title: Reduced future-oriented decision making in individuals with subjective cognitive decline: A functional MRI study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) refers to an at-risk state of Alzheimer's disease and subtle cognitive deficits that have been observed in this condition. Currently, it is unknown whether complex cognitive processes relevant to everyday life, such as future-oriented choice behavior, are also altered in SCD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty SCD participants and 24 control (CO) participants took part in a functional magnetic resonance imaging task on intertemporal decisions, with and without simultaneous episodic future imagination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SCD participants showed reduced future-oriented choices. Future imagination increased future-oriented choices and was associated with increased brain activation in medial frontal polar cortex, right insular cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex in CO only, not SCD. In addition, more future-oriented choices were associated with hippocampal activation during choice processing in CO only.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Subtle neuronal network disruptions in SCD may underlie their myopic future decisions and lack of modulation of choice behavior by episodic future imagination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Xiaochen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Uhle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fliessbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, XuanWu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jessen
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Delay discounting; Episodic future imagination; Intertemporal decision making; Subjective cognitive decline