Victims' time discounting 2.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake: an ERP study

The influence of COVID-19 on intertemporal choices in the health and economy domains

Background

With the spread of COVID-19, concerns regarding its adverse effects have arisen. Based on affect regulation theory and construal level theory, this study explored how COVID-19 affects intertemporal choice in the health and economy domains, self-other differences for intertemporal choice were also inspected. The study examined whether psychological safety can moderate the relationship between COVID-19 and intertemporal choice.

Methods

A 2 (COVID-19 status: pre-COVID-19, during-COVID-19) × 2 (decision maker role: decision for self, decision for others) × 2 (domain: health, economy) three-factor hybrid experiment was employed.

Results

(1) Individuals in during-COVID-19 condition preferred more immediate options. (2) Delayed options were preferred more in the health domain. Preference for immediate money options enhanced during than before COVID-19. However, COVID-19 status did not affect choices related to health. (3) Delayed options were preferred more when making intertemporal choices for others than for oneself under the pre-COVID-19 condition. Self-other differences for intertemporal choice disappeared during COVID-19. (4) Psychological safety moderated the effect of COVID-19 on intertemporal choice.

Conclusions

During COVID-19, individuals' impulsive preference of intertemporal choice increased. COVID-19 affected intertemporal choice regarding economy and the self-other differences for intertemporal choice. Psychological safety could buffer the effect of COVID-19 on intertemporal choice.

Value

This study can provide empirical evidence to affect regulation theory and level of explanation theory as well as guide individuals in making scientific decisions in health and economic domains under public health emergencies.

P300 and delay-discounting in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Previous research showed that dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks are implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Accordingly, patients with OCD showed altered performances during decision-making tasks. As P300, evoked by oddball paradigms, is suggested to be related to attentional and cognitive processes and generated in the medial temporal lobe and orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, it is of special interest in OCD research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate P300 in OCD and its associations with brain activity during decision-making: P300, evoked by an auditory oddball paradigm, was analysed in 19 OCD patients and 19 healthy controls regarding peak latency, amplitude and source density power in parietal cortex areas by sLORETA. Afterwards, using a fMRI paradigm, Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast imaging was conducted during a delay-discounting paradigm. We hypothesised differences between groups regarding P300 characteristics and associations with frontal activity during delay-discounting. The P300 did not differ between groups, however, the P300 latency over the P4 electrode correlated negatively with the NEO-FFI score openness to experience in patients with OCD. In healthy controls, P300 source density power correlated with activity in frontal regions when processing rewards, a finding which was absent in OCD patients. To conclude, associations of P300 with frontal brain activation during delay-discounting were found, suggesting a contribution of attentional or context updating processes. Since this association was absent in patients with OCD, the findings could be interpreted as being indeed related to dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks in patients with OCD.

Behavioral economics of substance use: Understanding and reducing harmful use during the COVID-19 pandemic

Behavioral economic research demonstrates that alcohol and drug consumption is (a) an inverse function of constraints on access to the substance and (b) a direct function of constraints on access to alternative rewards. Physical distancing interventions and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in unprecedented reductions in many of the constraints on substance use and in critical evolutionarily salient sources of alternative reward, such as social interaction, physical activity, leisure activities and hobbies, and academic and occupational pursuits. Thus, behavioral economics suggests that the pandemic and necessary public health response have created a "perfect storm" for exacerbation of individual-level and population-level substance use problems and also points to multilevel intervention strategies. We summarize this perspective and research by highlighting 3 critical behavioral processes that will influence drug and alcohol consumption. First, the sudden absence of many effective constraints on substance use (work, school, community, or service obligations) will reduce the actual and perceived cost of use. Second, physical distancing measures will reduce the availability, and increase the cost, of many rewarding substance-free activities and commodities. Third, increased uncertainty around current and future events increases discounting of delayed rewards. These effects will be especially pernicious among populations with existing health disparities. Next, we outline interventions suggested by behavioral economics to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on substance use that are aimed at increasing perceived costs of use; increasing access to substance-free activities, including treatment; and lengthening the timeframe for behavioral allocation and altering environmental contexts to promote healthy choices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Intertemporal preference reversals are associated with early activation of insula and sustained preferential processing of immediate rewards in visual cortex

