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Sweet Future: Fluctuating Blood Glucose Levels Affect Future Discounting

This study explored metabolic mechanisms of future (delay) discounting, a choice phenomenon where people value present goods over future goods. Using fluctuating blood glucose as an index of body-energy budget, optimal discounting should regulate choice among rewards as a function of temporal calori...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2010-02, Vol.21 (2), p.183-188
Main Authors: Wang, X.T., Dvorak, Robert D.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:This study explored metabolic mechanisms of future (delay) discounting, a choice phenomenon where people value present goods over future goods. Using fluctuating blood glucose as an index of body-energy budget, optimal discounting should regulate choice among rewards as a function of temporal caloric requirement. We identified this novel link between blood glucose levels measured in the lab and future-discounting rates of participants, who made choices between a "smaller and sooner" reward and a "larger but later" option, with possible actual monetary rewards. A group of participants who drank a soft drink that contained sugar showed a reduced rate of future discounting afterward, when we controlled for sex, age, body mass index, and the taste of the drink. In contrast, a group of participants who drank a soft drink that contained artificial sweetener showed an increased rate of future discounting. Blood glucose levels not only varied as a result of caloric intake but also regulated the rate of future discounting, according to participants' dynamic body-energy budget.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797609358096