Procrastination is a common experience, and many of us have wondered why we put off tasks that we need to complete. A team of researchers from Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne University, and AP-HP at the Institut du Cerveau in Paris sought to answer this question. They conducted a study involving 51 participants to understand how our brains behave when we procrastinate.
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The research was led by Mathias Pessiglione, a researcher at Inserm, and Raphaël Le Bouc, a neurologist at AP-HP within the Brain Institute (Inserm/CNRS/University of Sorbonne/AP
Dirty Dishes
-HP). The study combined functional imaging and behavioral testing to understand the decision-making process when it comes to procrastination.
The 51 participants in the study participated in a series of tests while their brain activity was recorded using MRI. They were first asked to assign a subjective value to rewards and efforts. Next, they were asked to indicate their preferences between getting a small reward quickly or a large reward later, and between a small effort to be done immediately or a greater effort to be done later.
The imaging data revealed activation during decision-making in a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, responsible for making a cost-benefit calculation by integrating the costs and benefits associated with each option. The researchers then measured procrastination tendencies using two types of tests. In the first, participants were asked to decide whether they should make an effort on the same day to get the associated reward immediately or whether they should make an effort the next day and wait to get the reward by then. In the second test, participants were asked to fill out a series of forms and return them within a month to be compensated for their participation in the study.
The researchers used the data from the MRI tests to feed a mathematical model of decision-making, a neurocomputational model. This model takes into account the costs and benefits of a decision, but also integrates the time frames in which they occur. The model describes the level of interest in rewards, the reluctance towards expending effort, and the tendency to discount benefits and costs over time for each participant. Based on this profile, the researchers were able to estimate the likelihood of procrastination for each participant.
The study revealed that the cost of effort is not motivating enough for the brain, and therefore, the further in the future the deadline, the less costly the effort and the less the reward seems to be. The research could help develop individual strategies to stop procrastinating on tasks that are within our reach and prevent the detrimental effects of procrastination in areas such as education, economics, and health.
This study provides valuable insight into the decision-making process when it comes to procrastination and could have a positive impact on people’s lives by helping them overcome procrastination tendencies.
References
Le Bouc, R., Pessiglione, M. A neuro-computational account of procrastination behavior. Nat Commun 13, 5639 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33119-w
