Developmental 17-OHPC exposure disrupts behavior regulated by the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system in rats.

The synthetic progestin, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC), is administered to pregnant individuals with the intention of reducing preterm birth. Although there is evidence that 17-OHPC is likely transferred from mother to fetus, there is little information regarding the potential effects of 17-OHPC administration on behavioral and neural development in offspring. Neonatal 17-OHPC exposure disrupts the development of the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic pathway and associated behaviors in rats. 17-OHPC exposure altered dopaminergic innervation of prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in neonates and adolescents and altered performance in measures of decision-making, set-shifting, and reversal-learning tasks. The present study tested the effects of developmental 17-OHPC exposure on numerous cognitive behaviors mediated by the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system, such as decision-making in a delay discounting task, latent inhibition following conditioned taste aversion (CTA), and spatial memory in the Morris Water Maze (MWM). The present work also aimed to further investigate response omissions in rats exposed to 17-OHPC during development and the potential role of dopamine D2 receptor in altering omissions in a delay discounting task. 17-OHPC exposure rendered rats less sensitive to an Eticlopride-induced increase in omissions in a delay discounting task when compared to controls. Quinpirole flattened the discount curve in both groups but did not significantly affect omissions in 17-OHPC-exposed or control rats. Following CTA, sucrose-pre-exposed 17-OHPC-exposed rats demonstrated decreased latent inhibition when compared to controls. In Morris Water Maze testing, 17-OHPC-exposed rats did not differ from controls after the first day of testing or during probe testing. These results suggest that exposure to 17-OHPC altered aspects of decision-making and latent inhibition in adult male rats, without affecting performance in a measure of spatial learning and memory. Further, the insensitivity of 17-OHPC-exposed males to an Eticlopride-induced increase in omissions suggests a dysfunction in the D2 receptor following exposure to this clinically used synthetic progestin.

Delay Discounting and BMI in Hypertensives: Serial Mediations of Self-Efficacy, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior.

Objective: Our study aimed to examine the association between delay discounting (DD) and body mass index (BMI) in individuals with hypertension. Additionally, we sought to explore and compare the potential mediating effects of self-efficacy, physical activity and sedentary behavior in this association. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two cities in the Jiangsu province of China, specifically Nanjing and Yangzhou, from March to June 2023. A total of 972 hypertensive patients completed the questionnaire (M age = 64.7 years, SD age = 8.2 years, 54.2% female). Participants engaged in a money choice experiment on computers, provided their height and weight, and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). The experimental program was generated using the programming software E-Prime version 2.0. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify potential covariates. Two serial mediation models were conducted using PROCESS macro 4.1 in SPSS 27.0. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were designated as M2 to investigate and contrast their respective mediating effects in the association between delay discounting and body mass index. Results: Self-efficacy, physical activity, and sedentary behavior served as mediators in the relationship between delay discounting and BMI. Self-efficacy accounted for 14.9% and 14.3% of the total effect in Models 1 and 2, respectively, while physical activity and sedentary behavior each accounted for 14.9% and 9.5% of the total effect, respectively. The serial mediation effects of self-efficacy and physical activity, as well as self-efficacy and sedentary behavior, were significant (B = 0.01, 95% CI [0.01, 0.02]; B = 0.01, 95% CI [0.002, 0.01]), collectively contributing 2.1% and 2.4% of the total effect. Sedentary behavior played a smaller mediating role compared to physical activity in this association. Conclusion: The results indicated that self-efficacy, physical activity and sedentary behavior could act as mediators in the association between delay discounting and BMI, thus potentially mitigating the risk of obesity in hypertensive individuals.

Perceived Social Support and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Hypertensive Patients: A Latent Profile Analysis and the Role of Delay Discounting and Living Alone.

Background: Improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among hypertensive individuals has emerged as a significant public health issue. However, current research has ignored the individual heterogeneity of perceived social support (PSS) among hypertensive patients. The potential mechanism of delay discounting (DD), living alone, and PSS on HRQoL remains unclear, and further exploration is required. Aim: This study aimed to ascertain PSS profiles among hypertensive patients and examine the hypotheses that DD mediates the relationship between PSS and HRQoL and that this mediating process is moderated by living alone in hypertensive patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Jiangsu, China. In total, 1815 hypertensive patients completed socio-demographic and HRQoL questionnaires, a PSS scale, and a DD task. Data analyses included a latent profile analysis, χ2-test, Spearman correlation analysis, and PROCESS macro for regression analysis. Results: Four potential PSS profiles were identified: lowest (3.2%), moderate-low (26.6%), moderate-high (42.4%), and highest (27.8%). DD mediated the association between PSS and HRQoL. The first half of this mediating process was moderated by living alone. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that PSS, DD, and living alone significantly influence the HRQoL of individuals with hypertension. Healthcare professionals should consider variations in PSS among hypertensive patients and implement interventions to reduce DD by enhancing PSS, in order to improve the HRQoL of this population.

