Undervaluing delayed rewards explains adolescents’ impulsivity in inter-temporal choice: an ERP study

Adolescence has frequently been characterized as a period of choice impulsivity relative to adulthood. According to the control-integrated valuation model of inter-temporal choice, this choice impulsivity may be driven partly by an age-related difference in reward processing. We hypothesized that, compared to adults, adolescents would undervalue delayed rewards during reward processing and would thus be more impulsive in inter-temporal choice. To test this hypothesis at the behavioural and neural levels, we first measured the choice impulsivity of 18 adolescents and 19 adults using a delay discounting task (DDT). Then, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from the participants while they were performing the valuation task, in which monetary gains and losses were either immediate or delayed. The behavioural results showed that adolescents were more impulsive than adults in the DDT. The ERP results showed that, whilst both groups valued immediate rewards, implied by a similarly strong feedback-related negativity (FRN) effect associated with immediate outcomes, adolescents devalued delayed rewards more than adults did, as they produced a significantly smaller FRN effect associated with delayed outcomes. As predicted, the mediation analysis revealed that the adolescents’ lower FRN effect of delayed outcomes underpinned their stronger impulsive decision making in the DDT.