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”)
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
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)
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)
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