Medial rostral prefrontal cortex and the neuroeconomics of mental time travel Roland G. Benoit Sam J. Gilbert Paul W. Burgess University College London

imagining the future Addis, Wong, & Schacter, 2007 subjective value Kable & Glimcher, 2007 metanalysis Gilbert et al., 2006

* Imagine Lunch Imagine Lunch £ 27 in 360 days £ 27 in 360 days 1=yes; 2=no Emotional? 0=detach. … 4=highly Experiencing? 0=none … 4=highly 1s 2s 14s max 4.5s max 4s until 28.5 s + TaskEpisodic prospection Semantic prospection Arithmetic operations Imagine Imagine the episode of spending the money in the scenario XXX Estimate Estimate what the money could buy you in the scenario XX Counting Count forwards (backwards) from the indicated number in steps of 3 (4) X 5 amounts [£: 26;33;42;52;65] X 4 delays [days: 30;90;180;360]; 20 scenarios £ 25 now

summary design 2 runs, each 10 trials of each task (Imagine, Estimate, Count) 28.5s * 30 trials = 855s (14.25min); 855s * 2 runs = 1710s (28.5 min) Instructions + practicing: ca. 60 min Debriefing: –Consideration of future consequences scale (Strathman et al., 1994) –Vividness of visual imagery questionnaire (Marks, 1973) –Given the money that you will probably have at those time points, how much will £ 25 be worth to you [now; 30;90;180;360]? functional sequence: –64 x 64; 3.5 x 3.5 mm pixels; 33 axial slices (3.5 mm thick, oriented to the AC-PC plane) –TR: 2.5 s; TE: 40 ms; structural sequence: MPRAGE? field maps