Children's impulsive behavior may be related to brain connectivity, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the University of Murcia in Spain found that changes in the brain are associated with impulsiveness, a personality trait that causes difficulties in inhibiting a response in the face of a stimulus and leads to unplanned actions without considering the negative consequences. These patterns can serve as an indicator for predicting the risk of behavioral problems such as attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.

"Impulsiveness is a risk factor for the development of serious behavioral problems," Luis J. Fuentes, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "Among the children with a typical development, we can observe individual differences in their interaction with the environment."

For the study, researchers recruited 24 children. They participants were classified according to their levels of impulsive behavior. Then, through neuroimaging techniques, the experts studied their patterns of brain connectivity. With this information, they analyzed the patterns to see if they were related to the level of impulsiveness that the parents had noticed in their children.

They found that the level of impulsiveness correlated with the alteration in the connections between the posterior cingulate cortex and the right angular gyrus, "which is also observed in people with antisocial behavior; and other cerebral areas that are usually activated when performing given cognitive tasks," Fuentes added.

The findings affirm that what parents notice about their children's behavior has a clear reflection in their cerebral connectivity patterns, and this is useful information for checking what is observed on a daily basis on a neuro-anatomical level.

Furthermore, alterations in the connectivity between areas of the brain that were previously related with antisocial behavior have been identified in children with normal development.

"Said brain connectivity patterns can serve as biological indicators for predicting the risk of the appearance of behavioral problems and social adaptation difficulties," Fuentes concluded.