Delay discounting in mild cognitive impairment

Introduction: Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may make suboptimal decisions particularly in complex situations, and this could be due to temporal discounting, the tendency to prefer immediate rewards over delayed but larger rewards. The present study proposes to evaluate intertemporal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 2017-05, Vol.39 (4), p.336-346
Main Authors: Coelho, Sara, Guerreiro, Manuela, Chester, Catarina, Silva, Dina, Maroco, João, Paglieri, Fabio, de Mendonça, Alexandre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Choice Behavior - physiology
Cognitive ability
Cognitive Dysfunction - psychology
Decision-making
Delay discounting
Delay Discounting - physiology
Female
Humans
Male
Memory
Middle Aged
Mild cognitive impairment
Neuropsychological Tests
Reinforcement
Reward
Temporal preferences
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Summary:Introduction: Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may make suboptimal decisions particularly in complex situations, and this could be due to temporal discounting, the tendency to prefer immediate rewards over delayed but larger rewards. The present study proposes to evaluate intertemporal preferences in MCI patients as compared to healthy controls. Method: Fifty-five patients with MCI and 57 healthy controls underwent neuropsychological evaluation and a delay discounting questionnaire, which evaluates three parameters: hyperbolic discounting (k), the percentage of choices for delayed and later rewards (%LL), and response consistency (Acc). Results: No significant differences were found in the delay discounting questionnaire between MCI patients and controls for the three reward sizes considered, small, medium, and large, using both k and %LL parameters. There were also no differences in the response consistency, Acc, between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients with MCI perform similarly to healthy controls in a delay discounting task. Memory deficits do not notably affect intertemporal preferences.
ISSN:1380-3395
1744-411X
DOI:10.1080/13803395.2016.1226269