Regions suggesting Larger Later activity anterior of Smaller Sooner activity
Regions suggesting Larger Later activity anterior of Smaller Sooner activity
Although almost 200 temporal discounting experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging are described in literature, there has not been a meta-analysis identifying regions activated when subjects choose SmallerSooner versus LargerLater alternatives. Evidence suggests a prefrontal cortex ‘abstraction hierarchy’, from abstract planning in more anterior regions to concrete processing in posterior regions. Because more distant future prospects are represented more abstractly, we hypothesized that LargerLater choices would be associated with more anterior PFC activation while SmallerSooner choices would be associated with more posterior activation. We examined the literature for temporal discounting tasks comparing decisions where subjects chose SmallerSooner vs. LargerLater rewards, and identified thirteen studies including 436 subjects which we tested in an SDM neural meta-analysis. We observed LargerLater activity anterior of SmallerSooner activity, both in the left inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis, consistent with our pre-registered hypothesis that LargerLater would be observed anterior of SmallerSooner activity. We call for further work investigating links between temporal discounting representation and the processing of abstract and concrete information in the prefrontal cortex.