The neurodevelopment of delay discounting for monetary rewards in pre-adolescent children

AbstractChildren are found to exhibit high degrees of delay discounting compared with adults in many delay discounting studies. However, the temporal dynamics of the differences behind the behaviors are not well known. In this study, we chose two age groups of participants and adopted event-related potential (ERP) techniques to investigate the neural dynamic differences between children and adults during delay discounting processes. Behavioral findings showed that children discounted more than adults and chose more immediate choices. Electrophysiological findings revealed that children exhibited longer neural processing (longer P2 latency) than adults during the early detection and identification phase. Children showed less cognitive control (smaller N2 amplitude) than adults over the middle frontal areas, and they devoted more neural effort (larger P3 amplitudes) to making final choices than adults. The factors of reward amount and time delay could influence the development of delay discounting in male children.

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Phonological Processing in Visual Rhyming: A Developmental ERP Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892901750363190 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 610-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 91

Author(s):

Giordana Grossi ◽

Donna Coch ◽

Sharon Coffey-Corina ◽

Phillip J. Holcomb ◽

Helen J. Neville

Keyword(s):

Phonological Processing ◽

Age Groups ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Neural Systems ◽

English Speakers ◽

Frontal Asymmetry ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

The One

We employed a visual rhyming priming paradigm to characterize the development of brain systems important for phonological processing in reading. We studied 109 right-handed, native English speakers within eight age groups: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18, 19-20, and 21-23. Participants decided whether two written words (prime-target) rhymed (JUICE-MOOSE) or not (CHAIR-MOOSE). In similar studies of adults, two main event-related potential (ERP) effects have been described: a negative slow wave to primes, larger over anterior regions of the left hemisphere and hypothesized to index rehearsal of the primes, and a negative deflection to targets, peaking at 400-450 msec, maximal over right temporal-parietal regions, larger for nonrhyming than rhyming targets, and hypothesized to index phonological matching. In this study, these two ERP effects were observed in all age groups; however, the two effects showed different developmental timecourses. On the one hand, the frontal asymmetry to primes increased with age; moreover, this asymmetry was correlated with reading and spelling scores, even after controlling for age. On the other hand, the distribution and onset of the more posterior rhyming effect (RE) were stable across age groups, suggesting that phonological matching relied on similar neural systems across these ages. Behaviorally, both reaction times and accuracy improved with age. These results suggest that different aspects of phonological processing rely on different neural systems that have different developmental timecourses.

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Rapid orienting of spatial attention toward and away from aggressive voices

10.31234/osf.io/zprf9 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Nicolas Burra ◽

Dirk Kerzel ◽

David Munoz ◽

Didier Grandjean ◽

Leonardo Ceravolo

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Detection System ◽

Stimulus Onset ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Auditory Spatial Attention ◽

Vocal Signals

Salient vocalizations, especially aggressive voices, are believed to attract attention due to an automatic threat detection system. However, studies assessing the temporal dynamics of auditory spatial attention to aggressive voices are missing. Using event-related potential markers of auditory spatial attention (N2ac and LPCpc), we show that attentional processing of threatening vocal signals is enhanced at two different stages of auditory processing. As early as 200 ms post stimulus onset, attentional orienting/engagement is enhanced for threatening as compared to happy vocal signals. Subsequently, as early as 400 ms post stimulus onset, the reorienting of auditory attention to the center of the screen (or disengagement from the target) is enhanced. This latter effect is consistent with the need to optimize perception by balancing the intake of stimulation from left and right auditory space. Our results extend the scope of theories from the visual to the auditory modality by showing that threatening stimuli also bias early spatial attention in the auditory modality. Although not the focus of the present work, we observed that the attentional enhancement was more pronounced in female than male participants.

