"Ten dollars today or 50 dollars after one month?" Temporal discounting in Korsakoff syndrome

Little research has investigated decision making in patients with Korsakoff syndrome (KS). Specifically, to our knowledge, there is a lack of research investigating whether patients with KS may tend to prefer immediate over future rewards (i.e., temporal discounting). Further, we investigated the relationship between temporal discounting and inhibition.

We, for the first time, invited patients with KS and control participants to perform a temporal discounting task, in which they answered questions probing preferences between an immediate, but smaller amount of money, and a delayed, but larger amount of money (e.g., "would you prefer 10 dollars today or 50 dollars after one month?"). Furthermore, inhibition was measured using the Stroop Colour Word Test.

Analysis demonstrated higher temporal discounting in patients with KS than in control participants. Temporal discounting in both populations was significantly correlated with inhibition.

Patients with KS may have difficulties to suppress the temptation of smaller, but immediate, rewards.