How people reach their goals: Neural basis responsible for trait self-control association with hope

Hope, the engagement in conscious efforts to obtain goals, is an important aspect of psychological adaption. Trait self-control (TSC), the capacity to alter predominant responses and promote desirable long-term goals, has been found to facilitate one's hope. However, the underlying neural correlates of how TSC is associated with hope remain unclear. Here, we employed amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) to investigate these issues in 522 Chinese college students. Whole-brain correlation analysis indicated that higher TSC was associated with increased ALFF in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the left anterior insula within the cognitive control network (CCN), and with decreased ALFF in the left angular gyrus (AG) and precuneus within the default-mode network (DMN). Furthermore, TSC mediated the association of ALFF in the MFG and the AG with hope. Overall, these findings suggest that the regions distributed in the CCN and the DMN could be responsible for self-control capacity and provide a neural perspective to understand the relationship between self-regulation and hope.