TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option - an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Background: Neuroenhancement (NE), the use of psychoactive substances in order to enhance a healthy individual's cognitive functioning from a proficient to an even higher level, is prevalent in student populations. According to the strength model of self-control, people fail to self-regulate and fall back on their dominant behavioral response when finite self-control resources are depleted. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that ego-depletion will prevent students who are unfamiliar with NE from trying it. Findings: 130 undergraduates, who denied having tried NE before (43% female, mean age = 22.76 +/- 4.15 years old), were randomly assigned to either an ego-depletion or a control condition. The dependent variable was taking an "energy-stick" (a legal nutritional supplement, containing low doses of caffeine, taurine and vitamin B), offered as a potential means of enhancing performance on the bogus concentration task that followed. Logistic regression analysis showed that ego-depleted participants were three times less likely to take the substance, OR = 0.37, p = .01. Conclusion: This experiment found that trying NE for the first time was more likely if an individual's cognitive capacities were not depleted. This means that mental exhaustion is not predictive for NE in students for whom NE is not the dominant response. Trying NE for the first time is therefore more likely to occur as a thoughtful attempt at self-regulation than as an automatic behavioral response in stressful situations. We therefore recommend targeting interventions at this inter-individual difference. Students without previous reinforcing NE experience should be provided with information about the possible negative health outcomes of NE. Reconfiguring structural aspects in the academic environment (e.g. lessening workloads) might help to deter current users. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Self-control KW - Ego-depletion KW - Prevention Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-41 SN - 1747-597X VL - 8 IS - 23 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option BT - an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement N2 - Background: Neuroenhancement (NE), the use of psychoactive substances in order to enhance a healthy individual's cognitive functioning from a proficient to an even higher level, is prevalent in student populations. According to the strength model of self-control, people fail to self-regulate and fall back on their dominant behavioral response when finite self-control resources are depleted. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that ego-depletion will prevent students who are unfamiliar with NE from trying it. Findings: 130 undergraduates, who denied having tried NE before (43% female, mean age = 22.76 +/- 4.15 years old), were randomly assigned to either an ego-depletion or a control condition. The dependent variable was taking an "energy-stick" (a legal nutritional supplement, containing low doses of caffeine, taurine and vitamin B), offered as a potential means of enhancing performance on the bogus concentration task that followed. Logistic regression analysis showed that ego-depleted participants were three times less likely to take the substance, OR = 0.37, p = .01. Conclusion: This experiment found that trying NE for the first time was more likely if an individual's cognitive capacities were not depleted. This means that mental exhaustion is not predictive for NE in students for whom NE is not the dominant response. Trying NE for the first time is therefore more likely to occur as a thoughtful attempt at self-regulation than as an automatic behavioral response in stressful situations. We therefore recommend targeting interventions at this inter-individual difference. Students without previous reinforcing NE experience should be provided with information about the possible negative health outcomes of NE. Reconfiguring structural aspects in the academic environment (e.g. lessening workloads) might help to deter current users. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 358 KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Self-control KW - Ego-depletion KW - Prevention Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401386 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement a behavioral perspective on students' everyday life "doping" JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Background: The use of psychoactive substances to neuroenhance cognitive performance is prevalent. Neuroenhancement (NE) in everyday life and doping in sport might rest on similar attitudinal representations, and both behaviors can be theoretically modeled by comparable means-to-end relations (substance-performance). A behavioral (not substance-based) definition of NE is proposed, with assumed functionality as its core component. It is empirically tested whether different NE variants (lifestyle drug, prescription drug, and illicit substance) can be regressed to school stressors. Findings: Participants were 519 students (25.8 +/- 8.4 years old, 73.1% female). Logistic regressions indicate that a modified doping attitude scale can predict all three NE variants. Multiple NE substance abuse was frequent. Overwhelming demands in school were associated with lifestyle and prescription drug NE. Conclusions: Researchers should be sensitive for probable structural similarities between enhancement in everyday life and sport and systematically explore where findings from one domain can be adapted for the other. Policy makers should be aware that students might misperceive NE as an acceptable means of coping with stress in school, and help to form societal sensitivity for the topic of NE among our younger ones in general. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Stress KW - School KW - Doping Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-23 SN - 1747-597X VL - 8 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement BT - a behavioral perspective on students' everyday life "doping" N2 - Background: The use of psychoactive substances to neuroenhance cognitive performance is prevalent. Neuroenhancement (NE) in everyday life and doping in sport might rest on similar attitudinal representations, and both behaviors can be theoretically modeled by comparable means-to-end relations (substance-performance). A behavioral (not substance-based) definition of NE is proposed, with assumed functionality as its core component. It is empirically tested whether different NE variants (lifestyle drug, prescription drug, and illicit substance) can be regressed to school stressors. Findings: Participants were 519 students (25.8 +/- 8.4 years old, 73.1% female). Logistic regressions indicate that a modified doping attitude scale can predict all three NE variants. Multiple NE substance abuse was frequent. Overwhelming demands in school were associated with lifestyle and prescription drug NE. Conclusions: Researchers should be sensitive for probable structural similarities between enhancement in everyday life and sport and systematically explore where findings from one domain can be adapted for the other. Policy makers should be aware that students might misperceive NE as an acceptable means of coping with stress in school, and help to form societal sensitivity for the topic of NE among our younger ones in general. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 356 KW - Neuroenhancement KW - stress KW - school KW - doping Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401131 ER -