Willingness to wait outperforms delay discounting in predicting drinking severity.

Alcohol misuse ranks among the leading causes of preventable death worldwide. Therefore, discovering measures that can predict hazardous drinking is critical. The delay discounting paradigm-which assesses relative preference for immediate rewards over larger, later rewards-has frequently been used as a proxy for impulsive choice, but it does not capture how long someone is willing to wait for delayed rewards when the arrival time is uncertain. In contrast, a newer willingness-to-wait task measures how long someone is willing to wait for a delayed reward of uncertain timing before giving up. We hypothesized that performance in this willingness-to-wait task would be associated with drinking severity and that this task may even outperform delay discounting as a predictor of drinking severity. We pooled data from multiple studies of mostly college-aged adult participants. Drinking severity was assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Willingness to wait under temporal uncertainty, but not delay discounting, was associated with severity of alcohol problems among participants who drank (n = 212). Individuals engaging in hazardous drinking were less willing to wait for rewards when delays were unknown than were individuals with low-risk drinking habits. Thus, willingness to wait under temporal uncertainty may be an important predictor of problematic drinking.

Validation of a novel effort-discounting assessment and evaluation of the effort-delay confound on effort discounting.

A vast literature highlights the prevalence of impulsive decision making in maladaptive outcomes. Most research has focused on one form-delay discounting. Less research has focused on effort discounting, possibly because of a lack of a standardized task for assessment. In published effort-discounting tasks, effort is conceptualized in many ways, making it difficult to compare findings across studies. Additionally, most effort-discounting tasks do not control for the time inherent in completing the effortful task, which makes it difficult to disentangle effort discounting from delay discounting. The current study evaluated the validity of a novel hypothetical effort-discounting task. The novel task was used to evaluate the influence of the effort-delay confound on rates of effort discounting in humans. Participants were randomly assigned to complete a confounded or a controlled version of the novel effort-discounting task. The effort-discounting data were well described by hyperbolic and exponential functions. When effort and delay were confounded, effort-discounting rates were significantly higher than when effort alone influenced discounting. The results suggest that data that are produced by effort-discounting tasks that do not control the effort-delay confound should be interpreted cautiously because they are also influenced by delay discounting. Task limitations and future directions are discussed.

Episodic future thinking improves intertemporal choice and food choice in individuals with higher weight: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Episodic future thinking (EFT) strengthens self-regulation abilities by increasing the perceived value of long-term reinforcements and reducing impulsive choice in delay discounting tasks. As such, EFT interventions have the potential to improve dietary and eating-related decision-making in individuals with obesity or binge eating symptoms, conditions associated with elevated delay discounting. Here, we meta-analyzed evidence from 12 studies that assessed whether EFT interventions improve delay discounting and real-world food choice compared to control interventions. Included studies involved 951 adults with overweight or obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥25). There were no studies involving participants with binge eating disorder. EFT intervention pooled effects were significant, improving delay discounting with a medium effect, g = 0.55, p < 0.0001, and subsequent food choice outcomes with a small effect, g = 0.31, p < 0.01. Notably, our review is the first to analyze mechanisms of effect in this population, demonstrating that improvements were greater when temporal horizons of EFT episodes were aligned with delay discounting tasks and more distant horizons predicted far-transfer to subsequent dietary and eating-related choices. Our findings thus show that EFT is an effective intervention for individuals with higher weight at risk of adverse health consequences.

Genome-wide association study of delay discounting in Heterogeneous Stock rats.

