Abstract
Impulsivity refers to the tendency to insufficiently consider alternatives or to overvalue rewards that are available sooner. The latter form of impulsivity – present bias – is a hallmark of human decision making with well documented health and financial ramifications. Numerous contextual changes and framing manipulations can powerfully influence present bias. One of the most robust such phenomenon is the finding that people are more patient as the values of choice options are increased. This magnitude effect has been related to cognitive control mechanisms in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to transiently disrupt neural activity in dlPFC. This manipulation dramatically reduced the magnitude effect, establishing causal evidence that the magnitude effect depends on dlPFC.
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing financial interests.