Media release

From: Society for Neuroscience

How the human brain drives persistence

Scientists uncover the distinct, causal roles of human prefrontal cortex subregions in waiting longer for monetary rewards.

Waiting longer for larger rewards instead of accepting smaller, more immediate rewards can be important for one’s success in education, health, or personal finance. But the persistence to wait at the cost of the immediate rewards varies both individually and contextually. Camilla van Geen, from the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues investigated how the human brain evaluates whether waiting for rewards is worthwhile. The researchers discovered that several subregions of the prefrontal cortex are involved, each playing separate, causal roles in how willing a person is to wait for monetary rewards. Some subregions contributed to people being less willing to wait, while other subregions prevented people from figuring out when waiting is worthwhile based off environmental context. According to the authors, unraveling these prefrontal cortex subregion roles in persistence advances our understanding of reward behavior that may inform treatments for individuals exhibiting less persistence in waiting for large rewards.