时间贴现在神经和行为上的年龄特征

时间贴现的年龄发展具有阶段性。前额皮质, 边缘系统和多巴胺能系统的发展成熟是从儿童期到成人期时间贴现发展变化的神经生物基础。成人期到老年期时间贴现年龄特征的研究结果不一致。概率贴现、未来定向、延迟满足等被用来探讨时间贴现年龄发展特征。可以从大脑不同区域的发展轨迹, 延迟时段的心理意义来进一步深入研究。

The Characteristic of Temporal Discounting on Age in Neural and Behavioral Views

There are two sessions in the development of temporal discounting on age, the one is the time period between childhood and adulthood and the other one is between adulthood and the old age. The curve of temporal discounting gets flatter as the individuals grow up during the time period from childhood to adulthood, the steepness of the function of temporal discounting decreases and the discounting rate slows down as the age. The development and maturation of human’s brain is the neurobiological fundamental of the development of temporal discounting on this period of age. The enhanced communication between the subcortical and cortical areas and the heightened connection within the differential areas in cortical and subcortical regions are the key factors to the maturation of cognitive capacity when the age of individuals is between childhood and adulthood. The temporal discounting changes during this period as a result of the development and maturation of the prefrontal cortex, limbic system and the remodeling of the brain’s dopaminergic system. The steepness of the function of temporal discounting has slightly difference between adulthood and the old age, the changing of the temporal discounting rate is getting slowly. However, some competing results have been found, the researches of temporal discounting on this period haven’t converged yet. A number of efforts have been made on studying the psychological phenomenon which has strong connection to temporal discounting, such as probability discounting, future orientation and delay of gratification, in order to figure out the psychological mechanism of temporal discounting on age. In future, the difference between trajectory of brain areas and the psychological stage of delayed duration might be the perspectives to figure out the characteristic of temporal discounting on age.