Delay discounting refers to the behavioral tendency to devalue rewards as a function of their delay in receipt. Heightened delay discounting has been associated with substance use disorders and multiple co-occurring psychopathologies. Human and animal genetic studies have established that delay discounting is heritable, but only a few associated genes have been identified. We aimed to identify novel genetic loci associated with delay discounting through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using Heterogeneous Stock (HS) rats, a genetically diverse outbred population derived from eight inbred founder strains. We assessed delay discounting in 650 male and female HS rats using an adjusting amount procedure in which rats chose between smaller immediate sucrose rewards or a larger reward at various delays. Preference switch points were calculated and both exponential and hyperbolic functions were fitted to these indifference points. Area under the curve (AUC) and the discounting parameter k of both functions were used as delay discounting measures. GWAS for AUC, exponential k, and one indifference point identified significant loci on chromosomes 20 and 14. The gene Slc35f1, which encodes a member of the solute carrier family, was the sole gene within the chromosome 20 locus. That locus also contained an eQTL for Slc35f1, suggesting that heritable differences in the expression might be responsible for the association with behavior. Adgrl3, which encodes a latrophilin subfamily G-protein coupled receptor, was the sole gene within the chromosome 14 locus. These findings implicate novel genes in delay discounting and highlight the need for further exploration.

Food Cue Reactivity Meets the Reinforcer Pathology Model: Behavioral Economic Measures of Cue-Induced Changes in Food Reinforcer Efficacy.

Food cue reactivity, or behavioral sensitivity to conditioned food cues, is an eating pattern observed in those with obesity and binge-eating disorder. The reinforcer pathology model, which characterizes overconsumption of a reinforcer such as food may be relevant to food cue reactivity, especially in those with obesity and binge-eating disorder. The reinforcer pathology model posits that steep delay discounting (DD) and demand elasticity are processes involved in the overconsumption of food. Two of our recent studies examine the extent to which reactivity to conditioned food cues may be involved in food reinforcer pathologies. First, food cues were conditioned with Oreo cookies with binge-eating prone (BEP) and binge-eating resistant (BER) rats. Delay discounting was compared before and after conditioning. Food cues induced steeper DD for rats, though BEP rats showed some evidence for greater sensitivity to this effect than BER rats, albeit this difference was not significant. Second, healthy-weight humans and humans with overweight/obese BMI underwent conditioning of visual cues paired with M&M candies. After acquisition, cues induced greater demand intensity and inelasticity for food compared to baseline. Participants with overweight/obese BMI, compared to controls, also showed some evidence for greater sensitivity to this change ininelasticity compared to healthy-weight participants, but this difference was also not significant. Food cues, then, may induce changes in DD and economic demand, supporting the relevance of reinforcer pathologies.

The Use of Nonmonetary Outcomes in Health-Related Delay Discounting Research: Review and Recommendations.

Delay discounting (DD) refers to the tendency to devalue an outcome as a function of its delay. Most contemporary human DD research uses hypothetical money to assess individual rates of DD. However, nonmonetary outcomes such as food, substances of misuse, and sexual outcomes have been used as well, and have advantages because of their connections to health. This article reviews the literature on the use of nonmonetary outcomes of food, drugs, and sexual outcomes in relation to health and reinforcer pathologies such as substance use disorders, obesity, and sexual risk behaviors, respectively, and makes a case for their use in discounting research. First, food, substances, and sex may be more ecologically valid outcomes than money in terms of their connections to health problems and reinforcer pathologies. Second, consistent trends in commodity-specific (i.e., domain) effects, in which nonmonetary outcomes are discounted more steeply than money, enhance variation in discounting values. Third, commodity-specific changes in discounting with treatments designed to change health choices are described. Finally, methodological trends such as test-retest reliability, magnitude effects, the use of hypothetical versus real outcomes, and age-related effects are discussed in relation to the three outcome types and compared to trends with monetary discounting. Limitations that center around individual preferences, nonsystematic data, and deprivation are discussed. We argue that researchers can enhance their DD research, especially those related to health problems and reinforcer pathologies, with the use of nonmonetary outcomes. Recommendations for future directions of research are delineated.

Reprint of: Clustering of behavioral economic biases in decision-making and risk for cigarette smoking and other substance use in women and men.

