Ventromedial PFC, parahippocampal, and cerebellar connectivity are associated with temporal discounting in old age

Temporal discounting occurs when a greater delayed reward is forsaken for a smaller immediate reward, and has been associated with a number of financial and health care outcomes important for older adults. Using resting-state fMRI and seed regions of interest in the left and right fronto-insular (FI) cortices, we explored the neurobiological substrate of temporal discounting in 123 non-demented older adults from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. For the left FI cortex, temporal discounting was positively associated with functional connectivity to the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex and middle temporal regions, and negatively associated with parahippocampal and right cerebellar regions. For the right FI cortex, temporal discounting was negatively associated with functional connectivity to a right cerebellar region. Connectivity maps of both left and right seed regions of interest overlapped in the right cerebellum. Results support the notion of different brain functional connectivity patterns associated with the dynamic range of temporal discounting in old age.