ArticleScientific reports2023
The propensity to sign-track is associated with externalizing behavior and distinct patterns of reward-related brain activation in youth.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction incorporate addiction to opioid drugs?Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Functional bipartition of medial prefrontal cortex into salience detection and movement gain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The effects of reward uncertainty and alcohol intoxication on human sign- and goal-tracking.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Test-retest reliability of the gaze index for sign-tracking and goal-tracking.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- When cues take the wheel: cue-control across alcohol use disorder, binge-eating disorder, gambling disorder, and internet gaming disorder.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Article
- Taste matters: lessons learned in translating a conditioned drug cue reactivity paradigm from rodents to humans.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Motivation, attention, and uncertainty: insights from animal and human research and implications for addiction.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Sign- vs. goal-tracking is associated with greater adiposity and altered functional connectivity in response to a naturalistic food paradigm.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Genotype-dependent functional role of the anterior and posterior paraventricular thalamus in pavlovian conditioned approach.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Implementations of sign- and goal-tracking behavior in humans: A scoping review.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Fractionating impulsivity and reward-related phenotypes in adolescent mice.Behavioural brain research · 2025Article
- Article
- Beneath the Surface of Self-Reports: Dissecting Subjective and Neural Responses to Age-Specific Visual Stimuli.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- The Incentive-Sensitization Theory of Addiction 30 Years On.Annual review of psychology · 2025Review
- Cortico-striatal action control inherent of opponent cognitive-motivational styles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Using sign tracking to experimentally increase self-control in rats.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2024Article
- Resting-state brain activation patterns and network topology distinguish human sign and goal trackers.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Leveraging individual differences in cue-reward learning to investigate the psychological and neural basis of shared psychiatric symptomatology: The sign-tracker/goal-tracker model.Behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- Understanding the shift to compulsion in addiction: insights from personality traits, social factors, and neurobiology.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Externalizing behaviors in childhood often predict impulse control disorders in adulthood; however, the underlying bio-behavioral risk factors are incompletely understood. In animals, the propensity to sign-track, or the degree to which incentive motivational value is attributed to reward cues, is associated with externalizing-type behaviors and deficits in executive control. Using a Pavlovian conditioned approach paradigm, we quantified sign-tracking in 40 healthy 9-12-year-olds. We also measured parent-reported externalizing behaviors and anticipatory neural activations to outcome-predicting cues using the monetary incentive delay fMRI task. Sign-tracking was associated with attentional and inhibitory control deficits and the degree of amygdala, but not cortical, activation during reward anticipation. These findings support the hypothesis that youth with a propensity to sign-track are prone to externalizing tendencies, with an over-reliance on subcortical cue-reactive brain systems. This research highlights sign-tracking as a promising experimental approach delineating the behavioral and neural circuitry of individuals at risk for externalizing disorders.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.