Pathological Gambling Experiment

1. Pathological Gambling Experiment Meaning
2. Pathological Gambling Experiment Games

1. . Research found a link between gambling-related cognitive distortions and gambling problem severity (Xian et. Pathological gambling has been associated with elevated impulsivity (Michalczuk et.
2. One of the authors of the study, Trevor Robbins from the University of Cambridge, explained that the rat task was based on an existing clinical experiment called the 'Iowa gambling test'. 'This is a game designed to test decision-making in patients who have suffered damage to the frontal lobes of their brains,' he explained.
3. The results of brain imaging studies suggest that pathological gambling and SUDs may originate in the same area of the brain. 22,23 Impulsivity in childhood has been related to the onset later in life of pathological gambling and SUDs.
4. A sample of pathological gamblers presenting for treatment have taken the GABS (N=86; 53 males and 33 females, mean age=41). All gamblers met minimal DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling and had SOGS scores in the pathological range. There was no statistical difference in GABS scores between male and female pathological gamblers.

Rats are able to play the odds in a 'gambling task' designed by scientists to test the biology of addiction.

Pathological gambling often involves chasing losses (Lesieur and Custer, 1984). This behavior is addressed by Rachlin (1990), who argues that people who persist in gambling despite heavy losses do not adequately update their mental accounts. Normally, people keep track of their spending, winnings, and cash amounts mentally.

In the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers describe how the rodents developed a 'strategy' in a timed task where they make choices to earn treats.

The rodents avoided high-reward options because these carried high risks of punishment - their sugar pellet supply being cut off for a period.

This decision-making task provides an animal model to study neuropsychiatry.

During the task, which lasted for 30 minutes, rats were given four choices - in the form of holes to investigate.

Nosing each of these holes triggered either the delivery of tasty sugar pellets or a 'punishing time-out period' during which rewards could not be earned.

But high-reward holes - those that delivered more pellets at once - also carried the bigger risk of triggering longer periods of punishment.

And rats quickly learned an 'optimal strategy' - earning more pellets over the duration of the task by choosing the holes with smaller gains and smaller penalties.

Weigh the odds

One of the authors of the study, Trevor Robbins from the University of Cambridge, explained that the rat task was based on an existing clinical experiment called the 'Iowa gambling test'.

'This is a game designed to test decision-making in patients who have suffered damage to the frontal lobes of their brains,' he explained.

'This type of injury is unusual - it doesn't really affect intellect, but patients become extremely compulsive, making disastrous decisions that can have serious impacts on their lives.'

In the Iowa gambling test, participants choose cards from four decks. With each card they draw, they either win or lose money, and the object of the game is to win as much as possible.

Some of the decks are associated with small gains and small losses, and will earn a player more money over time.

Certain 'bad decks' carry higher rewards, but also incur larger penalties, and will lose money over time.

Like the rat in its quest for sugary rewards, if the player adopts an 'optimal strategy', they will make a profit.

'But patients with frontal lobe damage just don't learn from their experiences', said Professor Robbins. They continue to choose from the 'bad decks'.

'Truly translational'

To further test their model, the team looked at how the rats' performance was affected by drugs that altered levels of two neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin.

These are signalling chemicals in the brain that are both thought to play an important role in addiction.

The rats were given a drug that reduced the amount of serotonin circulating in their brains. This impaired their ability to make good decisions, and to successfully play the odds.

'Not only have we seen that our rats will gamble, but we've also been able to modulate that behaviour,' lead author Catharine Winstanley from the University of British Columbia told BBC News.

'This coincides with data we've seen from pathological gamblers, who have been shown to have lower levels of serotonin in their brains,' she added.

'We also found that we could make our rats better gamblers by giving them a dopamine receptor antagonist - a drug that reduces the effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine.'

This also ties in neatly with clinical findings in humans. 'Treatments for Parkinson's disease [which increase dopamine to aid movement] have been seen to induce pathological gambling,' said Dr Winstanley.

'The hope is that this will stimulate interest in studying gambling.'

Marc Potenza, a psychiatrist from Yale University who specialises in addiction and problem gambling, described the new test as a 'significant step forward' that could eventually lead to new therapies to treat gambling behaviour.

'This is truly translational. It's a rat model that is mimicking human behaviour,' said Professor Potenza.

'There are currently no approved treatments for pathological gambling or any of the other formal impulse control disorders. Having good animal models is vital in their development.'

Pathological Gambling Experiment Meaning

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Biological factors regarding pathological gambling have been studied by Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery which implied that chemical addiction and gambling addiction are similar. It has been found that pathological gamblers have low levels of norepinephrine compared to ‘normal’ gamblers.

Alec Roy, M.D. conducted a study at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and discovered norepinephrine is secreted under stress, which pathological gamblers make up for the under dose. Continuously, Harvard Medical School division on addictions constructed an experiment where participants were presented with a win, lose or break situation in an environment similar to a casino. The participants’ reactions were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures brain activity using changes in blood flow and neuronal activity.

According to the co-director of the motivation and emotion neuroscience they found, “Monetary reward in a gambling-like experiment produces brain activation very similar to that observed in a cocaine addict receiving an infusion of cocaine.” This suggests that deficiencies in serotonin might contribute to the compulsive behaviours that pathological gamblers have.

Pathological Gambling Experiment Games

Other research has shown that the pre-frontal cortex of the brain that is associated with judgment and decision making may be damaged in compulsive gamblers. Pathological gamblers and non-pathological gamblers took mental tests for a study, which demonstrated that compulsive gamblers made worse choices in tasks involved with decision making, attention and inhibitory control in comparison to the other to the other group.

Abnormality in the pre-frontal cortex may be an adding factor in compulsive gambling. Furthermore, this is supported by Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, the co-author from the department of medicine at Imperial College suggests, “the frontal lobe can help control impulsivity; therefore, a weak link may contribute to people being unable to stop gambling and ignoring the negative consequences of their actions,” he then further goes on to say, “the connections may also be affected by mood – and be further weakened by stress, which may be why gambling addicts relapse during difficult periods in their life.” Continuously, genetics is also another biological factor that donates to compulsive gambling.

Studies have shown that certain individuals are predisposed to develop gambling problems due to their genes. Genes account for as much as 35% of the gambling issues in a person. If damage in the pre-frontal cortex is triggering compulsive gambling, genetics may be the origin of this addiction. Due to the genetic variation amongst individuals, dopamine and norepinephrine may not have identical effect on every individual. Humans that are predisposed to gambling addiction may have a completely different experience of norepinephrine and dopamine that is similar to chemical addictions. As mentioned earlier, norepinephrine and dopamine are released to recapture the thrill from gambling and avoiding stress, therefore a person continues to gamble.

Depression, mania, drug abuse and other psychiatric disorders are present in many pathological gamblers. The disorders mentioned are a contributing factor to gambling problem. An individual that suffers from depression, gambling may provide relief by releasing high levels of dopamine, therefore in order for the depression to go away momentarily the person continues to gamble, and slowly develops into a pathological gambler. In an inverted situation, the pathological gambler can develop depression from gambling because of bankruptcy or losing his or her family, therefore the person will continue to gamble due to the depression. In the two scenarios pathological gambling continues to maintain itself, regardless of where the disorder was created.