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Episodic future thinking reduces temporal discounting in healthy adolescents.

ABSTRACT: Episodic Future Thinking has proven efficient in reducing impulsive behavior in several adult populations. Whether it also has a beneficial impact on decision making in adolescents is not known. Here the impact of episodic future thinking on discounting behavior was investigated in a sample of healthy adolescents (n = 44, age range 13-16 years). Discounting behavior in trials including episodic future thinking was significantly less impulsive than in control trials (t = 2.74, p = .009, dz = .44). In a subsample we controlled for executive function, alcohol use and developmental measures. Neither executive function nor alcohol use but developmental measures explained variability in the effect of episodic future thinking. These findings reveal that episodic future thinking can improve adolescent decision making while the effect is to some degree modulated by developmental measures.

SUBMITTER: Bromberg U

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5699809 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Episodic future thinking reduces temporal discounting in healthy adolescents.

Bromberg Uli U Lobatcheva Maria M Peters Jan J

PloS one 20171122 11

Episodic Future Thinking has proven efficient in reducing impulsive behavior in several adult populations. Whether it also has a beneficial impact on decision making in adolescents is not known. Here the impact of episodic future thinking on discounting behavior was investigated in a sample of healthy adolescents (n = 44, age range 13-16 years). Discounting behavior in trials including episodic future thinking was significantly less impulsive than in control trials (t = 2.74, p = .009, dz = .44) ...[more]

PMID: 29166658

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Project description:The capacity to envision the future plays an important role in many aspects of cognition, including our ability to make optimal, adaptive choices. Past work has shown that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is necessary for decisions that draw on episodic future thinking. By contrast, little is known about the role of the MTL in decisions that draw on semantic future thinking. Accordingly, the present study investigated whether the MTL contributes to one form of decision making, namely intertemporal choice, when such decisions depend on semantic consideration of the future. In an intertemporal choice task, participants must select either a smaller amount of money that is available in the present or a larger amount of money that would be available at a future date. Amnesic individuals with MTL damage and healthy control participants performed such a task in which, prior to making a choice, they engaged in a semantic generation exercise, wherein they generated items that they would purchase with the future reward. In experiment 1, we found that, relative to a baseline condition involving standard intertemporal choice, healthy individuals were more inclined to select a larger, later reward over a smaller, present reward after engaging in semantic future thinking. By contrast, amnesic participants were paradoxically less inclined to wait for a future reward following semantic future thinking. This finding suggests that amnesics may have had difficulty "tagging" the generated item(s) as belonging to the future. Critically, experiment 2 showed that when the generated items were presented alongside the intertemporal choices, both controls and amnesic participants shifted to more patient choices. These findings suggest that the MTL is not needed for making optimal decisions that draw on semantic future thinking as long as scaffolding is provided to support accurate time tagging. Together, these findings stand to better clarify the role of the MTL in decision making.

Project description:BackgroundUnhealthy behaviors (eg, poor food choices) contribute to obesity and numerous negative health outcomes, including multiple types of cancer and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. To promote healthy food choice, diet interventions should build on the dual-system model to target the regulation and reward mechanisms that guide eating behavior. Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been shown to strengthen regulation mechanisms by reducing unhealthy food choice and temporal discounting (TD), a process of placing greater value on smaller immediate rewards over larger future rewards. However, these interventions do not target the reward mechanisms that could support healthy eating and strengthen the impact of EFT-anchored programs. Increasing positive affect (PosA) related to healthy food choices may target reward mechanisms by enhancing the rewarding effects of healthy eating. An intervention that increases self-regulation regarding unhealthy foods and the reward value of healthy foods will likely have a greater impact on eating behavior compared with interventions focused on either process alone.ObjectiveThis study aimed to introduce a protocol that tests the independent and interactive effects of EFT and PosA on TD, food choice, and food demand in overweight and obese adults.MethodsThis protocol describes a factorial, randomized, controlled pilot study that employs a 2 (affective imagery: positive, neutral) by 2 (EFT: yes, no) design in which participants are randomized to 1 of 4 guided imagery intervention arms. In total, 156 eligible participants will complete 2 lab visits separated by 5 days. At visit 1, participants complete surveys; listen to the audio guided imagery intervention; and complete TD, food demand, and food choice tasks. At visit 2, participants complete TD, food demand, and food choice tasks and surveys. Participants complete a daily food frequency questionnaire between visits 1 and 2. Analyses will compare primary outcome measures at baseline, postintervention, and at follow-up across treatment arms.ResultsFunding notification was received on April 27, 2017, and the protocol was approved by the institutional review board on October 6, 2017. Feasibility testing of the protocol was conducted from February 21, 2018, to April 18, 2018, among the first 32 participants. As no major protocol changes were required at the end of the feasibility phase, these 32 participants were included in the target sample of 156 participants. Recruitment, therefore, continued immediately after the feasibility phase. When this manuscript was submitted, 84 participants had completed the protocol.ConclusionsOur research goal is to develop novel, theory-based interventions to promote and improve healthy decision-making and behaviors. The findings will advance decision-making research and have the potential to generate new neuroscience and psychological research to further understand these mechanisms and their interactions.Trial registrationISRCTN Registry ISRCTN11704675; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN11704675 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/760ouOoKG).International registered report identifier (irrid)DERR1-10.2196/12265.

Dataset Information

Episodic future thinking reduces temporal discounting in healthy adolescents.

Publications

Episodic future thinking reduces temporal discounting in healthy adolescents.

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