The proposed study aims to gain a better understanding of the etiology of impulsivity and its relationship to antisocial behavior in children within the context of an extensive behavioral, cognitive, and psychophysiological assessment battery. The study will expand on previous findings by also investigating the genetics of impulsivity during a laboratory paradigm, the Go/NoGo task. Performance measures of response latency (reaction times) and number of errors will be obtained and calculated during the task. An existing hypothesis states that faster reaction times and shorter latencies are indicative of impulsive responding. Subjects will include 600 pairs of 9 and 10-year old twins and their primary caregivers recruited from the Los Angeles county school districts. The study will be conducted in a genetically informative twin design, which will allow for the investigation of the genetic and environmental influences of impulsivity. Multivariate genetic analyses will also be employed to examine possible genetic and environmental influences of motor and behavioral impulsivity during the Go/NoGo task.
