Concreteness and emotional valence of episodic future thinking (EFT) independently affect the dynamics of intertemporal decisions

During intertemporal decisions, the value of future rewards decreases as a function of the delay of its receipt (temporal discounting, TD). Since high discount rates have been associated with a series of problematic behaviours and clinical conditions, current research has focused on possible modulators of TD. Specifically, a reduction of individual discount rates has been shown during episodic future thinking (EFT), wherein time intervals are anchored to personal future events. However, it is not entirely clear whether this effect is mediated by a change in the representation of future events (i.e., from abstract to concrete) or by a positive-emotion modulation. Here, we investigated this issue by manipulating the valence of the EFT (i.e., using negative, neutral and positive episodic tags), and by collecting explicit and implicit measures of behaviour. The results showed a significant reduction of TD in all the three emotional conditions compared to the baseline, with differences among them, thus suggesting the existence of a cumulative effect of the concreteness and affective components of the EFT. The analyses of implicit measures additionally revealed that this effect was mediated by a simultaneous increase/decrease of attraction toward the delayed/immediate alternative. Finally, these effects appeared to be modulated by participants' baseline discounting preferences. These findings provide important insights on clinical applications in reward-related disorders

Short communication: Jenny milk as an inhibitor of late blowing in cheese: A preliminary report

n/

Interindividual variability in functional connectivity as long-term correlate of temporal discounting

During intertemporal choice (IT) future outcomes are usually devaluated as a function of the delay, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting (TD). Based on task-evoked activity, previous neuroimaging studies have described several networks associated with TD. However, given its relevance for several disorders, a critical challenge is to define a specific neural marker able to predict TD independently of task execution. To this aim, we used restingstate functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) and measured TD during economic choices several months apart in 25 human subjects.We further explored the relationship between TD, impulsivity and decision uncertainty by collecting standard questionnaires on individual trait/ state differences. Our findings indicate that fcMRI within and between critical nodes of taskevoked neural networks associated with TD correlates with discounting behavior measured a long time afterwards, independently of impulsivity. Importantly, the nodes form an intrinsic circuit that might support all the mechanisms underlying TD, from the representation of subjective value to choice selection through modulatory effects of cognitive control and episodic prospection

“I feel therefore I decide”: Effect of Negative Emotions on Temporal Discounting and Probability Discounting

Qualtrics dataset

Distinct patterns of cognitive conflict dynamics in promise keepers and promise breakers

The data-set contains the data from 48 participants which took part in the study. Each file contains both behavioral and mouse tracking data

Cognitive dynamics of intertemporal choice in gambling disorder

Gambling Disorder (GD) is a behavioral addiction characterized by the persistence of recurrent gambling behaviors despite serious adverse consequences. One of the key features of GD is a marked inability to delay gratification and an overall impairment of decision-making mechanisms. Indeed, in intertemporal choice (ITC) tasks, GDs usually display a marked tendency to prefer smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards (temporal discounting, TD). However, ITC represents a highly declarative measure, and as such might not be sensitive to implicit decision biases. Here we sought to uncover the implicit mechanisms underlying the ITC impairment in GDs by employing the process tracing method of mouse kinematics. To this aim, we collected and analyzed ITCs and kinematics measures from 24 PGs and 23 matched healthy control participants (HCs). In line with the relevant literature, the results showed that PGs discounted future rewards more steeply compared to HCs. Additionally, the results of kinematics analyses showed that PGs were characterized by a strong bias toward the immediate option, which was associated with straight-line trajectories. Conversely, the delayed option was selected with edge-curved trajectories, indicating a bias toward the immediate option which was revised in later stages of processing. Interestingly, kinematics indices were also found to be predictive of individual discounting preferences (i.e., discount rates) across the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that kinematics indices, by revealing hidden and implicit patterns of attraction toward the unselected choice option, may represent reliable behavioral markers of TD in gambling disorder

Distinct patterns of cognitive conflict dynamics in promise keepers and promise breakers

The data-set contains the data from 48 participants which took part in the study. Each file contains both behavioral and mouse tracking data

Cognitive dynamics of intertemporal choice in gambling disorder

Gambling Disorder (GD) is a behavioral addiction characterized by the persistence of recurrent gambling behaviors despite serious adverse consequences. One of the key features of GD is a marked inability to delay gratification and an overall impairment of decision-making mechanisms. Indeed, in intertemporal choice (ITC) tasks, GDs usually display a marked tendency to prefer smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards (temporal discounting, TD). However, ITC represents a highly declarative measure, and as such might not be sensitive to implicit decision biases. Here we sought to uncover the implicit mechanisms underlying the ITC impairment in GDs by employing the process tracing method of mouse kinematics. To this aim, we collected and analyzed ITCs and kinematics measures from 24 PGs and 23 matched healthy control participants (HCs). In line with the relevant literature, the results showed that PGs discounted future rewards more steeply compared to HCs. Additionally, the results of kinematics analyses showed that PGs were characterized by a strong bias toward the immediate option, which was associated with straight-line trajectories. Conversely, the delayed option was selected with edge-curved trajectories, indicating a bias toward the immediate option which was revised in later stages of processing. Interestingly, kinematics indices were also found to be predictive of individual discounting preferences (i.e., discount rates) across the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that kinematics indices, by revealing hidden and implicit patterns of attraction toward the unselected choice option, may represent reliable behavioral markers of TD in gambling disorder.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Effects of Individual Discount Rate and Uncertainty Perception on Compliance with Containment Measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Survey dat

Cognitive Dynamics of Religiosity on Intertemporal Choice Behavior

Data are organized as follows: three main folder (atheists, Catholics and Muslims) each containing individual participants’ folder, named with the progressive ID used during data collection. Each participant folder included other three subfolders (ITC) each of which contains the data files from a specific intertemporal choice block (B1, B2, B3) all belonging to the same task version (V1, V2). Additionally, each participant folder also contains a csv file of the Implicit Association Test response file, named “subject” followed by the participant ID (e.g., “subject_1003”)