Brain wants us to delay instant gratification, experts claim

Brain secret: It wants us to delay gratification

The motto 'good things come to those who wait' comes from a brain circuit that tells us to delay instant gratification, experts claimed today.
New research has shown that this circuit underlies a person's ability to resist on the spot reward and delay it for months or even years if it means a better pay-off in the long run. 
Lead researcher of the study Dr Jan Peters, from the Department of Systems Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in German, said: 'Humans normally prefer larger over smaller rewards, but this situation can change when the larger rewards are associated with delays.
'Although there is no doubt that humans discount the value of rewards over time, in general, individuals exhibit a particularly significant ability to delay gratification.'
He also said that several ideas have been proposed to explain the reason behind putting value on 'rewards' at different points in time in humans. 
But he added: 'Many questions remain unanswered, and the brain regions and mechanisms involved in this process are unclear.'
Dr Peters and co-author Professor Christian B|chel carried out tests where participants had to make a series of choices between smaller immediate and larger delayed rewards while brain activity was measured with brain scans. 
The participants were also given 'cues' that referred to future events. And the more cues induced imagery of the event, the more the participants changed their behaviour towards patient, future-minded choices.
Dr Peters added: 'Our results reveal that vividly imagining the future reduced impulsive choice. 
'Our data suggests that adjustment of preference functions enable us to make choices that maximize future pay-offs.' 
The data is published in the April issue of the journal Neuron