Imagining Events Alternative to the Present Can Attenuate Delay Discounting.

Elisa Ciaramelli,Manuela Sellitto,Giuseppe Di Pellegrino,Giulia Tosarelli

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00269

Elisa Ciaramelli, Manuela Sellitto + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00269

Copy DOI

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that delay discounting (DD), the tendency to prefer smaller-immediate to larger-delayed rewards, decreases following vivid imagination of future events. Here, we test the hypothesis that imagining complex events alternative to direct (perceptual) experience, whether located in the future, the past, or even the present, would reduce DD. Participants (N = 250) imagined future events (Future condition), remembered past events (Past condition), imagined present events (Present-imagine condition), or reported on the current events (Present-attend condition), and then made a series of intertemporal choices about money and food. Compared to attending to the present, imagining the future reduced DD, but this only held for individuals who claimed vivid pre-experiencing of future events. Importantly, a similar attenuation of DD was found in the Past and Present-imagine conditions, suggesting that a shift in perspective from the perceptual present towards mentally constructed experience can downplay the appraisal of immediate rewards in favor of larger-delayed rewards, regardless of the location of the imagined experience in subjective time.

Highlights

Intertemporal choice requires trading off between options attainable at different times
In most delay discounting (DD) tasks, episodic future thoughts are instilled in intertemporal choice using online cues that point to experiences to occur at the relevant task delays
Episodic cueing of intertemporal choice results in increased activity in a core network associated with episodic future thinking (Benoit and Schacter, 2015) and in increased functional coupling between the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) regions that relates directly to individuals’ shifts in preference for future options (Peters and Büchel, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

Intertemporal choice requires trading off between options attainable at different times. Individuals tend to prefer immediate rewards to long-term rewards of larger value. This phenomenon reflects the decrease in subjective value of a reward as the delay until its receipt increases, known as delay discounting (DD; Frederick et al, 2002; Sellitto et al, 2011). The rate at which future rewards are discounted (DD rate) varies widely across individuals (Soman et al, 2005; Peters and Büchel, 2011) and is high in clinical conditions characterized by impulsive and shortsighted behavior, for example, addicted subjects (Kirby and Petry, 2004; Bulley and Gullo, 2017), compulsive gamblers (Holt et al, 2003), obese individuals (Amlung et al, 2016), and patients with lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC; Sellitto et al, 2010; Peters and D’Esposito, 2016).

Objectives

Results

Conclusion