Eligibility: All twins who participated in the “Resilience and vulnerability to mental health challenges’” in late 2021 or early 2022.

How many times every day do you do things on the spur of the moment? Impulsivity (or acting without too much planning) is a central part of human behaviour. Impulsivity is often associated with decisions we make that negatively impact our health and wellbeing, such as binging on sugar, excessive alcohol consumption or smoking. Self-control strategies can be implemented to improve our ability to regulate our impulses, however, the thinking processes behind impulsivity are poorly understood, and this prevents the development of highly effective and diverse self-control strategies that could help a wide range of people manage their impulses.

The main purpose of this study is to understand the genetic and environmental influences on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie impulsive behaviour and their associations with a range of different mental health problems. The results could assist in developing earlier diagnosis and better treatments for people with mental health problems, such as alcohol, drug, and eating problems.

What is involved?

Participation in this study consists of completing a series of online questionnaires and impulsivity tasks that will take approximately 60 minutes total. You will be reimbursed $30 for your time. 

What exactly do the questionnaires and tasks involve?

• The questionnaires will ask about any your recent experiences with inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity as well as alcohol, drugs, and eating, and characteristics such as your height and weight. 
• The impulsivity tasks consist of three games with a common ‘wild west’ theme. You can watch short video clips of each task here.
  • In the first game, you will be required to shoot when bandits appear by pressing the spacebar on your computer and not shoot by withholding your response when sheriffs appear.
  • In the second game, you will be asked to select as quickly and accurately as possible which of two image categories (e.g., a canyon or a swamp) is appearing as a pixelated image which disambiguates over a period of a few seconds.
  • In the final task, on each trial you will be required to guess which of two gold prospectors will be the luckier and find more gold.
• For all three games, you will be awarded points for correct answers and penalised points for incorrect answers
• At the end of the session, you will be provided with some feedback about your impulsivity, including which (if any) of your thought processes might be contributing to more impulsive decisions.  

Who is eligible?

All twins who participated in the “Mental Health Study” with the Monash Brain and Behaviour Project in 2021-2022. 

Please note, all eligible participants should have received a study invitation directly from the Monash Brain and Behaviour Project study team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or the study team directly (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).  

Recruitment:

May 8th -June 30th 2022