The process of valuation assists in determining if an object or course of action is rewarding. Delay discounting is the observed decay of a rewards’ subjective value over time. Encoding the subjective value of rewards across a spectrum has been attributed to brain regions belonging to the valuation and executive control systems. The valuation system (VS) encodes reward value over short and long delays, influencing reinforcement learning and reward representation. The executive control system (ECS) becomes more active as choice difficulty increases, integrating contextual and mnemonic information with salience signals in the modulation of decision-making. Here, we aimed to identify resting-state functional connectivity-based patterns of the VS and ECS correlated with value-setting and delay discounting (outside-scanner paradigm) in a large (n = 992) cohort of healthy young adults from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Results suggest the VS may be involved in value-setting of small, immediate rewards while the ECS may be involved in value-setting and delay discounting for large and small rewards over a range of delays. We observed magnitude sensitive connections involving the posterior cingulate cortex, time-sensitive connections with the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex while connections involving the posterior parietal cortex appeared both magnitude- and time-sensitive. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex could act as “comparator” regions, weighing the value of small rewards against large rewards across various delay duration to aid in decision-making.

评估过程有助于确定某个目标或行为是否有益。延迟贴现是观察到的奖励主观价值随时间的衰减。在整个频谱上对奖励的主观价值进行编码已归因于属于评估和执行控制系统的大脑区域。评估系统（VS）对短期和长期延迟中的奖励价值进行编码，影响强化学习和奖励表示。随着选择难度的增加，执行控制系统（ECS）变得更加活跃，将上下文信息和助记符信息与显着信号集成在一起，以调节决策。在这里，我们的目的是确定与静态设置相关的VS和ECS模式，这些模式与价值设定和延迟折扣（外部扫描仪范式）在较大范围内相关（n  = 992）来自人类连接基因组计划（HCP）的健康年轻人群。结果表明，VS可能参与了小的即时奖励的价值设定，而ECS可能参与了在一系列延迟范围内对大，小的奖励的价值设定和延迟贴现。我们观察到涉及后扣带回皮层的幅度敏感连接，涉及腹侧和前额叶外侧皮层的时间敏感连接，而涉及后顶叶皮层的连接对大小和时间敏感。腹侧前额叶皮层和后顶叶皮层可以充当“比较器”区域，在各种延迟时间内权衡小奖励的价值与大奖励的价值，以帮助决策。