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The effect of episodic future thinking on delay discounting

10.26686/wgtn.17145569.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Rebecca Olsen

Keyword(s):

Delay Discounting ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Episodic Future Thinking ◽

Future Thinking ◽

Design Studies ◽

Indifference Points ◽

Future Events ◽

Participant Characteristics

<p>Delay discounting refers to the fact that rewards lose their value if they are delayed. Excessive delay discounting is associated with various health-related problems such as over-eating and substance abuse. One phenomenon shown to reduce delay discounting is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT; imagining personal future events). Across multiple experiments and a meta-analysis, the current thesis examined the reliability of the effect of EFT on delay discounting and also sought to clarify the components of EFT that are necessary to reduce delay discounting. Experiment 1 replicated the EFT effect using a common titrating-amount procedure, and the meta-analysis based on 40 independent studies confirmed that EFT has a reliable, medium-sized effect on delay discounting. The meta-analysis also assessed the robustness of the EFT effect across various methodological features and participant characteristics. A multiple meta-regression revealed that the between-study variability in the size of the EFT effect was accounted for by study design and type of discounting measure. Within-subjects design studies had significantly smaller effect sizes than between-subjects design studies. Studies that used k as a discounting rate measure had significantly smaller effect sizes than studies that used area under the discounting curve or other atheoretical discounting measures. The size of the EFT effect was robust across different participant characteristics and ages, suggesting that EFT may be utilized as an effective intervention for a variety of age groups and impulsive behaviors. Experiments 2A, 2B and 2C assessed the suitability of an alternative and briefer delay discounting procedure (in which participants simply report their indifference points) for subsequent EFT experiments. The report indifference points procedure produced a high percentage of invalid data, a finding that was replicated across all three experiments. We therefore continued to use the well-established titrating-amount procedure in subsequent studies. Experiment 3A found that episodic past thinking (imagining personal past events) and semantic future thinking (estimating what a person could buy with the larger, delayed amount) had no effect on discounting, indicating that both episodic thinking and future thinking are necessary components of the EFT effect. Experiment 3A results also indicated that financial relevance alone is not sufficient to reducing discounting. Experiment 3B found that the future events also need to be personally relevant to reduce discounting, and that participants perceived EFT to reduce their discounting by primarily making the larger, delayed reward more valuable. We also showed that demand characteristics, where participants change their behavior to conform to the researcher’s expectations, are an unlikely explanation for the EFT effects found in Experiments 3A and 3B. Further research is warranted to form a better understanding of the mechanism(s) through which EFT reduces delay discounting.</p>

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The effect of episodic future thinking on delay discounting

10.26686/wgtn.17145569 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Rebecca Olsen

Keyword(s):

Delay Discounting ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Episodic Future Thinking ◽

Future Thinking ◽

Design Studies ◽

Indifference Points ◽

Future Events ◽

Participant Characteristics

<p>Delay discounting refers to the fact that rewards lose their value if they are delayed. Excessive delay discounting is associated with various health-related problems such as over-eating and substance abuse. One phenomenon shown to reduce delay discounting is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT; imagining personal future events). Across multiple experiments and a meta-analysis, the current thesis examined the reliability of the effect of EFT on delay discounting and also sought to clarify the components of EFT that are necessary to reduce delay discounting. Experiment 1 replicated the EFT effect using a common titrating-amount procedure, and the meta-analysis based on 40 independent studies confirmed that EFT has a reliable, medium-sized effect on delay discounting. The meta-analysis also assessed the robustness of the EFT effect across various methodological features and participant characteristics. A multiple meta-regression revealed that the between-study variability in the size of the EFT effect was accounted for by study design and type of discounting measure. Within-subjects design studies had significantly smaller effect sizes than between-subjects design studies. Studies that used k as a discounting rate measure had significantly smaller effect sizes than studies that used area under the discounting curve or other atheoretical discounting measures. The size of the EFT effect was robust across different participant characteristics and ages, suggesting that EFT may be utilized as an effective intervention for a variety of age groups and impulsive behaviors. Experiments 2A, 2B and 2C assessed the suitability of an alternative and briefer delay discounting procedure (in which participants simply report their indifference points) for subsequent EFT experiments. The report indifference points procedure produced a high percentage of invalid data, a finding that was replicated across all three experiments. We therefore continued to use the well-established titrating-amount procedure in subsequent studies. Experiment 3A found that episodic past thinking (imagining personal past events) and semantic future thinking (estimating what a person could buy with the larger, delayed amount) had no effect on discounting, indicating that both episodic thinking and future thinking are necessary components of the EFT effect. Experiment 3A results also indicated that financial relevance alone is not sufficient to reducing discounting. Experiment 3B found that the future events also need to be personally relevant to reduce discounting, and that participants perceived EFT to reduce their discounting by primarily making the larger, delayed reward more valuable. We also showed that demand characteristics, where participants change their behavior to conform to the researcher’s expectations, are an unlikely explanation for the EFT effects found in Experiments 3A and 3B. Further research is warranted to form a better understanding of the mechanism(s) through which EFT reduces delay discounting.</p>

