Individual Differences in Delay Discounting are Associated with Dorsal Prefrontal Cortex Connectivity in Youth

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, is crucial during adolescence and predicts outcomes like substance use and obesity.
• Understanding the brain networks associated with individual differences in delay discounting in youth is incomplete.

Approach:

• A large sample of 293 adolescents (ages 9-23) underwent resting-state fMRI scans.
• Multivariate distance-based matrix regression was used for a connectome-wide analysis of functional connectivity.
• The study examined relationships between delay discounting behavior and brain-wide functional connectivity patterns.

Key Points:

• Individual differences in delay discounting were associated with connectivity patterns originating from the left dorsal prefrontal cortex.
• Greater functional connectivity was observed within the default mode network (DMN).
• Reduced functional connectivity was found between the DMN and attention/cognitive control networks.

Conclusions:

• Delay discounting in youth is linked to variations in connectivity within the default mode network.
• It is also associated with altered connectivity between the default mode network and attention networks.
• These findings highlight the role of large-scale brain network interactions in adolescent impulsive choice.