Empirical examination of working memory performance and its neural correlates in relation to delay discounting in two large samples.

The neurobiological basis of working memory and delay discounting are theorized to overlap, but few studies have empirically examined these relations in large samples. To address this, we investigated the association of neural activation during an fMRI N-Back working memory task with delay discounting area, as well as in- and out-of-scanner working memory measures. These analyses were conducted in two large task fMRI datasets, the Human Connectome Project and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Although in- and out-of-scanner working memory performance were significantly associated with N-back task brain activation regions, contrary to our hypotheses, there were no significant associations between working memory task activation and delay discounting scores. These findings call into question the extent of the neural overlap in delay discounting and working memory and highlight the need for more investigations directly interrogating overlapping and distinct brain regions across cognitive neuroscience tasks.

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Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interests James MacKillop is a Principal and Senior Scientist at BEAM Diagnostics, Inc. and has consulted to Clairvoyant Therapeutics, Inc.