Abstract
Background
Delay discounting (DD), a decline in the subjective value of reward with increasing
delay until its receipt, is an established behavioral model of impulsive choice, a
key component of a broader impulsivity construct. Greater DD, i.e., a tendency to
choose smaller immediate over larger delayed rewards, has been implicated as a potential
intermediate phenotype (endophenotype) for addictive disorders and comorbid externalizing
psychopathology, particularly in adolescence. However, genetic and environmental origins
of DD remain unclear. Accordingly, the goal of the present study was to assess heritability
of DD, an important aspect of its utility as an endophenotype.
Methods
A commonly used computerized procedure involving choice between varying amounts of
money available immediately and a standard amount of $100 presented at variable delays
was administered to a population-based sample of twins aged 16 and 18 (n = 560, including 134 monozygotic and 142 dizygotic pairs). DD was quantified using
area under the discounting curve and the k coefficient estimated by fitting a hyperbolic
model to individual data. Heritability was assessed using linear structural equation
modeling of twin data.
Results
The genetic analysis revealed significant heritability of both DD measures (area under
the discounting curve: 46% and 62%; k: 35% and 55% at age 16 and 18, respectively).
Conclusions
The present study provides evidence for heritability of both model-based and model-free
DD measures and suggests that DD is a promising intermediate phenotype for genetic
dissection of impulsivity and externalizing spectrum disorders.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- A review of delay-discounting research with humans: Relations to drug use and gambling.Behav Pharmacol. 2006; 17: 651-667
- Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control.Psychol Bull. 1975; 82: 463-496
- Beyond discounting: Possible experimental models of impulse control.Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1999; 146: 339-347
- Within-subject comparison of real and hypothetical money rewards in delay discounting.J Exp Anal Behav. 2002; 77: 129-146
- Delay discounting of real and hypothetical rewards.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2003; 11: 139-145
- Delay discounting of potentially real and hypothetical rewards: II. Between- and within-subject comparisons.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2004; 12: 251-261
- Statistical equivalence and test-retest reliability of delay and probability discounting using real and hypothetical rewards.Behav Processes. 2013; 100: 116-122
- Delay discounting in current and never-before cigarette smokers: Similarities and differences across commodity, sign, and magnitude.J Abnorm Psychol. 2003; 112: 382-392
- Test-retest reliability of a group-administered paper-pencil measure of delay discounting.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2009; 17: 345-355
- Moderate drug use and delay discounting: A comparison of heavy, light, and never smokers.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2007; 15: 187-194
- One-year temporal stability of delay-discount rates.Psychon Bull Rev. 2009; 16: 457-462
- Three-month stability of delay and probability discounting measures.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2006; 14: 318-328
- Reliability of a measure of temporal discounting.Psychol Rec. 2000; 50: 3-16
- Test-retest reliability and construct validity of the Experiential Discounting Task.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2013; 21: 155-163
- Neurobehavioral mechanisms of impulsivity: Fronto-striatal systems and functional neurochemistry.Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2008; 90: 250-260
- Moderators of the association between brain activation and farsighted choice.Neuroimage. 2012; 59: 1469-1477
- The neural mechanisms of inter-temporal decision-making: Understanding variability.Trends Cogn Sci. 2011; 15: 227-239
- Preference for immediate over delayed rewards is associated with magnitude of ventral striatal activity.J Neurosci. 2006; 26: 13213-13217
- An algorithm for identifying nonsystematic delay-discounting data.Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2008; 16: 264-274
- Impulsivity as a vulnerability marker for substance-use disorders: Review of findings from high-risk research, problem gamblers and genetic association studies.Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008; 32: 777-810
- The role of impulsive behavior in drug abuse.Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2008; 200: 1-26
- Delayed reward discounting and addictive behavior: A meta-analysis.Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2011; 216: 305-321
- The behavioral- and neuro-economic process of temporal discounting: A candidate behavioral marker of addiction.Neuropharmacology. 2014; 76: 518-527
- Integrating behavioral economics and behavioral genetics: Delayed reward discounting as an endophenotype for addictive disorders.J Exp Anal Behav. 2013; 99: 14-31
- Impulsivity, compulsivity, and top-down cognitive control.Neuron. 2011; 69: 680-694
- Impulsivity, frontal lobes and risk for addiction.Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2009; 93: 237-247
- Relations among delay discounting, addictions, and money mismanagement: Implications and future directions.Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2012; 38: 30-42
