions like ADHD and addiction.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that our brain struggles to recall information when we restrain ourselves.

For the test, volunteers were asked to press a button if they saw a male face on their computer screens and to do nothing if it was the face of a female. Participants were shown 120 different faces then given a five-minute "filler" task having nothing to do with the faces. After the task, the volunteers were administered a surprise memory test.

In the test, they were to identify whether the face on their screen was new or familiar in relation to the prior activity. As participants responded, researchers scanned their brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging.

"You could argue quite easily that canceling a response to a stimulus might actually make that stimulus more memorable," Tobias Egner, one of the researchers, said. However, they found that the brain actually does the opposite.

Egner, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, and Yu-Chin Chiu, a post-doctoral researcher, found that self-discipline negatively affects memories. The faces volunteers forgot corresponded to an inhibition network in the brain, which had been strongly activated.

According to their report, areas of the brain known to be active during times when people commit something to memory were suppressed during trials where the participant had to inhibit their responses strongly, like not pressing a button.

"You don't encode those stimuli well when you have a high inhibitory demand," Egner said. The Daily Mail reported that the findings support his and Chiu's initial idea of a see-saw relationship on brain activity, inhibition and memory.

The duo also believes this discovery can help in the development of a more effective ADHD therapy, stating that those who try controlling and overriding activities -such as fidgeting- cannot concentrate as well.

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