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A new study from Virginia Tech suggests that imagining future events can alter brain connections, improve decision-making, and reduce impulsivity, potentially serving as a therapy for alcohol use disorder.
The research, published in Brain Connectivity, involved 24 participants who underwent resting-state and task-based fMRI scans. The findings indicate that engaging in “episodic future thinking”—vividly imagining personal future events—affects brain connectivity and enhances an individual’s ability to value long-term rewards over immediate gratification.
This study was among the last led by Warren Bickel, the late professor and director of the Addiction Recovery Research Center at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Bickel was a pioneer in using episodic future thinking as a behavioral intervention for addiction.
“What we were trying to understand was how episodic future thinking works as a therapeutic approach,” said Stephen LaConte, professor and corresponding author of the study. “What we found is that training people to think more about their future changed the extent to which they value immediate rewards over those in the future, and we’re seeing related changes in connectivity in key regions of the brain along with that.”
During the experiment, participants imagined personal future scenarios—such as opening an art gallery in Los Angeles—before undergoing MRI scans to measure changes in brain activity. The study found increased connectivity in the salience network, a brain region linked to decision-making and impulse control.
Alcohol use disorder is characterized by impulsive decision-making and an impaired ability to consider long-term consequences, a phenomenon known as delay discounting. Previous research has suggested that episodic future thinking can mitigate this tendency, promoting healthier choices.
“We found that in the delayed discounting tasks, people with higher functional connectivity were able to perform the harder tasks more quickly,” LaConte noted. “This suggests that episodic future thinking may either make decision-making easier or free up cognitive resources. We need further research to determine which.”
The study establishes a foundation for future research into brain connectivity and behavioral changes following interventions like episodic future thinking. Jeremy Myslowski, the study’s first author, highlighted the potential for more extensive investigations.
“We see this as a promising avenue for examining changes in brain connectivity by collecting data both before and after the intervention,” Myslowski said. “As we expand into studies involving real-world alcohol consumption, we will have tangible brain data to analyze.”
Future studies will be needed to determine the long-term impact of episodic future thinking on decision-making and addiction recovery. Notably, the connectivity changes observed in the study mirrored findings from a 2019 study on first-time antidepressant users, suggesting that this intervention could also be relevant for psychiatric disorders.
Bickel and LaConte had a longstanding collaboration in researching addiction and decision-making. Bickel’s groundbreaking work on episodic future thinking has paved the way for new approaches to treating substance-use disorders.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Individuals struggling with addiction should consult a qualified healthcare provider for treatment options.
