Outcome Value and Task Aversiveness Impact Task Procrastination through Separate Neural Pathways

Cerebral Cortex, vol. 31, pp. 3846–3855

Abstract

The temporal decision model of procrastination has proposed that outcome value and task aversiveness are two separate aspects accounting for procrastination. If true, the human brain is likely to implicate separate neural pathways to mediate the effect of outcome value and task aversiveness on procrastination. Outcome value is plausibly constructed via a hippocampus-based pathway because of the hippocampus's unique role in episodic prospection. In contrast, task aversiveness might be represented through an amygdala-involved pathway. In the current study, participants underwent fMRI scanning when viewing both tasks and future outcomes, without any experimental instruction imposed. The results revealed that outcome value increased activations in the caudate, and suppressed procrastination through a hippocampus-caudate pathway. In contrast, task aversiveness increased activations in the anterior insula, and increased procrastination via an amygdala-insula pathway. In sum, this study demonstrates that people can incorporate both outcome value and task aversiveness into task valuation to decide whether to procrastinate or not; and it elucidates the separate neural pathways via which this occurs.

Authors 6

1. Shunmin Zhang

   Southwest University · Zhejiang University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China

   School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China

2. Tom Verguts

   Ghent University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent B-9000, Belgium

3. Chenyan Zhang Aachen Institute of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden 9500 2300, Netherlands

4. Pan Feng

   Southwest University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China

   Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China

5. Qi Chen corresponding

   South China Normal University

   Affiliation as printed

   Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China

   School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China

6. Tingyong Feng

   Southwest University

   Affiliation as printed

   Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China

   School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China