The neural substrates responsible for punishment sensitivity association with procrastination: Left putamen connectivity with left middle temporal gyrus.

Procrastination has adverse consequences across cultural contexts. Behavioral research found a positive correlation between punishment sensitivity and procrastination. However, little is known about the neural substrates underlying the association between them. We employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) methods to address this issue with two independent samples. In Sample 1, behavioral results found that punishment sensitivity was positively related to procrastination. The VBM analysis showed that punishment sensitivity was negatively correlated with gray matter volume in left putamen. Subsequently, the RSFC results revealed that left putamen - left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) connectivity was positively associated with punishment sensitivity. More crucially, mediation analysis indicated that left putamen - left MTG connectivity mediated the relationship between punishment sensitivity and procrastination. The aforementioned results were validated in Sample 2. Altogether, left putamen - left MTG connectivity might be the neural signature of the association between punishment sensitivity and procrastination.