Inhibitory response control is a cognitive mechanism that enables effortful, goal-directed suppression of motor responses. As noted above, this includes exerting control over both goal-directed, reward-seeking (impulsive) and automatic and/or habitual (compulsive) actions. In either case, failures of inhibitory control can result in hasty actions made with little forethought of the consequences of the behaviors. The proposed significance of inhibitory response control to drug addiction, in particular, is that impairments in this domain might figure centrally into the compromised ability to control drug-seeking and –taking.1, 31, 33, 56–58
