How do lesion studies elucidate the role of the hippocampus in intertemporal choice?

Hippocampus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela J. Palombo ◽  
Margaret M. Keane ◽  
Mieke Verfaellie
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Lesion Studies

scholarly journals The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ciaramelli ◽  
Flavia De Luca ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Jenkin N. Y. Mok ◽  
Francesca Bianconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reward Valuation

Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting; DD) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, twelve patients with lesions to vmPFC and forty-one healthy controls chose between smallerimmediate and larger-delayed rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals What Neuroscientific Studies Tell Us about Inhibition of Return

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Satel ◽  
Nicholas R. Wilson ◽  
Raymond M. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Direct Methods ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lesion Studies

An inhibitory aftermath of orienting, inhibition of return (IOR), has intrigued scholars since its discovery about 40 years ago. Since then, the phenomenon has been subjected to a wide range of neuroscientific methods and the results of these are reviewed in this paper. These include direct manipulations of brain structures (which occur naturally in brain damage and disease or experimentally as in TMS and lesion studies) and measurements of brain activity (in humans using EEG and fMRI and in animals using single unit recording). A variety of less direct methods (e.g., computational modeling, developmental studies, etc.) have also been used. The findings from this wide range of methods support the critical role of subcortical and cortical oculomotor pathways in the generation and nature of IOR.

The role of substantia nigra in the development of kindling: pharmacologic and lesion studies

1987 ◽  
Vol 412 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheolsu Shin ◽  
Jon M. Silver ◽  
Douglas W. Bonhaus ◽  
James O. McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Substantia Nigra ◽  
Lesion Studies

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF NUMERACY AND IMPULSIVITY IN INTERTEMPORAL CHOICE AND DECISION MAKING

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 254-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiuqing Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Choice Preference ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Intertemporal Choices

A growing body of research has indicated a relationship between numeracy and decision making and that lower numerate people display more disadvantageous decisions. In the domain of intertemporal choice, researchers have long been using impulsivity to address choice preference. To further illuminate the psychological mechanisms of making intertemporal choices, the present study examined the role of impulsivity and numeracy in intertemporal choice, in the presence of each other. The study adopted both subjective and numeracy scales. These scales correlated with each other and with intertemporal choice preference. Moreover, it was found that after controlling for impulsivity, the object numeracy was significantly associated with choice preference, with higher numerate participants showing a stronger preference toward the later larger gains over the sooner smaller gains. Thus, the study indicated that intertemporal choice preference could be attributed to both impulsivity and numeracy.

scholarly journals Individual differences in the delay-reward heuristic: An exploratory study of socioeconomic status, subjective status, and personal relative deprivation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dea Begaj ◽  
William John Skylark
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Annual Household Income ◽  
Missing Value

Recent research has examined the role of inference in intertemporal choice: when a future financial reward is ambiguous, people's inferences about its value depend upon the delay until its delivery, and inferences about ambiguous delays depend upon the size of the stated reward. Here we report an exploratory study of individual differences in this \textit{delay-reward heuristic} by examining whether people's inferences about ambiguous future rewards correlate with objective and subjective indicators of socio-economic status: annual household income, education, self-placement in a national hierarchy of social status (SSS), and self-reported personal relative deprivation (PRD). Participants were presented with a hypothetical choice between receiving £10 now and an ambiguous reward in 1 year's time, and had to infer the missing value. In multiple regression analyses, age and household income emerged as unique predictors that were negatively associated with (log-transformed) estimates, although the effect of income became unreliable when this variable was log-transformed; the effects of SSS and PRD were not reliably different from zero. When participants were subsequently asked to assume that their inferences of the missing value were correct and choose between the immediate and delayed option, larger estimates were positively associated with greater willingness to wait; choices were also predicted by age, income and SSS although the latter two effects were not unambiguously non-zero, and in multiple regression analysis only participants' estimates of the reward emerged as a reliable predictor of preference. Taken together, these results support previous work suggesting that age is a meaningful predictor of inferences about ambiguous rewards and delays, and provide initial evidence that such inferences may also be associated with income.

scholarly journals Decision making: effects of methylphenidate on temporal discounting in nonhuman primates

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Z. Rajala ◽  
Rick L. Jenison ◽  
Luis C. Populin
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Dopaminergic System ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Primary Treatment ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Low Doses ◽  
Impulsive Behavior ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Delayed Reward

Decisions are often made based on which option will result in the largest reward. When given a choice between a smaller but immediate reward and a larger delayed reward, however, humans and animals often choose the smaller, an effect known as temporal discounting. Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission is central to reward processing and encodes delayed reward value. Impulsivity, the tendency to act without forethought, is associated with excessive discounting of rewards, which has been documented in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Both impulsivity and temporal discounting are linked to the dopaminergic system. Methylphenidate (MPH), which blocks the DA transporter and increases extracellular levels of DA in the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex, is a primary treatment for ADHD and, at low doses, ameliorates impulsivity in both humans and animals. This study tested the hypothesis that low doses of MPH would decrease the discounting rate of rhesus monkeys performing an intertemporal choice task, suggesting a reduction in impulsivity. The results support this hypothesis and provide further evidence for the role of DA in temporal discounting and impulsive behavior.

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