Preference for instant small reward over large delayed one?
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05 Nov 2010, 9:31 am
I posted this info a bit earlier on the General Discussion Forum, with a poll too, but it occurred to me that it might be of considerable interest, and use, to parents, so am posting it again here:
Fructose, Tryptophan, Serotonin, Mood and Cognition.
1 ) Do you tend to prefer/prioritise small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards?
2 ) Do you tend to discount or undervalue longer-term rewards?
3 ) Do you often have trouble connecting negative consequences to actions taken more than a few hours or days beforehand?
4 ) Do you often have trouble understanding or imagining or correctly evaluating the consequences and implications of your actions?
I just found some interesting information about the effect of low tryptophan on mood and cognitive function, especially likely in those with fructose malabsorption, ( because unabsorbed fructose binds to tryptophan in the gut making it unavailable ), and apparently as many as 40% of people have low to very-low fructose absorption capacity, and/or in those on vegan/casein-free vegetarian diets, ( because the best sources of tryptophan are meat, cheese, fish and eggs ):
Tryptophan is a necessary/essential requirement for the production of serotonin in the brain.
From the Yahoo Fructose-Malabsorption and FODMAP intolerance chat list I recently joined:
Yahoo-Fructose-Malabsorption-and-FODMAP-Intolerance-Chat-list wrote:
The technical term for typical tantrums and loss of social inhibition in children and adults (clinically) is 'delayed reward discounting' - that is, the tendency to prefer a short-term low-value reward over a more distant high-value reward.
Short-term greed and urgency for immediate response is favored when serotonin levels are low ( and emotional reaction tends to be out of scale for the short-term reward too, hence the tantrums ). One of the key points in the studies on this is that the researchers induced low serotonin levels by DIETARILY reducing tryptophan in healthy adults, in order to test the behavioral results.
A good one on this: The Journal of Neuroscience, April 23, 2008, 28(17):4528- 4532; doi:10.1523/ JNEUROSCI. 4982-07.2008;
"Low-Serotonin Levels Increase Delayed Reward Discounting in Humans".
Nicolas Schweighofer, 1 Mathieu Bertin,2,5 Kazuhiro Shishida,3 Yasumasa Okamoto,3 Saori C. Tanaka,2 Shigeto Yamawaki,3 and Kenji Doya2,4 : "
"Previous animal experiments have shown that serotonin is involved in the control of impulsive choice, as characterized by high preference for small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous human studies under serotonin manipulation, however, have been either inconclusive on the effect on impulsivity or have shown an effect in the speed of action–reward learning or the optimality of action choice.
Here, we manipulated central serotonergic levels of healthy volunteers by dietary tryptophan depletion and loading. Subjects performed a "dynamic" delayed reward choice task that required a continuous update of the reward value estimates to maximize total gain. By using a computational model of delayed reward choice learning, we estimated the parameters governing the subjects' reward choices in low-, normal, and high-serotonin conditions.
We found an increase of proportion in small reward choices, together with an increase in the rate of discounting of delayed rewards in the low-serotonin condition compared with the control and high-serotonin conditions. There were no significant differences between conditions in the speed of learning of the estimated delayed reward values or in the variability of reward choice.
Therefore, in line with previous animal experiments, our results show that low-serotonin levels steepen delayed reward discounting in humans. The combined results of our previous and current studies suggest that serotonin may adjust the rate of delayed reward discounting via the modulation of specific loops in parallel corticobasal ganglia circuits."
4) Other behavioral implications of low serotonin that have been researched already:
S. C. Tanaka, K. Shishida, N. Schweighofer, Y. Okamoto, S. Yamawaki, and K. Doya
"Serotonin Affects Association of Aversive Outcomes to Past Actions"
J. Neurosci., December 16, 2009; 29(50): 15669 - 15674.
(That is, punishment or negative consequence that is at all delayed from the action makes increasingly less connection when serotonin is low )
A. B. Long, C. M. Kuhn, and M. L. Platt
Serotonin shapes risky decision making in monkeys
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, December 1, 2009; 4(4): 346 - 356.
( The implications of choices are less well understood when serotonin is low )
So... kind of important to have serotonin! Especially for kids. You can find a lot more by entering 'low serotonin' into Google Scholar...
Some other implications of low serotonin:
* Excess fatigue
* Appetite loss or increased consumption of certain food items
* Disrupted sleep pattern
* Depression and anxiety
* Irritability and frequent crying spells
* Increased sensitivity to pain
* Migraine attacks
* Reduction in insulin production
* Poor memory and diminished ability to learn
* Decreased sexual desire
* Depression associated with rage outbursts
* Place memory challenges (may influence sense of direction)
* Eating disorders (especially bulimia in girls)
* Impulsivity and OCD
* Responsiveness to behavioral therapy (such as for PTSD)
* suicide risk
* Alcohol dependence (for helping modulate emotional reactions)
* Hot flashes (though this may be related to an imbalance between the two serotonin locations, so may have a different cause).