Decision makers tend to give magnified significance to immediately available rewards which leads to intertemporal preference reversals, which is a form of self-control failure. The objective of the present study was to understand the cognitive and neural underpinnings of this phenomenon using event-related potentials (ERP) and their source localization using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (sLORETA). Twenty-four participants performed a money choice task, where they made choices between a smaller-sooner and a larger-later reward, which included trials with and without an immediately available option, while their electroencephalography (EEG) activity was recorded. Trials with and without immediacy were identical except that the latter involved a front-end delay added to both the rewards. Results showed that presence of immediacy made the choices significantly more impulsive. Presence of immediate reward elicited larger visual P2 and late positive potential (LPP), indicating enhanced capture of automatic and sustained attention respectively, and smaller N2, indicative of diminished engagement of cognitive control processes. Source localization revealed increased activity in the visual cortex in the presence of immediacy, signifying higher valuation. Higher activation of areas of insula during P2-suggesting increased awareness of visceral signals-predicted larger impulsive preference reversals. The results suggest that presence of immediate reward biases the choice very early during the decision making process by precipitating visceral states that triggers approach behaviour, and highlight the need to adopt strategies like precommitment to counter the effect.

The Effect of Social Distance on Intertemporal Choice of Reward Processing: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Social factors can affect the processing of intertemporal choice, but the influence of social distance on the rewarding process of intertemporal choice is unclear. Therefore, by designing a novel cognitive resource competition paradigm for undifferentiated intertemporal choice, this article aims to explore the influence of social distance on intertemporal choice reward processing at the electrophysiological level. It was found that compared with the stranger condition, P3a is greater in the friend condition, which means social distance is evaluated in the early stage. In addition, different brain regions in the early stages are taking charge of processing the soon-but-small (SS) and later-but-lager (LL) reward in intertemporal choice. There is an interaction effect between social distance (friend vs. stranger) and intertemporal choice (SS reward vs. LL reward) on P3b. Under friend conditions, the P3b induced by LL reward is more positive than SS reward. Under the condition of choosing the LL reward, the P3b induced by friend is more positive than stranger. This result shows that in the latter stage of reward processing, the evaluation process of time discounting is less sensitive in LL reward for friend caused by lack of cognitive resources which is occupied when dealing with social distance in advance, and thus the degree of time discount was reduced. These findings demonstrate that P3b is the key index of time discounting and immediate and delayed rewards are valued in different brain regions.

The Differential Effects of Anger and Sadness on Intertemporal Choice: An ERP Study

Previous research has taken a valence-based approach to examine the carryover effects of incidental emotions on intertemporal choices. However, recent studies have begun to explore the effects of specific emotions on intertemporal choices. In this study, we investigated how anger and sadness influenced intertemporal choices using event-related potentials (ERPs). Behavioral results showed that, compared with neutral prime, anger prime was associated with more preference for delayed rewards, whereas sad prime did not change individuals’ choice preference. Specifically, anger prime yielded a shorter response time than sad prime for the difficult-to-select choices. ERP results found that, compared with neutral and sad primes, anger prime elicited larger P1 in the fronto-central and parietal areas, larger P2 in the fronto-central area, and larger P3 in the parietal area during the evaluation stage. These findings suggest that there are differential carryover effects of anger and sadness on intertemporal choice. This study provides enlightenment on the significance of understanding how incidental emotions affect individuals’ intertemporal choices.

How Do Reference Points Influence the Representation of the N200 for Consumer Preference?

Recent studies have suggested that event-related brain potential (ERP) can represent consumer preference, and there is consensus that the N200 is the best indicator of consumer preference. Measurement of reference-dependent consumer preference, in turn, requires a reference point, but it remains largely unknown how reference points modulate the preference-related N200. We designed an experiment to investigate how reference points affect the N200 based on classical paradigms. In the single-reference condition, one product was displayed in each trial; in the conjoined-reference condition, a pair of products was displayed simultaneously. Our results showed that in the single-reference condition, low-preference products elicited more negative N200 than high-preference products, replicating previous results, but the N200 could not distinguish between low‐ and high-preference products when viewing two options of similar subjective value in the conjoined-reference condition. These findings suggest that reference points modulate the representation of the N200 on consumer preference. When only viewing one product, participants make a value judgment based on their expectations. However, when viewing two products simultaneously, both their expectation and the alternative product can serve as reference points, and whether the N200 can represent consumer preference depends on which reference point is dominant. In future research, reference points must be controlled when the N200 is used to explore value-related decision-making.

