Fig 1.
Experimental design and trial structure.
(A) Participants performed an intertemporal decision task and a mental time-travel task in a pre-cTBS and a post-cTBS session in the MRI scanner. Prior to starting the post-cTBS session, participants received disruptive cTBS to either the rTPJ or the vertex as control site (between-group design). (B) The intertemporal decision task required choices between an SS option (10 Swiss francs today) and an LL option (10–20 Swiss francs delivered after a delay of 1–180 days). (C) In the mental time-travel task, participants judged whether personal (e.g., “my wedding”) or nonpersonal (e.g., “first man on Mars”) events occurred in the relative past or the relative future as judged either in the present (“2017”) or 8 years in the future (“2025”). cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; rTPJ, right temporoparietal junction.
Fig 2.
Effects of rTPJ cTBS on intertemporal choice.
(A, B) Impact of cTBS (rTPJ versus vertex) on post-cTBS minus pre-cTBS differences in parameter estimates for (A) scaling factor s and (B) discount factor k in generalized hyperbolic discounting. Boxes indicate median (in red) and interquartile range. Black dots show individual parameter estimates. Asterisk indicates significant effect (p < 0.05, one-tailed, nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests. Thus, the significant difference between stimulation groups in (A) is not due to outliers). The underlying data for this Figure can be found in S1 Data. cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; rTPJ, right temporoparietal junction.
Fig 3.
Effects of rTPJ cTBS on mental time traveling.
(A) rTPJ, relative to vertex, cTBS, increased the post-cTBS minus pre-cTBS difference in RT (log-RT) for judging future relative to past events. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Black dots show individual parameter estimates (based on random effects estimates). Asterisks indicate significant effects (p < 0.05). (B) Heatmap illustrating the correlation between cTBS-induced post-cTBS minus pre-cTBS changes in the mental time-travel task (binned log-RT difference between events in the relative future and relative past) and the intertemporal choice task (binned scaling parameter s from generalized hyperbolic discounting). Darker colors indicate a higher number of participants in a given cell. Note that the darker colors locate primarily around the diagonal, illustrating the correlation between the cTBS effects in the two tasks. The underlying data for this Figure can be found in S1 Data. CHF, Swiss francs; cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; RT, response time; rTPJ, right temporoparietal junction.
Fig 4.
Neural encoding of delayed (future) reward value in the intertemporal decision task.
Illustration of ROIs for (A) striatum and (B) VMPFC based on [31]. We observed no cTBS effects on value-related striatum or VMPFC activation. Boxes indicate median (in red) and interquartile range. Black dots show individual parameter estimates. The underlying data for this Figure can be found in S1 Data. cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; LL, larger-later; ROI, region of interest; VMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Fig 5.
Effects of rTPJ cTBS on connectivity between rTPJ and (A) striatum as well as (B) VMPFC.
(A) Disrupting rTPJ with cTBS reduced LL-value–related coupling between rTPJ and striatum. Coupling was significantly reduced in the post-cTBS relative to the pre-cTBS session only following rTPJ, not vertex, cTBS. This finding suggests that the rTPJ modulates neural value signals during intertemporal choice. (B) We observed no significant cTBS effect on VMPFC activation. Black dots show individual parameter estimates. Asterisks indicate significant effects (p < 0.05). The underlying data for this Figure can be found in S1 Data. cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; LL, larger-later; rTPJ, right temporoparietal junction; VMPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Fig 6.
Effects of rTPJ cTBS on (A) value-related DLPFC activation and (B) connectivity between rTPJ and DLPFC.
(A) Neural encoding of delayed (future) reward value in the DLPFC. Parameter estimates for value-related DLPFC activation were significantly reduced following rTPJ, not vertex, cTBS. (B) There was no evidence for cTBS effects on functional connectivity between rTPJ and DLPFC activation. Boxes indicate median (in red) and interquartile range. Black dots show individual parameter estimates. Asterisks indicate significant effects (p < 0.05). The underlying data for this Figure can be found in S1 Data. cTBS, continuous theta-burst stimulation; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; LL, larger-later; rTPJ, right temporoparietal junction.