Short-term greed and urgency for immediate response is favored when serotonin levels are low ( and emotional reaction tends to be out of scale for the short-term reward too, hence the tantrums ). One of the key points in the studies on this is that the researchers induced low serotonin levels by DIETARILY reducing tryptophan in healthy adults, in order to test the behavioral results.
A good one on this: The Journal of Neuroscience, April 23, 2008, 28(17):4528- 4532; doi:10.1523/ JNEUROSCI. 4982-07.2008;
"Low-Serotonin Levels Increase Delayed Reward Discounting in Humans".
Nicolas Schweighofer, 1 Mathieu Bertin,2,5 Kazuhiro Shishida,3 Yasumasa Okamoto,3 Saori C. Tanaka,2 Shigeto Yamawaki,3 and Kenji Doya2,4 : "
"Previous animal experiments have shown that serotonin is involved in the control of impulsive choice, as characterized by high preference for small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous human studies under serotonin manipulation, however, have been either inconclusive on the effect on impulsivity or have shown an effect in the speed of action–reward learning or the optimality of action choice.
Here, we manipulated central serotonergic levels of healthy volunteers by dietary tryptophan depletion and loading. Subjects performed a "dynamic" delayed reward choice task that required a continuous update of the reward value estimates to maximize total gain. By using a computational model of delayed reward choice learning, we estimated the parameters governing the subjects' reward choices in low-, normal, and high-serotonin conditions.
We found an increase of proportion in small reward choices, together with an increase in the rate of discounting of delayed rewards in the low-serotonin condition compared with the control and high-serotonin conditions. There were no significant differences between conditions in the speed of learning of the estimated delayed reward values or in the variability of reward choice.
Therefore, in line with previous animal experiments, our results show that low-serotonin levels steepen delayed reward discounting in humans. The combined results of our previous and current studies suggest that serotonin may adjust the rate of delayed reward discounting via the modulation of specific loops in parallel corticobasal ganglia circuits."
4) Other behavioral implications of low serotonin that have been researched already:
S. C. Tanaka, K. Shishida, N. Schweighofer, Y. Okamoto, S. Yamawaki, and K. Doya
"Serotonin Affects Association of Aversive Outcomes to Past Actions"
J. Neurosci., December 16, 2009; 29(50): 15669 - 15674.
(That is, punishment or negative consequence that is at all delayed from the action makes increasingly less connection when serotonin is low )
A. B. Long, C. M. Kuhn, and M. L. Platt
Serotonin shapes risky decision making in monkeys
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, December 1, 2009; 4(4): 346 - 356.
( The implications of choices are less well understood when serotonin is low )
So... kind of important to have serotonin! Especially for kids. You can find a lot more by entering 'low serotonin' into Google Scholar...
Some other implications of low serotonin:
* Excess fatigue
* Appetite loss or increased consumption of certain food items
* Disrupted sleep pattern
* Depression and anxiety
* Irritability and frequent crying spells
* Increased sensitivity to pain
* Migraine attacks
* Reduction in insulin production
* Poor memory and diminished ability to learn
* Decreased sexual desire
* Depression associated with rage outbursts
* Place memory challenges (may influence sense of direction)
* Eating disorders (especially bulimia in girls)
* Impulsivity and OCD
* Responsiveness to behavioral therapy (such as for PTSD)
* suicide risk
* Alcohol dependence (for helping modulate emotional reactions)
* Hot flashes (though this may be related to an imbalance between the two serotonin locations, so may have a different cause).
I'm thinking that this suggests a possible connection between the massive increase in fructose consumption the last 50 years and the increasingly widespread and destructive tendency to short-term thinking that is more and more evident in society as a whole, aswell as the disabling individual difficulty with correctly weighing up small instant rewards against larger long-term rewards which so many people ( myself included ) have experienced, and suffered from, for so much of their lives. ie. Chronically poor judgement in one of the most important areas of functioning.
Fructose malabsorption is a question of limits/tolerance levels; apparently as many as 40% of people have low to very low fructose-absorption capacities.
The best sources of tryptophan are ( in order and by weight ): dry hard cheeses; meat especially pork and poultry; fish especially salmon and tuna; eggs, other dairy produce, seeds and nuts and pulses.
Eating more than a small amount of fructose at the same meal or within four or five hours as the above foods is likely, in as many as 40% of people, to significantly reduce the amount of tryptophan which is absorbed and converted to serotonin.
Foods highest in fructose are apples, pears, honey, very sweet fruits, and anything containing high-fructose corn-syrup. Foods high in fructans, which may have a similar effect on tryptophan uptake are wheat, rye, onions and leeks, and chicory, aswell as brown rice.
.
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