Despite its relevance for health and education, the neurocognitive mechanism of real-life self-control is largely unknown. While recent research revealed a prominent role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the computation of an integrative value signal, the contribution and relevance of other brain regions for real-life self-control remains unclear. To investigate neural correlates of decisions in line with long-term consequences and to assess the potential of brain decoding methods for the individual prediction of real-life self-control, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging during preference decision making with ecological momentary assessment of daily self-control in a large community sample (N = 266). Decisions in line with long-term consequences were associated with increased activity in bilateral angular gyrus and precuneus, regions involved in different forms of perspective taking, such as imagining one’s own future and the perspective of others. Applying multivariate pattern analysis to the same clusters revealed that individual patterns of activity predicted the probability of real-life self-control. Brain activations are discussed in relation to episodic future thinking and mentalizing as potential mechanisms mediating real-life self-control.

尽管它与健康和教育相关，但现实生活中自我控制的神经认知机制在很大程度上是未知的。虽然最近的研究揭示了腹内侧前额叶皮层在计算综合价值信号中的突出作用，但其他大脑区域对现实生活中的自我控制的贡献和相关性仍不清楚。为了研究符合长期后果的决策的神经相关性，并评估大脑解码方法对现实生活中自我控制的个体预测的潜力，我们将偏好决策过程中的功能磁共振成像与每日生态瞬时评估相结合大型社区样本中的自我控制（N = 266）。符合长期后果的决定与双侧角回和楔前叶的活动增加有关，涉及不同形式的观点采取的区域，例如想象自己的未来和他人的观点。将多变量模式分析应用于相同的集群表明，个体活动模式预测了现实生活中自我控制的可能性。讨论了与情景式未来思维和心理化相关的大脑激活，作为调解现实生活中自我控制的潜在机制。