Bi-frontal direct current stimulation affects delay discounting choices

Abstract

In delay discounting tasks, participants decide between receiving a certain amount of money now or a larger sum sometime in the future. This study investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on delay discounting. Participants made delay discounting choices while receiving a bi-frontal stimulation of right-hemisphere anodal/left-hemisphere cathodal, left-hemisphere anodal/right-hemisphere cathodal, and sham stimulation, in three separate sessions. When the difference between the alternatives was 10% or more, participants generally preferred to wait for the larger sum. Nevertheless, there were more choices of smaller “immediate” gains, instead of the larger delayed options, when the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was facilitated and the right DLPFC inhibited, compared to the sham stimulation. These observations indicate the significant role of the prefrontal cortex in delay discounting choices, and demonstrate that increased left frontal activation combined with decreased right frontal activation can alter decision-making by intensifying a tendency to choose immediate gains.

Keywords:

• Delay discounting
• Intertemporal choice
• Decision-making
• Brain stimulation
• tDCS
• Frontal cortex

Acknowledgments

The authors are members of the EU Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN-LAN grant PITN-G-2008-214570) funded under Framework 7.