Imperial College London
Professor Ivo Vlaev

ProfessorIvoVlaev

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer

Visiting Professor
 
 
 
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Contact

 

i.vlaev

 
 
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Location

 

1003Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Wing (QEQM)St Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Story:2014:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076,
author = {Story, G and Vlaev, I and Seymour, B and Darzi, A and Dolan, R},
doi = {10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076},
journal = {Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience},
title = {Does temporal discounting explain unhealthy behavior? A systematic review and reinforcement learning perspective},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076},
volume = {8},
year = {2014}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The tendency to make unhealthy choices is hypothesized to be related to an individual’stemporal discount rate, the theoretical rate at which they devalue delayed rewards.Furthermore, a particular form of temporal discounting, hyperbolic discounting, hasbeen proposed to explain why unhealthy behavior can occur despite healthy intentions.We examine these two hypotheses in turn. We first systematically review studieswhich investigate whether discount rates can predict unhealthy behavior. These studiesreveal that high discount rates for money (and in some instances food or drugrewards) are associated with several unhealthy behaviors and markers of healthstatus, establishing discounting as a promising predictive measure. We secondlyexamine whether intention-incongruent unhealthy actions are consistent with hyperbolicdiscounting. We conclude that intention-incongruent actions are often triggered byenvironmental cues or changes in motivational state, whose effects are not parameterizedby hyperbolic discounting. We propose a framework for understanding these state-basedeffects in terms of the interplay of two distinct reinforcement learning mechanisms: a“model-based” (or goal-directed) system and a “model-free” (or habitual) system. Underthis framework, while discounting of delayed health may contribute to the initiation ofunhealthy behavior, with repetition, many unhealthy behaviors become habitual; if healthgoals then change, habitual behavior can still arise in response to environmental cues. Wepropose that the burgeoning development of computational models of these processeswill permit further identification of health decision-making phenotypes.
AU  - Story,G
AU  - Vlaev,I
AU  - Seymour,B
AU  - Darzi,A
AU  - Dolan,R
DO  - 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076
PY  - 2014///
SN  - 1662-5153
TI  - Does temporal discounting explain unhealthy behavior? A systematic review and reinforcement learning perspective
T2  - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00076
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/44637
VL  - 8
ER  -
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