Delay Discounting (delay + discounting)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Rats bred for high alcohol drinking are more sensitive to delayed and probabilistic outcomes

GENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 7 2008
C. J. Wilhelm
Alcoholics and heavy drinkers score higher on measures of impulsivity than nonalcoholics and light drinkers. This may be because of factors that predate drug exposure (e.g. genetics). This study examined the role of genetics by comparing impulsivity measures in ethanol-naive rats selectively bred based on their high [high alcohol drinking (HAD)] or low [low alcohol drinking (LAD)] consumption of ethanol. Replicates 1 and 2 of the HAD and LAD rats, developed by the University of Indiana Alcohol Research Center, completed two different discounting tasks. Delay discounting examines sensitivity to rewards that are delayed in time and is commonly used to assess ,choice' impulsivity. Probability discounting examines sensitivity to the uncertain delivery of rewards and has been used to assess risk taking and risk assessment. High alcohol drinking rats discounted delayed and probabilistic rewards more steeply than LAD rats. Discount rates associated with probabilistic and delayed rewards were weakly correlated, while bias was strongly correlated with discount rate in both delay and probability discounting. The results suggest that selective breeding for high alcohol consumption selects for animals that are more sensitive to delayed and probabilistic outcomes. Sensitivity to delayed or probabilistic outcomes may be predictive of future drinking in genetically predisposed individuals. [source]


Delay discounting determines delivery fees in an e-commerce simulation: A behavioral economic perspective

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 2 2005
Donald A. Hantula
Participants ordered music CDs and bargained for delivery time and fees in a simulated on-line store. After ordering a CD, participants engaged in a delivery-fee bargaining task that was embedded in a psychophysical up,down staircase titration procedure in which options of next-day delivery for a fee and delayed free delivery were made more or less attractive based on previous choices. A hyperbolic function derived from the matching law fit the data. These results are consistent with a behavioral-economic account of intertemporal choice in which delivery fees are seen as a swap of money for time. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


REVIEW: Impulsivity as a determinant and consequence of drug use: a review of underlying processes

ADDICTION BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Harriet De Wit
ABSTRACT Impulsive behaviors are closely linked to drug use and abuse, both as contributors to use and as consequences of use. Trait impulsivity is an important determinant of drug use during development, and in adults momentary ,state' increases in impulsive behavior may increase the likelihood of drug use, especially in individuals attempting to abstain. Conversely, acute and chronic effects of drug use may increase impulsive behaviors, which may in turn facilitate further drug use. However, these effects depend on the behavioral measure used to assess impulsivity. This article reviews data from controlled studies investigating different measures of impulsive behaviors, including delay discounting, behavioral inhibition and a newly proposed measure of inattention. Our findings support the hypothesis that drugs of abuse alter performance across independent behavioral measures of impulsivity. The findings lay the groundwork for studying the cognitive and neurobiological substrates of impulsivity, and for future studies on the role of impulsive behavior as both facilitator and a result of drug use. [source]


Frontoparietal cortical activity of methamphetamine-dependent and comparison subjects performing a delay discounting task

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 5 2007
John R. Monterosso
Abstract Relative to individuals who do not have addictive disorders, drug abusers exhibit greater devaluation of rewards as a function of their delay ("delay discounting"). The present study sought to extend this finding to methamphetamine (MA) abusers and to help understand its neural basis. MA abusers (n = 12) and control subjects who did not use illicit drugs (n = 17) participated in tests of delay discounting with hypothetical money rewards. We then used a derived estimate of each individual's delay discounting to generate a functional magnetic resonance imaging probe task consisting of three conditions: "hard choices," requiring selections between "smaller, sooner" and "larger, later" alternatives that were similarly valued given the individual's delay discounting; "easy choices," in which alternatives differed dramatically in value; and a "no choice" control condition. MA abusers exhibited more delay discounting than control subjects (P < 0.05). Across groups, the "hard choice > no choice" contrast revealed significant effects in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and areas surrounding the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). With group comparisons limited to these clusters, the "hard choice > easy choice" contrast indicated significant group differences in task-related activity within the left DLPFC and right IPS; qualitatively similar nonsignificant effects were present in the other clusters tested. Whereas control subjects showed less recruitment associated with easy than with hard choices, MA abusers generally did not. Correlational analysis did not indicate a relationship between this anomaly in frontoparietal recruitment and greater degree of delay discounting exhibited by MA abusers. Therefore, while apparent inefficiency of cortical processing related to decision-making in MA abusers may contribute to the neural basis of enhanced delay discounting by this population, other factors remain to be identified. Hum. Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Social discounting and delay discounting

JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 1 2008
Howard Rachlin
Abstract Social discounting was measured as the amount of money a participant was willing to forgo to give a fixed amount (usually $75) to another person. In the first experiment, amount forgone was a hyperbolic function of the social distance between the giver and receiver. In the second experiment, degree of social discounting was an increasing function of reward magnitude whereas degree of delay discounting was a decreasing function of reward magnitude. In the third experiment, the shape of the function relating delayed rewards to equally valued immediate rewards for another person was predicted from individual delay and social discount functions. All in all, the studies show that the social discount function, like delay and probability discount functions, is hyperbolic in form. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Pharmacologic Dissociation Between Impulsivity and Alcohol Drinking in High Alcohol Preferring Mice

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 8 2010
Brandon G. Oberlin
Background:, Impulsivity is genetically correlated with, and precedes, addictive behaviors and alcoholism. If impulsivity or attention is causally related to addiction, certain pharmacological manipulations of impulsivity and/or attention may affect alcohol drinking, and vice versa. The current studies were designed to explore the relationship among impulsivity, drinking, and vigilance in selectively bred High Alcohol Preferring (HAP) mice, a line that has previously demonstrated both high impulsivity and high alcohol consumption. Amphetamine, naltrexone, and memantine were tested in a delay discounting (DD) task for their effects on impulsivity and vigilance. The same drugs and doses were also assessed for effects on alcohol drinking in a 2-bottle choice test. Methods:, HAP mice were subjected to a modified version of adjusting amount DD using 0.5-second and 10-second delays to detect decreases and increases, respectively, in impulsive responding. In 2 experiments, mice were given amphetamine (0.4, 0.8, or 1.2 mg/kg), naltrexone (3 and 10 mg/kg), and memantine (1 and 5 mg/kg) before DD testing. Another pair of studies used scheduled access, 2-bottle choice drinking to assess effects of amphetamine (0.4, 1.2, or 3.0 mg/kg), naltrexone (3 and 10 mg/kg), and memantine (1 and 5 mg/kg) on alcohol consumption. Results:, Amphetamine dose-dependently reduced impulsivity and vigilance decrement in DD, but similar doses left alcohol drinking unaffected. Naltrexone and memantine decreased alcohol intake at doses that did not affect water drinking but had no effects on impulsivity or vigilance decrement in the DD task. Conclusions:, Contrary to our hypothesis, none of the drugs tested here, while effective on either alcohol drinking or impulsivity, decreased both behaviors. These findings suggest that the genetic association between drinking and impulsivity observed in this population is mediated by mechanisms other than those targeted by the drugs tested in these studies. [source]


High-Alcohol Preferring Mice Are More Impulsive Than Low-Alcohol Preferring Mice as Measured in the Delay Discounting Task

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2009
B. G. Oberlin
Background:, Repeated studies have shown that high impulsivity, when defined as the tendency to choose small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards, is more prevalent in drug addicts and alcoholics when compared with nonaddicts. Assessing whether impulsivity precedes and potentially causes addiction disorders is difficult in humans because they all share a history of drug use. In this study, we address this question by testing alcohol-naïve mice from lines showing heritable differences in alcohol intake. Methods:, Replicated selected lines of outbred high-alcohol preferring (HAP) mice were compared to a low-alcohol preferring (LAP) line as well as the low-drinking progenitor line (HS/Ibg) on an adjusting amount delay discounting (DD) task. The DD task employs 2 levers to present subjects with a choice between a small, immediate and a large, delayed saccharin reward. By adjusting the quantity of the immediate reward up and down based on choice behavior, the task allows an estimate of how the subjective value of the delayed reinforcer decreases as delays increase. Latency to respond was also measured for each trial. Results:, Both HAP2 and HAP1 lines of mice were more impulsive than the LAP2 and HS/Ibg lines, respectively. Hyperbolic curve-fitting confirmed steeper discounting in the high-alcohol drinking lines. In addition, the high-alcohol drinking lines demonstrated greater within-session increases in reaction times relative to the low-alcohol drinking lines. No other differences (consumption of saccharin, total trials completed) consistently mapped onto genetic differences in alcohol drinking. Conclusions:, Alcohol-naïve outbred mice selected for high-alcohol drinking were more impulsive with saccharin reinforcers than low-alcohol drinkers. These data are consistent with results seen using inbred strain descendents of high-alcohol drinking and low-alcohol drinking rat lines, and suggest that impulsivity is a heritable difference that precedes alcoholism. [source]