Intertemporal Choice: Neuronal and Psychological Determinants of Economic Decisions

This introductory article provides a short overview of empirical and theoretical articles presented in the special issue on psychological and neural models of intertemporal decision making, which is divided into 2 parts. The first part consists of contributions presenting different models of intertemporal choice. These contributions provide an overview of current conceptualizations; that is, providing several psychological and neural frameworks, investigating how memory processes are related to the anticipation of time, and showing how the perception of time underlies our decisions about the future. A final article deals with factors that influence choices on environmental policies where the consequences of decisions are delayed by decades or more. The second upcoming part is concerned with functional neuroimaging of intertemporal decision making. Two reviews of studies in neuroimaging and 2 empirical articles examine the questions of which brain regions (and associated functions) are involved in deciding on options with different temporal consequences. We hope this volume will be conducive in developing a better understanding of intertemporal decision making as part of complex sets of neural processes as well as psychological factors that include cognitive reasoning, emotional states, and the interconnected perception of time.