Motivational salience, impulsivity and testosterone in free cycling women: An ERP-Study

Abstract Impulsivity is regarded as a personality dimension that is associated with fast acting without always thinking of its consequences. Whereas it has been associated with a lot of pathologies, its neural associations and in which way these are related to motivational- and incentive salience, are far from being clear. Furthermore, sex differences suggest some associations with different reactivity across the menstrual cycle in women, hinting to possible hormonal influences. 35 free cycling women were tested in a randomized within-subject design across three cycle-phases, recording an EEG during an Picture-Stroop-Paradigm, measuring gonadal hormones (estradiol, progesterone, testosterone), as well as assessing impulsivity with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. It was hypothesized that reactivity towards highly salient pictures, indicated by the event related potentials P300 and the late positive potential (LPP), to be differing in dependence of impulsivity. Results reveal associations of high impulsivity with generally lower P300-amplitudes, blunted LPP-responses towards erotic pictures, as well as lower mean testosterone concentrations in female subjects. This is especially interesting in the context of motivational salience and might be indicating a higher threshold of activation needed in high impulsive individuals - being in line with clinical observations with associations of addictions and other disorders.