Interactions between inter-temporal decision-making and prospective cognition in low impulse control populations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jan Peters, since 5/2014
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2011 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191279593

Humans and many experimental animals prefer immediate over delayed rewards. The subjective value of future rewards typically declines in a hyperbolic fashion over time, a phenomenon referred to as delay discounting in inter-temporal decision-making. A variety of addiction-related disorders are associated with increased discounting of future rewards, including smoking and pathological gambling. Along similar lines, impulsivity in delay discounting is high in children and adolescents and only reaches levels comparable to adulthood around the age of 14-15. In a recent study, we showed that real subject-specific event cues presented during inter-temporal decision-making significantly reduce the rate of reward delay discounting in healthy young adults, an effect that is mediated by functional interactions between regions involved in prospective thinking (hippocampus) and prefrontal decision-making circuits (anterior cingulate cortex). Aim of the present project is 1) to investigate whether a similar induction of future-minded decisionmaking can occur in populations that are known to have impaired impulse control (e.g. addicts and adolescents) and 2) to use functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize possible alterations in neural valuation processes that may contribute to impulsive behaviour in these populations, as well as their modulation by prospective thinking.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Christian Büchel
• Ehemalige Antragsteller: Dr. Stephan Miedl, from 1/2013 until 5/2013; Dr. Tobias Sommer-Blöchl, from 5/2013 until 4/2014