Subjective value representations during effort, probability and time discounting across adulthood

Abstract

Every day, humans make countless decisions that require the integration of information about potential benefits (i.e. rewards) with other decision features (i.e. effort required, probability of an outcome or time delays). Here, we examine the overlap and dissociation of behavioral preferences and neural representations of subjective value in the context of three different decision features (physical effort, probability and time delays) in a healthy adult life span sample. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants (N = 75) made incentive compatible choices between a smaller monetary reward with lower physical effort, higher probability, or a shorter time delay versus a larger monetary reward with higher physical effort, lower probability, or a longer time delay. Behavioral preferences were estimated from observed choices, and subjective values were computed using individual hyperbolic discount functions. We found that discount rates were uncorrelated across tasks. Despite this apparent behavioral dissociation between preferences, we found overlapping subjective value-related activity in the medial prefrontal cortex across all three tasks. We found no consistent evidence for age differences in either preferences or the neural representations of subjective value across adulthood. These results suggest that while the tolerance of decision features is behaviorally dissociable, subjective value signals share a common representation across adulthood.

Differential regional decline in dopamine receptor availability across adulthood: Linear and nonlinear effects of age

“…Both data sets (Study 1 and Study 2) were collected as part of large‐scale multimodal neuroimaging projects focused on decision making. Subsets of the Study 1 behavioral (Seaman et al, ), fMRI (Seaman et al, ) and PET (Dang et al, ; Dang et al, ; Smith et al, ) data were previously included in other publications. Specifically, age effects on D2‐like BP ND in a subset of Study 1 participants were reported or noted in three previous publications (Dang et al, ; Dang et al, ; Smith et al, ).…”

“…Both data sets (Study 1 and Study 2) were collected as part of largescale multimodal neuroimaging projects focused on decision making. (Seaman et al, 2016), fMRI (Seaman et al, 2018) and PET (Dang et al, 2016;Dang et al, 2017;Smith et al, 2017) data were previously included in other publications.…”

CISDA: Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging

“…We acknowledge that there are other integrative processes (e.g., subjective valuation across choice options). These processes, however, do not seem to be affected by aging (Seaman et al, 2018) and thus were less informative for our reflection about social decision making and aging in the context of CISDA.…”

“…We acknowledge, that other nonsocial factors (outcomes delays, risk, decision effort; Seaman et al, 2018) may also affect subjective value integration in social decision making. We contend, however, that theory of mind, emotion regulation, and memory for past experience represent key processes that impact value integration in aging because they predict social decision-making quality (Tabibnia et al, 2008;Beadle et al, 2012;Rilling & Sanfey, 2011) and change over the aging process (Mather, 2016;Ebner et al, 2016;Scheibe & Carstensen, 2010;Agarwal, Driscoll, Gabaix, & Laibson, 2009).…”

Neural mechanisms of decision‐making in aging

“…It is presently unclear if aging systematically affects discounting of future rewards despite a plethora of research on the topic. Some studies have reported reduced discounting with older age (Green, Fry, & Myerson, 1994;Green, Myerson, & Ostaszewski, 1999;Eppinger, Nystrom, & Cohen, 2012;Halfmann, Hedgcock, & Denburg, 2013;Harrison, Lau, & Williams, 2002;Jimura et al, 2011;Li et al, 2013;Löckenhoff et al, 2011;Reimers, Maylor, Stewart, & Chater, 2009;Simon et al, 2010;Sparrow & Spaniol, 2018), others find increased discounting (Read & Read, 2004;Seaman et al, 2016;Seaman et al, 2018), and some report no age differences (Chao, Szrek, Pereira, & Pauly, 2009;Eppinger, Heekeren, & Li, 2018;Green, Myerson, Lichtman, Rosen, & Fry, 1996;Han et al, 2013;Jimura et al, 2011;Rieger & Mata, 2013;Roalf, Mitchell, Harbaugh, & Janowsky, 2011;Samanez-Larkin, Wagner, & Knutson, 2011;Sasse, Peters, & Brassen 2017;Seaman et al, 2016;Sparrow & Spaniol, 2018;Whelan & McHugh, 2009) or nonlinear effects (Richter & Mata, 2018). Some, but not all, discrepancies may be explained by older adults' preferences for specific reward types (e.g., Jimura et al, 2011;Seaman et al, 2016).…”