Gambling-related brain responses in social and problem gamblers

Gambling is a popular recreational pastime that becomes excessive in a minority of the population. Problem gamblers typically display a number of distorted cognitive beliefs ('cognitive biases') that cause them to overestimate their chances of winning. The proposed research will take a psychological and biological approach to investigate two common biases, which occur across many forms of gambling. In the 'near-miss' effect, gambling is encouraged by failures that are close to the winning outcome, such as a chosen horse finishing in second place. In the 'illusion of control', gamblers are more confident when they have played an active role in the betting process, for example, if they select their own lottery numbers. We will use a brain scanning technique (functional MRI) to measure brain responses in a group of problem gamblers and a group of social gamblers. Participants will perform a simplified gambling task whilst they lie in the MRI scanner. We propose that the brain is naturally configured to respond to near-misses and to wins that derive from one's own behaviour. We hypothesise that these normal responses are exaggerated in problem gamblers, and associated with the transition from social gambling to problem gambling.