Why Humans Resist Instant Gratification

Researchers have identified the brain circuit that underlies our ability to resist instant gratification in order to earn a better payoff. The effort provides insight, scientists say, into the capacity for "mental time travel," also known as episodic future thought, that enables humans to make choices with high long-term benefits. Results of the research are published in Neuron. Several models have been proposed to explain the neural basis of assigning relative value to multiple rewards at different points in time (also known as "intertemporal decision making") in humans. Until now, however, many questions remained unanswered, and the brain regions and mechanisms involved in this process were unclear. read more

Read the whole article on

More from