The neurodevelopment of delay discounting for monetary rewards in pre-adolescent children

Children are found to exhibit high degrees of delay discounting compared with adults in many delay discounting studies, which might be due to the asynchronous development of "bottom-up" and "top-down" neural systems. However, the temporal dynamics associated with the two systems in the development of delay discounting processes are not well known. In this study, we chose two age groups of participants and adopted event-related potential (ERP) techniques to investigate the neural dynamic differences between children and adults during delay discounting processes. Behavioral findings showed that children discounted more than adults and chose more immediate choices. Electrophysiological findings revealed that children exhibited longer neural processing (longer P2 latency) than adults during the early detection and identification phase. Children showed less cognitive control (smaller N2 amplitude) than adults over the middle frontal areas, and they devoted more neural effort (larger P3 amplitudes) to making final choices than adults. The factors of reward amount and time delay could influence the development of delay discounting in children.

The Electrical Aftermath: Brain Signals of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Filtered Through a Clinical Lens

This review aims to identify patterns of electrical signals identified using electroencephalography (EEG) linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis and symptom dimensions. We filter EEG findings through a clinical lens, evaluating nuances in findings according to study criteria and participant characteristics. Within the EEG frequency domain, greater right than left parietal asymmetry in alpha band power is the most promising marker of PTSD symptoms and is linked to exaggerated physiological arousal that may impair filtering of environmental distractors. The most consistent findings within the EEG time domain focused on event related potentials (ERPs) include: 1) exaggerated frontocentral responses (contingent negative variation, mismatch negativity, and P3a amplitudes) to task-irrelevant distractors, and 2) attenuated parietal responses (P3b amplitudes) to task-relevant target stimuli. These findings suggest that some individuals with PTSD suffer from attention dysregulation, which could contribute to problems concentrating on daily tasks and goals in lieu of threatening distractors. Future research investigating the utility of alpha asymmetry and frontoparietal ERPs as diagnostic and predictive biomarkers or intervention targets are recommended.

Dissociable functional activities of cortical theta and beta oscillations in the lateral prefrontal cortex during intertemporal choice

The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) plays an important role in the neural networks involved in intertemporal choice. However, little is known about how the neural oscillation of LPFC functions during intertemporal choice, owing to the technical limitations of functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potential recordings. Electrocorticography (ECoG) is a novel neuroimaging technique that has high spatial and temporal resolution. In this study, we used ECoG and projected the ECoG data onto individual brain spaces to investigate human intracranial cortex activity and how neural oscillations of the LPFC impact intertemporal choice. We found that neural activity of theta oscillation was significantly higher during impulsive decisions, while beta oscillation activity was significantly higher during non-impulsive ones. Our findings suggest a functional dissociation between cortical theta and beta oscillations during decision-making processes involved in intertemporal choice, and that decision outcomes may be determined by LPFC modulation, which involves neural oscillations at different frequencies.

Relations Between Cognitive Functioning and Alcohol Use, Craving, and Post-Traumatic Stress: An Examination Among Trauma-Exposed Military Veterans With Alcohol Use Disorder

Cognitive dysfunction is commonly observed among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and trauma exposure and is, in turn, associated with worse clinical outcomes. Accordingly, disruptions in cognitive functioning may be conceptualized as a trans-disease phenomenon representing a potential high-yield target for intervention. Less is known though about how different cognitive functions covary with alcohol use, craving, and post-traumatic stress symptom severity among trauma-exposed individuals with AUD. Sixty-eight male and female trauma-exposed military veterans with AUD, entering treatment trials to reduce alcohol use, completed measures assessing alcohol use and craving, post-traumatic stress symptom severity, and cognitive functioning. In multivariate models, after controlling for post-traumatic stress symptom severity, poorer learning and memory was associated with higher alcohol consumption and higher risk taking/impulsivity was associated with stronger preoccupations with alcohol and compulsions to drink. Alcohol consumption and craving, but not performance on cognitive tests, were positively associated with post-traumatic stress symptom severity. Findings suggest that interventions to strengthen cognitive functioning might be used as a preparatory step to augment treatments for AUD. Clinicians are encouraged to consider a standard assessment of cognitive functioning, in addition to post-traumatic stress symptom severity, in treatment planning and delivery for this vulnerable and high-risk population.

