Cited by 145Memory and Neural MechanismsMemory Processes and InfluencesDecision-Making and Behavioral Economics

The medial temporal lobes are critical for reward-based decision making under conditions that promote episodic future thinking: DECISION MAKING IN AMNESIA

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Palombo, Daniela J., Keane, Margaret M., Verfaellie, Mieke·2015·Hippocampus

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the effect of medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage on human decision making in the context of reward-based intertemporal choice. During intertemporal choice, humans typically devalue (or discount) a future reward to account for its delayed arrival (e.g., preferring $30 now over $42 in 2 months), but this effect is attenuated when participants engage in episodic future thinking, i.e., project themselves into the future to imagine a specific event. We hypothesized that this attenuation would be selectively impaired in amnesic patients, who have deficits in episodic future thinking. Replicating previous work, in a standard intertemporal choice task, amnesic patients showed temporal discounting indices similar to healthy controls. Consistent with our hypothesis, while healthy controls demonstrated attenuated temporal discounting in a condition that required participants first to engage in episodic future thinking (e.g., to imagine spending $42 at a theatre in 2 months), amnesic patients failed to demonstrate this effect. Moreover, as expected, amnesic patients' narratives were less episodically rich than those of controls. These findings extend the range of tasks that are shown to be MTL dependent to include not only memory-based decision-making tasks but also future-oriented ones.

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  • Evidence from patients with hippocampal damage or atrophy following Alzheimer's disease shows that temporal discounting is not attenuated by situations requiring episodic future thinking in these populations.

    “some evidence from patients with hippocampal damage (77) or atrophy following Alzheimer’s disease (76) showing that temporal discounting is not attenuated by situations requiring episodic future thinking in these populations”

    From Episodic Future Thinking: Mechanisms and Functions (2017) · cites this paper as [77]

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  1. Wechsler D Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Third Edition (WAIS-III) administration and scoring manual 1997 San Antonio, TX Harcourt Assessment

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Authors
Palombo, D. J., Keane, M. M., & Verfaellie, M.
Affiliations
Boston University (US)
Corresponding author
Palombo, Daniela J.
Venue
Hippocampus
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2014-10-29
Volume
25
Issue
3
Pages
345-353
ISSN
1050-9631 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1601628690
Cited by
145
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 14
FWCI
7.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Hippocampus (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH093431)
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (IO1 CX000925)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Keywords
medial temporal lobe, episodic future thinking, intertemporal choice, delay discounting, reward-based decision-making, amnesia, episodic memory, future-oriented cognition
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Injuries, Choice Behavior, Conditioning, Psychological, Decision Making, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Reward, Temporal Lobe, Thinking, Tomography, X-Ray Computed

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