Life Stress and Inhibitory Control Deficits: Teaching BrainWise as a Neurocognitive Intervention in Vulnerable Populations

The chapter describes inhibitory control in the context of broader and related constructs, executive function and self-regulation. We discuss the adaptive functions of inhibitory control, as well as evidence that life stress, such as poverty, maltreatment, homelessness, and mental illness, negatively impacts individuals’ inhibitory control and overall self-regulation skills. Moreover, these stressors are known to disrupt the development and functioning of crucial brain systems underlying inhibitory control. Following this review, we discuss a critical thinking skills intervention, BrainWise, which is designed to teach inhibitory and self-regulation skills to children, youth and adults. We describe the implementation of the program, and review evidence for its effectiveness with various populations, including our recent study that demonstrated the success of BrainWise in teaching these skills to homeless men living in transitional housing. Finally, we describe our proposed future applications of this intervention to veterans suffering serious mental health challenges. Our overarching goals are to highlight the importance of inhibitory control and overall self-regulation, the vulnerability of these important skills to life stress, and the promise held by one neurocognitive intervention for improving inhibitory control in high-risk populations.