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Neural Correlates of Mental State Decoding in Human Adults: An Event-related Potential Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892904322926755 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 415-426 ◽

Cited By ~ 81

Author(s):

Mark A. Sabbagh ◽

Margaret C. Moulson ◽

Kate L. Harkness

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Mental State ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Mental States ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Neural Systems ◽

Core Theory ◽

Human Adults ◽

The Right

Successful negotiation of human social interactions rests on having a theory of mind—an understanding of how others' behaviors can be understood in terms of internal mental states, such as beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions. A core theory-of-mind skill is the ability to decode others' mental states on the basis of observable information, such as facial expressions. Although several recent studies have focused on the neural correlates of reasoning about mental states, no research has addressed the question of what neural systems underlie mental state decoding. We used dense-array eventrelated potentials (ERP) to show that decoding mental states from pictures of eyes is associated with an N270–400 component over inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions of the right hemisphere. Source estimation procedures suggest that orbitofrontal and medial temporal regions may underlie this ERP effect. These findings suggest that different components of everyday theory-of-mind skills may rely on dissociable neural mechanisms.

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Early Top–Down Control of Visual Processing Predicts Working Memory Performance

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21257 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 1224-1234 ◽

Cited By ~ 83

Author(s):

Aaron M. Rutman ◽

Wesley C. Clapp ◽

James Z. Chadick ◽

Adam Gazzaley

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Natural Scenes ◽

Attention And Memory ◽

Top Down ◽

Sensory Neural

Selective attention confers a behavioral benefit on both perceptual and working memory (WM) performance, often attributed to top–down modulation of sensory neural processing. However, the direct relationship between early activity modulation in sensory cortices during selective encoding and subsequent WM performance has not been established. To explore the influence of selective attention on WM recognition, we used electroencephalography to study the temporal dynamics of top–down modulation in a selective, delayed-recognition paradigm. Participants were presented with overlapped, “double-exposed” images of faces and natural scenes, and were instructed to either remember the face or the scene while simultaneously ignoring the other stimulus. Here, we present evidence that the degree to which participants modulate the early P100 (97–129 msec) event-related potential during selective stimulus encoding significantly correlates with their subsequent WM recognition. These results contribute to our evolving understanding of the mechanistic overlap between attention and memory.

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Temporal Dynamics of Prospective Memory (Event-Related Potentials)

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.383 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Robert West

Keyword(s):

Prospective Memory ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Fundamental Aspect ◽

Neural Systems ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Considerable Research ◽