Anxious Individuals Are Impulsive Decision-Makers in the Delay Discounting Task: An ERP Study

Impulsivity, which is linked to a wide range of psychiatric disorders, is often characterized by a preference for immediate but smaller rewards over delayed but larger rewards. However, debate exists on the relationship between anxiety and impulsivity. Here we use event-related potential (ERP) components as biomarkers in the temporal discounting task to examine the effect of anxiety on inter-temporal decision-making. Our behavioral results indicated that the high trait anxiety (HTA) group made significantly more immediate choices than the low trait anxiety (LTA) group. Compared with the LTA group, shorter response time was associated with immediate rewards in the HTA group. Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated three ERP components that are associated with impulsivity and/or delay discounting. First, the N1 is an early sensory component involved in selective attention and attention processing for goal-directed actions. Second, the reward positivity (RewP) reflects reward-related dopaminergic activity and encodes reward values. Third, the P3 is regarded as a measure of motivational significance in the decision-making literature. Accordingly, this study found in the immediate-option-evoked ERPs that the HTA group had a larger N1 than the LTA group did. For the delayed-option-evoked ERPs, the HTA group had larger N1 and RewP for the immediate choice than the LTA group did, while the LTA group had a larger P3 for the delayed choice than the HTA group did. These results support the notion that anxiety individuals are impulsive decision-makers in the Delay Discounting Task.

The behavioural constellation of deprivation: Causes and consequences

Socioeconomic differences in behaviour are pervasive and well documented, but their causes are not yet well understood. Here, we make the case that a cluster of behaviours is associated with lower socioeconomic status (SES), which we call “the behavioural constellation of deprivation.” We propose that the relatively limited control associated with lower SES curtails the extent to which people can expect to realise deferred rewards, leading to more present-oriented behaviour in a range of domains. We illustrate this idea using the specific factor of extrinsic mortality risk, an important factor in evolutionary theoretical models. We emphasise the idea that the present-oriented behaviours of the constellation are a contextually appropriate response to structural and ecological factors rather than a pathology or a failure of willpower. We highlight some principles from evolutionary theoretical models that can deepen our understanding of how socioeconomic inequalities can become amplified and embedded. These principles are that (1) small initial disparities can lead to larger eventual inequalities, (2) feedback loops can embed early-life circumstances, (3) constraints can breed further constraints, and (4) feedback loops can operate over generations. We discuss some of the mechanisms by which SES may influence behaviour. We then review how the contextually appropriate response perspective that we have outlined fits with other findings about control and temporal discounting. Finally, we discuss the implications of this interpretation for research and policy.

Temporal Dynamics of the Interaction between Reward and Time Delay during Intertemporal Choice

Intertemporal choice involves the processes of valuation and choice. Choice is often the result of subjective valuation, in which reward is integrated with time delay. Here, using event-related potential (ERP) signals as temporal hallmarks, we aim to investigate temporal dynamics of how reward interacts with time delay during a delayed discounting task. We found that participants preferred immediate rewards when delayed rewards were small or over long-term delays. Our ERP results suggested that the P200 component reflected an initial valuation of reward and time delay, while the frontal N2 component correlated with individual choices of immediate option of rewards. The LPP component was modulated by the N2 component. These findings demonstrate that the N2 component is the key component in temporal dynamics of the interaction between reward and time valuation.

The procrastinators want it now: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence of the procrastination of intertemporal choices

Much past research has focused on the correlation between procrastination and personality traits (e.g., impulsivity). According to the temporal motivation theory, procrastinators are impulsive and sensitive to delays in time. However, there is still a lack of direct evidence of the tendency of procrastinators to prefer immediate over future rewards. To investigate this question, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in the brain while participants performed an intertemporal choice task involving both time delay and reward processing. The participants were assigned to a high procrastination group and a low procrastination group according to their scores on self-report measures. We found that high procrastination participants preferred immediate rewards compared to future ones whereas low procrastination participants did not. High procrastinators also exhibited a larger and delayed P2 component, indicating delay time processing and abnormal reward processing. No significant effect associated with procrastination was found on the P300 component. Taken together, these findings suggest that high procrastinators are more impulsive and encode the information of delay time more slowly but with a higher level of motivation-driven attention. The current study substantiates higher impulsivity in procrastination and verifies that a difference exists in the sensitivity to time delay between high and low procrastinators.

