Chapter 38 - Cocaine and Intertemporal Decision-Making

Abstract

Intertemporal decision-making refers to choices among options that vary in both magnitude and delay to arrival (e.g., choices between a small, immediate reward vs a large, delayed reward). An individual’s preference for immediate over delayed rewards depends in part on the degree to which delays reduce (discount) the rewards’ subjective value, and is considered to be one dimension of impulsivity (“impulsive choice”). A large body of literature has demonstrated elevated levels of impulsive choice in chronic cocaine users. This chapter begins by reviewing this literature in terms of the direction of causality in the relationship between cocaine use and impulsive choice (whether high levels of impulsive choice are a predisposing factor for or a consequence of cocaine use). The chapter goes on to discuss research in animal models that has begun to address these causal relationships, as well as neural mechanisms that may underlie these relationships.