Age Related ◽

Memory Event ◽

Related Potentials

Life is filled with goals or intentions that people hope to realize. Some of these are rather mundane (e.g., remembering to purchase a key ingredient for a recipe when stopping at the market), while others are more significant (e.g., remembering to pick up one’s child from school at the end of the day). Prospective memory represents the ability to form and then realize intentions at an appropriate time. A fundamental aspect of prospective memory is that one is engaged in one or more tasks (i.e., ongoing activities) between the formation of an intention and the opportunity to realize the goal. For instance, in the shopping example, one might form the intention at home and then travel to the market and collect several other items before walking past the desired ingredient. Considerable research has demonstrated that the efficiency of prospective memory declines with age, although age-related differences are not universal. The neurocognitive processes underpinning age-related differences in the formation and realization of delayed intentions have been investigated in studies using event-related brain potentials. This research reveals that age-related differences in prospective memory arise from the disruption of neural systems supporting the successful encoding of intentions, the detection of prospective memory cues, and possibly processes supporting the retrieval of intentions from memory when a cue is encountered or efficiently shifting from the ongoing activity to the prospective element of the task. Therefore, strategies designed to ameliorate age-related declines in prospective memory should target a variety of processes engaged during the encoding, retrieval, and enactment of delayed intentions.

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Susceptibility to auditory closed-loop stimulation of sleep slow oscillations changes with age

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsaa111 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 (12) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jules Schneider ◽

Penelope A Lewis ◽

Dominik Koester ◽

Jan Born ◽

Hong-Viet V Ngo

Keyword(s):

Memory Consolidation ◽

Closed Loop ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Age Groups ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Auditory Stimulation ◽

Sleep Spindles ◽

Slow Oscillations ◽

Up States ◽

Closed Loop Stimulation

Abstract Study Objectives Cortical slow oscillations (SOs) and thalamocortical sleep spindles hallmark slow wave sleep and facilitate memory consolidation, both of which are reduced with age. Experiments utilizing auditory closed-loop stimulation to enhance these oscillations showed great potential in young and older subjects. However, the magnitude of responses has yet to be compared between these age groups. We examined the possibility of enhancing SOs and performance on different memory tasks in a healthy middle-aged population using this stimulation and contrast effects to younger adults. Methods In a within-subject design, 17 subjects (55.7 ± 1.0 years) received auditory stimulation in synchrony with SO up-states, which was compared to a no-stimulation sham condition. Overnight memory consolidation was assessed for declarative word-pairs and procedural finger-tapping skill. Post-sleep encoding capabilities were tested with a picture recognition task. Electrophysiological effects of stimulation were compared to a previous younger cohort (n = 11, 24.2 ± 0.9 years). Results Overnight retention and post-sleep encoding performance of the older cohort revealed no beneficial effect of stimulation, which contrasts with the enhancing effect the same stimulation protocol had in our younger cohort. Auditory stimulation prolonged endogenous SO trains and induced sleep spindles phase-locked to SO up-states in the older population. However, responses were markedly reduced compared to younger subjects. Additionally, the temporal dynamics of stimulation effects on SOs and spindles differed between age groups. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the susceptibility to auditory stimulation during sleep drastically changes with age and reveal the difficulties of translating a functional protocol from younger to older populations.

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Two Processes for Recognition Memory in Children of Early School Age: An Event-related Potential Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21455 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 435-446 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Axel Mecklinger ◽

Nicole Brunnemann ◽

Kerstin Kipp

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Control Group ◽

Response Condition ◽

Early School ◽

Familiarity And Recollection ◽

Recognition Judgments ◽

Adults And Children ◽

Memory Network

We examined the ERP correlates of familiarity and recollection and their development in 8- to 10-year-old children and a control group of young adults. Capitalizing on the different temporal dynamics of familiarity and recollection, we tested recognition memory in both groups with a speeded and nonspeeded response condition. Consistent with the view that familiarity is available earlier than recollection and by this more relevant for speeded recognition judgments, adults and children showed an early frontal old/new effect, the putative ERP correlate of familiarity in the speeded response condition. No parietal old/new effect, the putative ERP correlate of recollection was obtained in the speeded condition in neither group. Conversely, in the nonspeeded condition, both groups showed the parietal old/new effect, and a frontal effect was additionally observed for adults. In light of the generally lower memory accuracy of the children, these data suggested that children use a weaker and less matured version of the same explicit memory network used by adults in which familiarity and recollection differentially contribute to speeded and nonspeeded recognition memory judgments.

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