• League Of Reason Forums will shut down 10th September 2025.
    There is a thread regarding this in General Discussion.

The science of self control

I found this youtube vid and being one who battles constantly with making the correct choices with things that are "bad" I thought this little study was quite interesting
 
I have no control, maybe I need electroshock?
I'm totally making these today (cheese cake filled strawberries - which are positively orgasmic for anyone who hasn't tried them)

IMG_9343.jpg


and then........ obviously I'm going to eat them
Ok so although the above study is kinda interesting I don't see how it gets around the endorphins aspect.
I can chose to eat a carrot instead of a creamcheese stuff strawberry (maybe drizzled in alternating stripes of white and dark chocolate *drooling*)
but a carrot does jack diddly doodly and the above mentioned strawberry sends me into raptures.
Found an article.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/324/5927/646.short
Every day, individuals make dozens of choices between an alternative with higher overall value and a more tempting but ultimately inferior option. Optimal decision-making requires self-control. We propose two hypotheses about the neurobiology of self-control: (i) Goal-directed decisions have their basis in a common value signal encoded in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and (ii) exercising self-control involves the modulation of this value signal by dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor brain activity while dieters engaged in real decisions about food consumption. Activity in vmPFC was correlated with goal values regardless of the amount of self-control. It incorporated both taste and health in self-controllers but only taste in non-self-controllers. Activity in DLPFC increased when subjects exercised self-control and correlated with activity in vmPFC.

I don't understand how this technology would help anyone aside from the scientist performing the experiment saying "hmmm well that's interesting"
 
Top