# Project 1: Impulsivity

> **NIH NIH P50** · JACKSON LABORATORY · 2024 · $204,319

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY IMPULSIVITY (PROJECT 1)
Impulsivity describes a heightened propensity to engage in excessive reward pursuit or consumption, perhaps
resulting from unusually strong motivational urges to obtain the reward and/or difficulty with reasoning about the
consequences of, or suppressing, reward-related behaviors. High levels of impulsivity segregate with
recreational and clinically impairing drug use in humans, including the initiation of misuse, escalation into
repetitive and habitual use and attempts to achieve and maintain abstinence. Impulsive behaviors can both
predict susceptibility for relatively greater drug self-administration in both humans and animal models and result
from experience with stimulant drugs of abuse. The overall objective of Project 1 is to identify genetic, genomic
and neurobiological mechanisms contributing to individual differences in impulsive behaviors that may be
relevant to addiction. The scientific synergy made possible through collaboration with investigators, projects and
cores within the CSNA is designed to generate insights into the genetic correlations between impulsivity and
other biobehavioral risk factors for addiction, novel genetic variations and gene expression mechanisms
associated with reinforcement learning and impulsivity, and neural mechanisms by which the identified variants
act to influence behavior. Using the high diversity Collaborative Cross (CC) and Diversity Outbred (DO) lines
that represent powerful polygenic models of trait variation, we will: 1) assess shared mechanisms among
measures of impulsivity and novelty-related behaviors, psychomotor and incentive sensitization to cocaine and
cocaine IVSA and 2) identify molecular mechanisms underlying variation in impulsive behavior using gene
expression correlations and genetic mapping. We will also design, create and phenotype engineered CC strains
reliably exhibiting variable behavioral phenotypes to test the role for candidate genes in regulating impulsive
behaviors and underlying neurobiology. These analyses represent one of the deepest phenotypic and genomic
analysis of impulsivity yet conducted and will expose new biological influences on inter-individual differences in
addiction liability.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10879007
- **Project number:** 5P50DA039841-08
- **Recipient organization:** JACKSON LABORATORY
- **Principal Investigator:** J. DAVID JENTSCH
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $204,319
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10879007

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10879007, Project 1: Impulsivity (5P50DA039841-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10879007. Licensed CC0.

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