Delay discounting, explain editors Madden (applied behavioral science, U. of Kansas) and Bickel (psychiatry, U. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), "is the process by which future events are
subjectively devalued by the decision maker, and this process is thought to underlie some forms of impulsive decision making." They present 15 chapters reviewing the current knowledge of the
behavioral science and neuroscience of impulsivity and delay discounting, covering across-species similarities, across-population differences, and current breakthroughs in the neuroscience of
decision-making. The chapters are arranged in sections that focus on introducing delay discounting and its quantification, the neuroscience of delay discounting and risk taking, the
relationship between delay discounting and drug and gambling addictive disorders, the role of delay discounting in nonaddictive human affairs, and empirical and theoretical extensions of the
study of delay discounting. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)