Event-related potential paradigms for delay discounting in schizophrenia: Five paradigms and a methodological roadmap

Table 2 Summary of major event-related potentials components in delay discounting tasks

ERP	Time window	Typical electrode sites	Functional significance	Typical findings in delay discounting tasks
CNV	Cue-to-response (sustained slow potential)	Frontocentral (Fz, Cz)	Anticipatory preparation, motivational engagement	Larger CNV for delay-escape vs delay-inescapable conditions
P200	150-250 millisecond	Frontocentral (Fz, FCz)	Early attentional allocation	Greater amplitude in loss vs gain context; larger for delayed vs immediate options
N2	200-350 millisecond	Frontocentral (Fz, FCz)	Conflict monitoring, cognitive control	Increased amplitude under high conflict; negatively correlated with immediate choice rate
RewP/FRN	250-350 millisecond	Frontocentral (FCz)	Reward value encoding, outcome evaluation	Larger for immediate than delayed rewards; high discounters show larger RewP for immediate rewards
P300	300-500 millisecond	Parietal (Pz, P3, P4)	Attentional resource allocation, motivational salience, subjective value representation	Amplitude decreases with longer delays; larger for delayed than immediate choices
LPP	400-900 millisecond	Parietal (Pz, CPz)	Sustained emotional and motivational processing	Sensitive to probability; larger in loss context; larger for immediate vs delayed rewards
Theta	4-8 Hz (time-frequency)	Frontocentral	Decision conflict, cognitive control	Increased theta power after immediate choices in low discounters; higher theta during impulsive choices
Beta	13-30 Hz (time-frequency)	Frontal	Cognitive resource allocation, “cool” system processing	Lower beta power in the time-overestimation group; increased beta during non-impulsive choices

ERP: Event-related potential; CNV: Contingent negative variation; Fz: Frontal zero; Cz: Central zero; RewP: Reward positivity; FRN: Feedback-related negativity; FCz: Fronto-central zero; Pz: Parietal zero; CPz: Centro-parietal zero.