Cognitive and neural mechanisms of risky intertemporal choices in soccer tactical contexts

Investigating how athletes navigate these decisions in tactical contexts can provide critical insights into their behavioral preferences and strategic tendencies under conditions of temporal delay and risk. To this end, the present study designed a risky intertemporal choice task simulating a pre-match tactical scenario, and introduced a monetary condition as a control, aiming to uncover the domain-specific temporal preferences of soccer players and the underlying computational mechanisms. In Experiment 1a and Experiment 1b (n = 95), participants completed a two-alternative risky intertemporal choices task. In both experiments, the proportion of choosing the “larger-later” (LL) option was below the chance level. However, participants made more LL choices and responded more slowly in the soccer tactical context compared to the monetary context, with no significant performance differences between participant types. Experiment 2 (n = 33) further validated the behavioral findings and revealed significantly higher exponential discount rates and starting point biases in the soccer tactical context compared to the monetary context. Additionally, stronger functional connectivity between the right postcentral gyrus and mid-cingulate cortex was observed during soccer tactical decision-making, and it is significantly positively correlated with the exponential discount rate. This study found that although soccer players exhibit delay discounting in tactical choices, they demonstrate a greater degree of rationality. This rationality may be related to how a higher discount rate induces starting point biases, affecting the accumulation of decision evidence. The underlying neural basis may involve integrative processing within the postcentral gyrus-cingulate circuit.