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Pathological Gambling and Brain Activity
Aug. 12, 2003 -- Pathological gamblers have decreased brain activity in areas that monitor impulse control, according to a new study.
Pathological gambling is considered a major psychiatric disorder characterized by uncontrolled gambling.
Researcher Marc Potenza, MD, and colleagues tested 27 men, 14 of whom were pathological gamblers, but all had reported having gambled at some point. None of the volunteers had any brain injury or illness. The study is published in the August issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry.
For the experiment, all of the men watched three videotapes, each depicting one happy, sad, or gambling scenario. The gambling videos included general cues for gambling -- some stressful situation, frustration at this situation, a period of free time, and receipt of unexpected money such as a check or bonus.
For each scenario, volunteers were asked to rate their emotions to what they were seeing and described any motivations (such as the urge to drink or gamble). Specialized MRI brain scans were performed during this time to evaluate activity in various areas of the brain.
Pathological Gamblers Show Less Brain Activity
It turns out that though both the comparison group and the men who were pathological gamblers had similar reactions to the happy and sad videos, there was a big difference in brain activity between the groups when they watched the gambling video.
During the initial viewing of the gambling scenarios, the pathological gamblers in the group showed significantly less brain activity in the area believed to involve impulse control. All of the gamblers reported urges to gamble when shown the gambling videos. But only three of the 11 people in the comparison group did.
Researchers say that finding a distinct pattern of brain responses to gambling-related stimuli may open up doors to preventing and treating pathological gambling.
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