- Recent research on impulsivity in individuals with drug use and mental health disorders: Implications for alcoholism.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010; 34: 1319-1333
- Temporal discounting as a measure of executive function: Insights from the competing neuro-behavioral decision system hypothesis of addiction.Adv Health Econ Health Serv Res. 2008; 20: 289-309
- Does delay discounting play an etiological role in smoking or is it a consequence of smoking?.Drug Alcohol Depend. 2009; 103: 99-106
- Delayed reward discounting predicts treatment response for heavy drinkers receiving smoking cessation treatment.Drug Alcohol Depend. 2009; 104: 197-203
- Behavioral impulsivity predicts treatment outcome in a smoking cessation program for adolescent smokers.Drug Alcohol Depend. 2007; 88: 79-82
- Does temporal discounting explain unhealthy behavior? A systematic review and reinforcement learning perspective.Front Behav Neurosci. 2014; 8: 76
- Food reinforcement, delay discounting and obesity.Physiol Behav. 2010; 100: 438-445
- Heritability of delay discounting in adolescence: A longitudinal twin study.Behav Genet. 2011; 41: 175-183
- The genetic basis of delay discounting and its genetic relationship to alcohol dependence.Behav Processes. 2011; 87: 10-17
- Research domain criteria (RDoC): Toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders.Am J Psychiatry. 2010; 167: 748-751
- Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: The seven pillars of RDoC.BMC Med. 2013; 11: 126
- Strain differences in delay discounting using inbred rats.Genes Brain Behav. 2009; 8: 426-434
- Strong genetic influences on measures of behavioral-regulation among inbred rat strains.Genes Brain Behav. 2013; 12: 490-502
- Delay discounting predicts behavioral sensitization to ethanol in outbred WSC mice.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2006; 30: 429-437
- High-alcohol preferring mice are more impulsive than low-alcohol preferring mice as measured in the delay discounting task.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009; 33: 1294-1303
- Measures of impulsivity in cigarette smokers and non-smokers.Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1999; 146: 455-464
- The subjective value of delayed and probabilistic outcomes: Outcome size matters for gains but not for losses.Behav Processes. 2010; 83: 36-40
- Area under the curve as a measure of discounting.J Exp Anal Behav. 2001; 76: 235-243
- An adjusting procedure for studying delayed reinforcement.in: Commons M.L. Mazur J.E. Nevin J.A. Rachlin H. Qualitative Analyses of Behavior. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ1987: 55-73
- Mx: Statistical Modeling.6th ed. Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Psychiatry, Richmond, VA2002
- Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families.Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands1992
- Analytic approaches to twin data using structural equation models.Brief Bioinform. 2002; 3: 119-133
- Statistics in Human Genetics.Oxford University Press, New York1998
- Delay discounting and task performance consistency in patients with schizophrenia.Psychiatry Res. 2014; 215: 286-293
- Excessive discounting of delayed reinforcers as a trans-disease process contributing to addiction and other disease-related vulnerabilities: Emerging evidence.Pharmacol Ther. 2012; 134: 287-297
- Living in the moment: Effects of time perspective and emotional valence of episodic thinking on delay discounting.Behav Neurosci. 2014; 128: 12-19
- Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards.Science. 2004; 306: 503-507
- Functional neuroimaging of intertemporal choice models: A review.J Neurosci Psychol Econ. 2010; 3: 27-45
- Examining impulsivity as an endophenotype using a behavioral approach: A DRD2 TaqI A and DRD4 48-bp VNTR association study.Behav Brain Funct. 2007; 3: 2
- Interaction between DRD2 C957T polymorphism and an acute psychosocial stressor on reward-related behavioral impulsivity.Behav Genet. 2009; 39: 285-295
- Immediate reward bias in humans: Fronto-parietal networks and a role for the catechol-O-methyltransferase 158(Val/Val) genotype.J Neurosci. 2007; 27: 14383-14391
- DAT1 and COMT effects on delay discounting and trait impulsivity in male adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and healthy controls.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010; 35: 2414-2426
Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 06, 2014
Accepted:
October 23,
2014
Received in revised form:
October 20,
2014
Received:
April 16,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Discounting of Delayed Rewards as an EndophenotypeBiological PsychiatryVol. 77Issue 10
- PreviewThe article by Anokhin et al. (1) in this issue of Biological Psychiatry provides strong evidence of the heritability of the neurobehavioral decision process referred to as the discounting of delayed rewards, or temporal discounting (i.e., the devaluation of a reward as a function of delay to its delivery) (2). Using a standard psychophysical titration procedure to assess discounting, Anokhin et al. tested twins (N = 560) at both 16 years of age and 18 years of age. Use of more than one time point allows estimates of the stability and strength of genetic influence over time.
- Full-Text
- Preview
