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 ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)