Shifts in reinforcement signalling while playing slot-machines as a function of prior experience and impulsivity.

ABSTRACT: Electronic gaming machines (EGMs) offer significant revenue streams for mercantile gambling. However, limited clinical and experimental evidence suggests that EGMs are associated with heightened risks of clinically problematic patterns of play. Little is known about the neural structures that might mediate the transition from exploratory EGM play to the 'addictive' play seen in problem gamblers; neither is it known how personality traits associated with gambling activity (and gambling problems) influence reinforcement processing while playing EGMs. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy participants, we show that a single episode of slot-machine play is subsequently associated with reduced amplitudes of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signals within reinforcement-related

SUBMITTER: Shao R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3566715 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature