Behavioural addiction and the brain

Question 1

Empirical support for addiction hierarchy

Answer 1

combined substance addictions among treatment seeking gamblers and also potential other behavioural addictions

Question 2

Strict comparisons between gambling and loot boxes wrong

Answer 2

50% of gamblers aim to win money while 0.9% of loot boxers do
Can’t apply same spending cap policy as house doesn’t try to maintain edge

Question 3

Strict comparisons between substance and gambling wrong

Answer 3

substance gain reward
gambling potentially no reward

Question 4

Gage

Answer 4

damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex
no impact on memory or movement
became impulsive

Question 5

vmpfc patients

Answer 5

Iowa gambling task
struggle to avoid bad decks
normal showed skin conductance responses early on when considering bad decks before verbal reports
links to somatic marker hypothesis

Question 6

somatic marker hypothesis

Answer 6

emotional signals inform risky decisions

Question 7

Support for somatic marker hypothesis

Answer 7

gamblers experiencing harm perform as badly as vmpfc - bad decks bigger wins so excite gamblers which might obstruct other emotional signal regulating behaviour
Soros- back ache pain signal something wrong in portfolio

Question 8

emotions less helpful in poker

Answer 8

loose due to bad luck often go on tilt by making riskier decisions to get back even (vicious cycle)

Question 9

Brain disease model

Answer 9

1- Cues and urges
2- Tolerance and higher use
3- Withdrawal

Question 10

Cues and urges

Answer 10

dopamine releases upon reward- related cues
releases earlier when have expected reward compared to unexpected
Rewarding addictions cause dopamine releases - release prior to reward not after
Pavlovian conditioning

Question 11

Gambling cues

Answer 11

elicit cravings
self-reported change in urges and activate the insula
front of football shirts and warning about dangers of gambling acts as major cues

Question 12

Tolerance in substance-based

Answer 12

dopamine release falls with repeated engagements
other activities also see fall in dopamine release
so motivation to engage deeper with addiction

Question 13

Tolerance in gambling

Answer 13

larger amounts of money to get same feeling of excitement
tolerance unique to gambling - make more exciting by better at longer odds
x- finical harms happen first so ay actually be unable to bet more

Question 14

Self-regulation becomes harder

Answer 14

changes in pre-frontal cortex occur in addiction
harder to implement long-term plans

Question 15

Withdrawal in gambling

Answer 15

negative reinforcement
urges and feelings drawing back in

Question 16

Evidence for dopamine’s role

Answer 16

Parkinson’s disease
disease related to less dopamine
medications targeting lack of dopamine can lead to harmful gambling and impulse control disorders

Question 17

Drug treatment for harmful gambling

Answer 17

opioid antagonists can be use to reverse opioid overdose and mange alcohol addiction
evidence that it can be effective for harmful gambling too

Question 18

Critiques of the brain disease model

Answer 18

Brain changes in response to all kinds of things
most recover without treatment known as natural recovery and conflicts with chronic relapsing disease that changes structure and function of the brain
neuroplasticity- behavioural changes can in turn cause changes to the brain (causation both ways)

Question 19

Benefit of the brain disease model for gamblers

Answer 19

tendency for self-blame - seen as illness instead to avoid blame
X- can also lead to people giving up hope inducing pessimism and helplessness

Question 20

Other models needed to give gamblers hope

Answer 20

-neuroplasticity
-public health model (continuum and why some people more at risk)
- government action