The Cognitive Mechanism Or Neural Basis Of Childhood And Adolescence Subjective Socioeconomic Status Affecting Intertemporal Decision-making In Adulthood

Intertemporal decision-making refers to individuals making various judgments and choices by weighing the gains and losses at different points in time(Frederick et al.,2002).Research on intertemporal decision-making has found that individuals tend to give less weight to future gains(or losses)than current or recent gains(or losses),that is,they are more biased towards current gains(or future losses).This phenomenon is called delay discounting.In real life,At the personal level of financial savings,food choices and work.at the national level environmental protection policies,education investment and infrastructure construction all involve issues of intertemporal decision-making.Intertemporal decision making is influenced by many factors,and socioeconomic status is one of them.Socioeconomic status can be divided into objective socioeconomic status and subjective socioeconomic status,and can be subdivided according to age.Previous studies have found that both subjective and objective socioeconomic status significantly affect an individual's mental health and cognitive ability.Nowadays,more and more researchers find that subjective socioeconomic status can predict individuals' mental health and cognitive ability more effectively than objective socioeconomic status.Moreover,many researchers have found that the socioeconomic status of individuals is closely related to their preferences for intertemporal decision-making.Specifically,the higher the individual's socioeconomic status,the more likely the individual to delay gratification.However,there are few studies on the influence of childhood and adolescence subjective socioeconomic status on intertemporal decision-making in adulthood,and the mechanism of the influence is still unclear.On the other hand,childhood and adolescece are key stages of individual psychological development and brain development,which will directly affect individual cognitive ability(such as executive function),and then affect individual intertemporal decision-making.In this study,behavioral measurement and brain structure data collection were used,and examines the cognitive mechanisms and neural basis of childhood and adolescencesocioeconomic status affecting intertemporal decision-making from the perspective of individual's psychological development and brain development.In the study 1,The Cognitive mechanism of socioeconomic status affecting intertemporal decision-making was explored by using behavioral measurement method.We used the CSSS(childhood subjective socioeconomic status),ASSS(adolescence subjective socioeconomic status),USSS(university subjective socioeconomic status),FOSS(family objective socioeconomic status),SCS(Self-Control scales),EFT(Episodic future thinking),BART(balloon analogue risk task)and ITC(intertemporal decision-making task)to Measuring the required variables respectively(83 subjects).The results of correlation analysis found that the childhood subjective socioeconomic status(r=0.297,p=0.006),the adolescence subjective socioeconomic status(r=0.281,p=0.010),with the intertemporal decision-making indicator(Area Under the Curve,AUC)were significantly positively correlated.And the general capacity for self-discipline(dimension of the self-control scale)with the childhood subjective socioeconomic status(r=0.341,p=0.002),the adolescence subjective socioeconomic status(r=0.309,p=0.005),and the AUC(r=0.322,p=0.003)were also a significant positive correlation.Importantly mediation analysis showed the general capacity for self-discipline was a significant mediator between childhood subjective socioeconomic status and AUC(bootstrap=5000,95%per-centile CI = 0.011-0.221).Meanwhile,the general capacity for self-discipline was a significant mediator between the adolescence subjective socioeconomic status(ASSS)and AUC(bootstrap=5000,95%per-centile CI =0.012-0.187).The results indicate that the higher the subjective socioeconomic status experienced by an individual during childhood or adolescence,the stronger their general capacity for self-discipline in adulthood,the more likely they can resist the temptation of timely small rewards,and the more they are willing to wait for delayed large rewards.In the study 2,we collected brain structure data(T1 images)from two samples.Sample 1consisted of all the subjects in Study 1,and sample 2 was a verification sample of VBM(Voxel-based morphometry)results(119 subjcets).It was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the gray matter volume of the left dorsal lateral prefrontal lobe(l DLPFC)and the general capacity for self-discipline score in the two samples(sample1: MNI peak coordinates-32,28,52;t = 4.58,cluster sizes = 4009,p < 0.05,corrected;sample 2: MNI peak coordinates-34,-26,50;t= 4.19,cluster sizes = 3446,p < 0.05,corrected).Sample 1 further mediation analysis found that the gray matter volume of the left lateral dorsal prefrontal lobe(l DLPFC)played a partially mediating role in the relation between the adolescent subjective socioeconomic status and intertemporal decision-making in adulthood(bootstrap=5000,95%per-centile CI = 0.006-0.158).The results indicate that the left lateral prefrontal lobe(l DLPFC)may be the neural basis for the adolescent subjective socioeconomic status to influence intertemporal decision-making in adulthood.In summary,this study finds that:(1)The general capacity for self-discipline in adulthood.was a significant mediator between childhood subjective socioeconomic status(CSSS)and AUC in adulthood.And the general capacity for self-discipline in adulthood.was a significant mediator between the adolescence subjective socioeconomic status(ASSS)and AUC in adulthood..Thesubjective socioeconomic status in childhood or adolescence may be affects the general capacity for self-discipline ability of individuals in adulthood.,this in turn will affect their intertemporal decision-making in adulthood..(2)The left dorsal lateral prefrontal lobe may be the neural basis for the adolescent subjective socioeconomic status to influence intertemporal decision-making in adulthood..This study,overall,explores the cognitive mechanism or neural basis of childhood and adolescence subjective socioeconomic status affecting intertemporal decision-making in adulthood from behavior and brain structures.And confirms the significant relationship between childhood subjective socioeconomic status,adolescence subjective socioeconomic status with intertemporal decision-making in adulthood.And to some extent,it reveals the neural basis of adolescent subjective socioeconomic status affecting intertemporal decision-making in adulthood.This not only deepens our understanding of the cognitive mechanism of childhood and adolescence subjective socioeconomic status affecting intertemporal decision-making in adulthood,but also shows for the first time the neural basis of adolescence subjective socioeconomic status affecting in adulthood intertemporal decision-making.This provides an important theoretical basis for the intervention of intertemporal decision-making by individuals with lower socioeconomic status.At the same time,it also has important guiding significance for children's education(especially self-discipline)and "psychological poverty alleviation"...