Brief ReportHypersensitivity to Reward in Problem Gamblers
Section snippets
Participants
Forty-three male participants were recruited from the student population of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität and the University of Applied Sciences at Jena (21 problem gamblers; mean age: 23.00 years, SD ± 3.2 years; 22 control participants; mean age: 23.54 years, SD ± 4.5 years). Participants were initially selected from a group of 529 respondents on the basis of responses to the Short Questionnaire for Gambling (Kurzfragebogen zur Glücksspielsucht, 14). The 30 highest scorers were assigned
Results
We first analyzed decision-making behavior at a point score of 16. After a previous no-bust trial, both problem gamblers and control participants hit at 16 with a probability of approximately .5 (Figure 1A). However, following a bust on the previous trial, the probability of hitting decreased for control participants (.45) but increased for gamblers (.57). The interaction of group by previous outcome was significant: F(1,39) = 6.54, p = .015. Thus, the gamblers made more risky decisions after a
Discussion
These data suggest that problem gamblers take risky decisions in the face of prior losses, a form of deviant behavior that resembles that exhibited by problem gamblers in real life. This deviant behavior is associated with a hypersensitive response to rewards (no-busts) rather than to an insensitivity to negative events (busts).
The hypersensitive neural response to unexpected rewards (not busting after “hitting” at a score of 16) is manifested in a positive ERP component with a latency of 300
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