The nature and dynamics of world religions: a life-history approach

In contrast with tribal and archaic religions, world religions are characterized by a unique emphasis on extended prosociality, restricted sociosexuality, delayed gratification and the belief that these specific behaviours are sanctioned by some kind of supernatural justice. Here, we draw on recent advances in life history theory to explain this pattern of seemingly unrelated features. Life history theory examines how organisms adaptively allocate resources in the face of trade-offs between different life-goals (e.g. growth versus reproduction, exploitation versus exploration). In particular, recent studies have shown that individuals, including humans, adjust their life strategy to the environment through phenotypic plasticity: in a harsh environment, organisms tend to adopt a 'fast' strategy, pursuing smaller but more certain benefits, while in more affluent environments, organisms tend to develop a 'slow' strategy, aiming for larger but less certain benefits. Reviewing a range of recent research, we show that world religions are associated with a form of 'slow' strategy. This framework explains both the promotion of 'slow' behaviours such as altruism, self-regulation and monogamy in modern world religions, and the condemnation of 'fast' behaviours such as selfishness, conspicuous sexuality and materialism. This ecological approach also explains the diffusion pattern of world religions: why they emerged late in human history (500-300 BCE), why they are currently in decline in the most affluent societies and why they persist in some places despite this overall decline.

Temporal discounting in major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with abnormalities in financial reward processing. Previous research suggests that patients with MDD show reduced sensitivity to frequency of financial rewards. However, there is a lack of conclusive evidence from studies investigating the evaluation of financial rewards over time, an important aspect of reward processing that influences the way people plan long-term investments. Beck's cognitive model posits that patients with MDD hold a negative view of the future that may influence the amount of resources patients are willing to invest into their future selves.

METHOD

We administered a delay discounting task to 82 participants: 29 healthy controls, 29 unmedicated participants with fully remitted MDD (rMDD) and 24 participants with current MDD (11 on medication).

RESULTS

Patients with current MDD, relative to remitted patients and healthy subjects, discounted large-sized future rewards at a significantly higher rate and were insensitive to changes in reward size from medium to large. There was a main effect of clinical group on discounting rates for large-sized rewards, and discounting rates for large-sized rewards correlated with severity of depressive symptoms, particularly hopelessness.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher discounting of delayed rewards in MDD seems to be state dependent and may be a reflection of depressive symptoms, specifically hopelessness. Discounting distant rewards at a higher rate means that patients are more likely to choose immediate financial options. Such impairments related to long-term investment planning may be important for understanding value-based decision making in MDD, and contribute to ongoing functional impairment.

Out of control mortality matters: the effect of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk on a health-related decision

Prior evidence from the public health literature suggests that both control beliefs and perceived threats to life are important for health behaviour. Our previously presented theoretical model generated the more specific hypothesis that uncontrollable, but not controllable, personal mortality risk should alter the payoff from investment in health protection behaviours. We carried out three experiments to test whether altering the perceived controllability of mortality risk would affect a health-related decision. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a mortality prime could be used to alter a health-related decision: the choice between a healthier food reward (fruit) and an unhealthy alternative (chocolate). Experiment 2 demonstrated that it is the controllability of the mortality risk being primed that generates the effect, rather than mortality risk per se. Experiment 3 showed that the effect could be seen in a surreptitious experiment that was not explicitly health related. Our results suggest that perceptions about the controllability of mortality risk may be an important factor in people's health-related decisions. Thus, techniques for adjusting perceptions about mortality risk could be important tools for use in health interventions. More importantly, tackling those sources of mortality that people perceive to be uncontrollable could have a dual purpose: making neighbourhoods and workplaces safer would have the primary benefit of reducing uncontrollable mortality risk, which could lead to a secondary benefit from improved health behaviours.