BACKGROUND: Low loss aversion (LA) and high delay discounting (DD) are behavioral-economic decision-making biases that independently predict cigarette smoking and other risky substance use. Here we examine (1) whether low-LA and high-DD co-occur, (2) does co-occurrence increase the odds of current smoking and other substance use compared to only low-LA, high-DD, or neither; and (3) potential gender differences in these associations. METHOD: Data are from five studies with U.S. adults who currently smoked or never-smoked cigarettes recruited using online convenience sampling matching on gender and education. Participants completed identical sociodemographic, substance use (cigarette, other drugs, alcohol), and LA (hypothetical 50-50 gambles) and DD (monetary-choice questionnaire) measures. LA and DD scores were dichotomized as low and high using Receiver-Operating-Characteristic Curve logistic regression. RESULTS: LA and DD each independently predicted substance use and with few exceptions were not influenced by gender. Low-LA compared to high-LA predicted two-fold greater odds of co-occurring high-DD (AOR = 2.120, 95%CI:1.749-2.571, p < .0001). Similarly, high-DD compared to low DD predicted two-fold greater odds of low-LA (AOR = 2.118, 95%CI:1.747-2.568, p < .0001). Among those with co-occurring low-LA and high-DD, odds of substance use were 5-10 times greater than those exhibiting neither, and 2-3 times greater than those exhibiting only low-LA or high-DD. CONCLUSIONS: Low-LA and high-DD cluster in women and men such that exhibiting one of these decision-making biases doubles the odds of exhibiting the other. These results demonstrate reliable clustering of low-LA and high-DD and a striking increase in risk for substance use relative to having only one or neither decision-making bias.

Cortico-striatal beta oscillations as a reward-related signal.

The value associated with reward is sensitive to external factors, such as the time between the choice and reward delivery as classically manipulated in temporal discounting tasks. Subjective preference for two reward options is dependent on objective variables of reward magnitude and reward delay. Single neuron correlates of reward value have been observed in regions, including ventral striatum, orbital, and medial prefrontal cortex. Brain imaging studies show cortico-striatal-limbic network activity related to subjective preferences. To explore how oscillatory dynamics represent reward processing across brain regions, we measured local field potentials of rats performing a temporal discounting task. Our goal was to use a data-driven approach to identify an electrophysiological marker that correlates with reward preference. We found that reward-locked oscillations at beta frequencies signaled the magnitude of reward and decayed with longer temporal delays. Electrodes in orbitofrontal/medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, ventral striatum, and amygdala individually increased power and were functionally connected at beta frequencies during reward outcome. Beta power during reward outcome correlated with subjective value as defined by a computational model fit to the discounting behavior. These data suggest that cortico-striatal beta oscillations are a reward signal correlated, which may represent subjective value and hold potential to serve as a biomarker and potential therapeutic target.

Empirical examination of working memory performance and its neural correlates in relation to delay discounting in two large samples.

The neurobiological basis of working memory and delay discounting are theorized to overlap, but few studies have empirically examined these relations in large samples. To address this, we investigated the association of neural activation during an fMRI N-Back working memory task with delay discounting area, as well as in- and out-of-scanner working memory measures. These analyses were conducted in two large task fMRI datasets, the Human Connectome Project and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Although in- and out-of-scanner working memory performance were significantly associated with N-back task brain activation regions, contrary to our hypotheses, there were no significant associations between working memory task activation and delay discounting scores. These findings call into question the extent of the neural overlap in delay discounting and working memory and highlight the need for more investigations directly interrogating overlapping and distinct brain regions across cognitive neuroscience tasks.

Inconsistent advice by ChatGPT influences decision making in various areas.

The ChatGPT technology is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives and is starting to be utilized in various decision-making contexts. The current study builds upon prior research, demonstrating that people's moral decision-making is influenced by ChatGPT across three perspectives, as evidenced by two studies (total n = 1925). The findings suggested that ChatGPT advice impacted decision-making similarly to expert advice, although not all decisions were susceptible to influence, particularly those based on negative emotions. Additionally, ChatGPT advice affected decisions beyond moral judgments, but no effect was observed when the advice recommended immediate low rewards. Moreover, individuals with a higher tendency for personal fear of invalidity were more likely to be influenced by both expert and AI advice, but this was not related to trust in AI.

Clustering of behavioral economic biases in decision-making and risk for cigarette smoking and other substance use in women and men.

