Multiregional representations of intertemporal decision making in human single neurons

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Decision Science
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Impulsive decision-making, characterized by preferring immediate rewards over larger delayed ones (delay discounting), is central to psychiatric disorders like substance use and impulse control disorders.
• Elucidating the neural underpinnings of delay discounting is crucial for understanding the etiology of these conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate single-neuron activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), hippocampus, and amygdala during a delay discounting task in humans.
• To identify distinct neural correlates of decision-making, choice preferences, and decision difficulty.

Main Methods:

• Intracranial recordings of 193 single neurons (50 OFC, 68 amygdala, 75 hippocampus) from nine human participants.
• Analysis of neural activity during a delay discounting task to identify representations of choice and decision difficulty.

Main Results:

• Distinct neural correlates of decision-making, including choice preferences and decision difficulty, were found across the OFC, hippocampus, and amygdala.
• The OFC preferentially encoded choice information.
• Hippocampal activity reflected interindividual differences in discounting rates, with stronger representation in individuals with slower temporal discounting.

Conclusions:

• The findings offer novel insights into the multiregional neural computations governing intertemporal decision-making.
• These neural mechanisms are linked to impulsive behaviors, providing a foundation for understanding related psychiatric conditions.