Understanding delay discounting in cigarette smokers

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，吸烟是可预防死亡的主要原因，并且已经做出了大量的努力来记录和宣传相关的危害。尽管人们普遍知道吸烟的内在危害，但仍有超过20%的人口吸烟。这一提议旨在理解一种基本机制，这种机制可能是如此明显地无视个人健康的原因之一：延迟折扣。延迟贴现指的是当结果不是立即发生的时候，结果会失去价值。那些在遥远的将来会发生在我们身上的事情，没有那些马上就会发生的事情更能激励我们。如果一个人只对相对短期的结果敏感，这被认为是一种冲动。研究发现，吸烟者比不吸烟者更容易低估未来的经济收益。最近的研究表明，一个人对未来经济收益的低估程度，预示着他们是否会成为一名吸烟者，以及一旦成为一名吸烟者，他们戒烟的难度有多大。因此，延迟折扣是与吸烟相关的重要个体脆弱性特征。本提案的目的是提供对吸烟者未来后果的大幅折扣的基本理解。例如，尽管关于吸烟者和非吸烟者的现金折扣的研究结果很清楚，但我们还不知道吸烟者大幅折扣的程度和普遍性。这可能是因为他们对各种结果的折扣比不吸烟者更大，或者他们的大幅折扣可能仅限于香烟和用于购买香烟的钱。我们也不了解尼古丁戒断在产生对延迟后果不敏感方面的作用和机制。虽然一些有限的信息表明吸烟者在戒断期间可能会变得更加冲动，但我们不知道这在多大程度上是一种普遍现象，也不知道它是否与戒断的特定方面有关，比如短期记忆的中断和负面影响。最后，吸烟者对香烟特别冲动，原因尚不清楚。我们建议调查香烟不同于金钱的一些基本特征（直接消费，单一选择），看看它们是否会因延迟而产生大幅折扣。这项建议的目标对于理解吸烟者的不适应近视行为很重要，并且可以进一步制定更有效的预防和戒烟战略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and substantial efforts have documented and publicized the associated hazards. Despite widespread knowledge of the inherent dangers, though, over 20% of the population still smokes. This proposal is designed to understand one of the basic mechanisms that may underlie such profound apparent disregard for one's health: delay discounting. Delay discounting refers to the way that consequences lose value when they are not immediate. Things that will happen to us in the distant future have less power to motivate us than things that will happen right away. If a person is sensitive to only relatively short-term outcomes, it is considered a form of impulsivity. Cigarette smokers have been found to discount future monetary outcomes more so than non-smokers. Recent research indicates that the degree to which a person discounts future monetary outcomes is predictive of whether they will become a smoker, and how much difficulty they will have quitting once they are a smoker. Thus, delay discounting is an important individual vulnerability characteristic related to smoking. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a basic understanding of steep discounting of future consequences in cigarette smokers. For example, despite the clarity of findings on discounting of money by smokers and non-smokers, we do not yet know the extent and generality of steep discounting in cigarette smokers. It could be that they discount a variety of outcomes more so than non-smokers, or their steep discounting could be limited to cigarettes and money, which is used to purchase cigarettes. We also do not understand the role and mechanisms of nicotine withdrawal in generating insensitivity to delayed consequences. While some limited information suggests smokers may become more impulsive during withdrawal, we do not know the extent to which this is a general phenomenon and whether it is related to particular aspects of withdrawal, like disruptions in short-term memory and negative affect. Finally, cigarette smokers are particularly impulsive with respect to cigarettes, for reasons that are not understood. We propose to investigate some of the basic features of cigarettes that differ from money (direct consumption, single alternative available) to see if they produce steep discounting by delay. The goals of this proposal are important in the understanding the maladaptive shortsighted actions of cigarette smokers, and could further the development of more effective prevention and cessation strategies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project is relevant to public health because it will further our understanding of why cigarette smokers seem so insensitive to the delayed negative consequences of their behavior. As a result, we may help to develop new strategies to prevent people from starting to smoke, as well as to help them quit successfully if they already smoke.