BACKGROUND: Low loss aversion (LA) and high delay discounting (DD) are behavioral-economic decision-making biases that independently predict cigarette smoking and other risky substance use. Here we examine (1) whether low-LA and high-DD co-occur, (2) does co-occurrence increase the odds of current smoking and other substance use compared to only low-LA, high-DD, or neither; and (3) potential gender differences in these associations. METHOD: Data are from five studies with U.S. adults who currently smoked or never-smoked cigarettes recruited using online convenience sampling matching on gender and education. Participants completed identical sociodemographic, substance use (cigarette, other drugs, alcohol), and LA (hypothetical 50-50 gambles) and DD (monetary-choice questionnaire) measures. LA and DD scores were dichotomized as low and high using Receiver-Operating-Characteristic Curve logistic regression. RESULTS: LA and DD each independently predicted substance use and with few exceptions were not influenced by gender. Low-LA compared to high-LA predicted two-fold greater odds of co-occurring high-DD (AOR = 2.120, 95%CI:1.749-2.571, p < .0001). Similarly, high-DD compared to low DD predicted two-fold greater odds of low-LA (AOR = 2.118, 95%CI:1.747-2.568, p < .0001). Among those with co-occurring low-LA and high-DD, odds of substance use were 5-10 times greater than those exhibiting neither, and 2-3 times greater than those exhibiting only low-LA or high-DD. CONCLUSIONS: Low-LA and high-DD cluster in women and men such that exhibiting one of these decision-making biases doubles the odds of exhibiting the other. These results demonstrate reliable clustering of low-LA and high-DD and a striking increase in risk for substance use relative to having only one or neither decision-making bias.

Associations between delay discounting and unhealthy behaviors in substance use recovery.

BACKGROUND: Research on delay discounting (DD) is mixed on whether DD is a domain-specific component related to specific behaviors or a domain-general process that cuts across various behaviors. A pivotal group to test the associations between DD and unhealthy behaviors is individuals in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD), as they are moving away from a disorder toward a healthier state. METHODS: Individuals in SUD recovery (n = 317) completed the Temptation Scale, the Health Behaviors Questionnaire, and an Adjusting Delay Discounting Task. An exhaustive model space search was performed using linear regression to examine associations between DD with temptation, engagement in unhealthy behaviors, and the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in. We also tested whether remission status is associated with the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in. RESULTS: Results revealed that DD was positively associated with poor eating (p<.001), physical inactivity (p=.003), financial irresponsibility (p<.001), risky behaviors (p<.001), lack of personal development goals (p<.001), lack of household savings (p=.004), and lack of health behaviors (p=.003). DD was also positively associated with the total number of unhealthy behaviors participants engage in (p<.001). Participants who were not in remission engaged in more unhealthy behaviors compared to those who were in remission (p<.001). CONCLUSION: In a sample of individuals in recovery from SUD, DD is not domain-specific and undergirds engagement in several maladaptive health behaviors that can negatively impact recovery. Thus, DD can be a target for interventions aiming to reduce other maladaptive behaviors in SUD recovery.

Evidence for post-decisional conflict monitoring in delay discounting.

Choice impulsivity can be measured by offering a sequence of various binary choices between smaller, immediately available rewards and larger, later available rewards. An individual's delay discount (DD) rate reflects the aggregate decision-making tendency. Given the broad spectrum of disorders associated with a high DD rate, this may be an important transdiagnostic factor. This study aimed to establish whether post-decisional neurophysiological processes reflecting the presence of error monitoring are involved in delay discounting. A large sample (N = 97) was investigated, including 46 females and 51 males. The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during the classic monetary choice questionnaire (MCQ-27). Error-related event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs) following responses were analyzed. A modest relationship between error positivity (Pe) and DD rate was seen centro-parietal, with higher amplitude for low DD individuals after choosing immediate rewards. A robust association was found between DD rate and theta oscillation power increases. This was most prominent in low DD individuals after making an immediate reward choice. Theta power was positively associated with decision (reaction) time, suggesting an association between pre- and post-decisional conflict. No evidence was found for an error-related negativity (ERN) and delta oscillations. This study provides clear evidence for conflict monitoring as a post-decision process in delay discounting. Findings suggest that diminished theta band power bursts and lower Pe amplitude, observed after choosing an immediate reward, reflect the neurophysiological consequence and possibly the cause of steep delay discounting. High DD was characterized by prefrontal hypoactivation and appears to result from affective decision-making. Highlights.

The perceived controllability of negatively-valenced episodic future thinking modulates delay discounting.

