Cravings Flashcards

1
Q

Gambling and Pavlovian Conditioning

A
  • Cues associated with gambling become conditioned stimuli that drive:
    • Dopamine release
    • Physiological arousal
    • Subjective excitement
  • With uncertain rewards, there could be additional anticipatory activity (a dopamine “double-hit”)
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2
Q

Clark’s study: cues and cravings in the brain (study basics)

A
  • looking at patients with gambling disorder vs. healthy controls
  • Gambling cues were tailored to the preferred games of each participant (ie. If you were addicted to slot machines, you saw slot machines)
  • Used highly appetizing food images to test whether other reward processing altered
  • Took cravings rating after each block of images (“I crave gambling right now”, rating 1-9)
  • Analysed brain connectivity changes (with striatal) as well as brain activity
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3
Q

Clark’s study: cues and cravings in the brain (study results)

A
  • Those with gambling disorder showed increased craving ratings overall, especially after blocks of gambling images
  • In all subjects, gambling cues stimulate more activity than neutral cues
  • Gamblers show more activity to gambling cues than control group
  • Correlation with craving: Areas where activity changes fluctuate with craving ratings in problem gamblers –> insula
    • In another study, smokers who suffered a stroke that damaged the insula were able to easily quit -> didn’t have any more cravings (more evidence of importance of insula in cravings)
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4
Q

Winstanley’s rat gambling task (study basics)

A
  • Rats can stick nose through hole to pick deck of cards -> chance of winning food pellet or “losing” (light goes out, rat gets 10-second “time out”)
    • Some decks are safer or riskier than others
  • She adds onto this a cued or uncued condition (certain decks get different lights and sounds when rats win -> intensity is proportional to food reward they’re getting)
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5
Q

Winstanley’s rat gambling task (study results)

A
  • Control/uncued group does very well -> they choose the deck with the highest expected value
  • Cued condition shows increased preference to the risky decks because of the feedback
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