Intertemporal decision-making is important for both economy and physical health. Nevertheless, in daily life, individuals tend to prefer immediate and smaller rewards to delayed and larger rewards, which is known as delay discounting (DD). Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been proven to influence DD. However, there is still no inconsistent conclusion on the effect of negative EFT on DD. Considering the perceived controllability of negative EFT may address the issue (Controllability refers to the extent to which progress and result of an event could be controlled by ourselves). In the current study, we manipulated EFT conditions (baseline, neutral EFT, negative-controllable EFT and negative-uncontrollable EFT), delayed time (i.e. 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and 3 years) and reward magnitude (small, large). We mainly found that when experiencing negative-uncontrollable EFT compared to negative-controllable EFT in the delayed time of 6 months with large rewards, individuals chose more delayed rewards, suggesting that negative-uncontrollable EFT effectively reduced DD under conditions of both large-magnitude reward and longer delayed time. The current study provides new insight for healthy groups on optimising EFT. In that case, individuals are able to gain long-term benefits in financial management and healthcare.

The impact of subclinical psychotic symptoms on delay and effort discounting: Insights from behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological methods.

BACKGROUND: The ability to value rewards is crucial for adaptive behavior and is influenced by the time and effort required to obtain them. Impairments in these computations have been observed in patients with schizophrenia and may be present in individuals with subclinical psychotic symptoms (PS). METHODS: In this study, we employed delay and effort-discounting tasks with food rewards in thirty-nine participants divided into high and low levels of PS. We investigated the underlying mechanisms of effort-discounting through computational modelling of dopamine prefrontal and subcortical circuits and the electrophysiological biomarker of both delay and effort-discounting alterations through resting-state frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). RESULTS: Results revealed greater delay discounting in the High PS group compared to the Low PS group but no differences in the effort discounting task. However, in this task, the same levels of estimated dopamine release were associated with a lower willingness to exert effort for high-calorie food rewards in High PS participants compared to Low PS participants. Although there were no significant differences in FAA between the High PS and Low PS groups, FAA was significantly associated with the severity of participants' negative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the dysfunction in temporal and effort cost computations, seen in patients with schizophrenia, may be present in individuals with subclinical PS. These findings provide valuable insight into the early vulnerability markers (behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological) for psychosis, which may aid in the development of preventive interventions. These findings are preliminary and warrant further investigation.

The functional connectivity between right insula and anterior cingulate cortex underlying the association between future self-continuity and delay discounting.

Delay discounting refers to the tendency of individuals to devalue future rewards as the delay in their receipt increases over time. Previous studies have indicated that future self-continuity correlates with delay discounting rates. However, the neural basis underlying the relationship between future self-continuity and delay discounting is not clear. To address this question, we used voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity analyses to investigate the neural basis underlying the association between future self-continuity and delay discounting. Behavioral result showed that future self-continuity was positively associated with delay discounting. Voxel-based morphometry analysis result indicated that gray matter volume in the right dorsal anterior insula was positively correlated with future self-continuity. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis found that functional connectivity between the right dorsal anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex was positively associated with future self-continuity. Mediation analysis showed that the right dorsal anterior insula-right anterior cingulate cortex functional connectivity partially mediated the relationship between future self-continuity and delay discounting. These results suggested that right dorsal anterior insula-right anterior cingulate cortex functional connectivity could be the neural basis underlying the association between future self-continuity and delay discounting. In summary, the study provided novel insights into how future self-continuity affected delay discounting and offers new explanations from a neural perspective.

Environmental Support Moderates the association of Socioeconomic Distress and Delay Discounting across Adolescence.

Early exposure to socioeconomic distress is hypothesized to reinforce decision making that prioritizes immediate, relative to delayed, rewards (i.e., delay discounting); yet these relations have not been examined longitudinal across the vulnerable adolescent period. This study is one of the first to utilize objective and subjective measures to evaluate the relative effects of environmental disadvantage and the potential protective effects of perceived environmental support on delay discounting. A diverse (48.4% White; 46.7% female) sample of participants (N = 246) reported on their home addresses at baseline when they were, on average, 11.96 years old (SDage = 0.88); Youth then reported perceived environmental supports at baseline and delay discounting annually from ages 13 to 18. A socioeconomic distress index was derived from census tract rates of unemployment, income, educational attainment, and lone parenthood. Greater socioeconomic distress was associated with a greater propensity to discount delayed rewards at baseline. Findings also suggest greater perceived higher environmental support was associated with decreasing rates of delay discounting across adolescence for youth from highly socioeconomically distressed areas. These results highlight potential future avenues for preventative and intervention efforts to improve positive youth outcomes.