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why is it hard to stop gambling

 
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why is it hard to stop gambling

“Gambling Brain” Studies Make Clear Why It’s Hard to Stop Rolling the DiceGambling Addiction and Problem Gambling
 

 
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Gambling Addiction and Problem Gambling
 
why is it hard to stop gambling

Reviewing Two Types of Addiction – Pathological Gambling and Substance UseGambling Detox | Action Rehab
 
why is it hard to stop gambling
Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our.

 
Reviewing Two Types of Addiction – Pathological Gambling and Substance Use
 
why is it hard to stop gambling
More often than not a trip to Las Vegas is not a financially sound decision. Gambling and other forms of risk-taking appear to be hardwired into our psyche. Humans at least as far back as Mesopotamia have rolled the dice, laying their barley, bronze and silver on the line, often against miserable odds. Now a set of neuroscience findings is closer than ever to figuring out why. Ongoing research is helping illuminate the biology of risky behaviors—studies that may one day lead to interventions for vices like compulsive gambling. The recent results show an explanation is more complex than looking at dysfunctional reward circuitry, the network of brain regions that fire in response to pleasing stimuli like sex and drugs. Risking loss on a slim chance of thrill or reward involves a complex dance of decision-making and emotion. A new study by a team from Johns Hopkins University appears to have identified a region of the brain that plays a critical role in risky decisions. Published September 20 in Current Biology , the authors analyzed the behavior of rhesus monkeys, who share similar brain structure and function to our own. And like us, they are risk-takers, too. Then they had to choose between a 20 percent chance of receiving 10 milliliters of water versus a far more reliable 80 percent chance of getting only three milliliters. The monkeys overwhelmingly took the gamble, even when they were no longer thirsty. Previous work has shown a brain region called the supplementary eye field SEF is, along with regulating eye movements, also involved in decision-making. When the authors suppressed SEF activity by cooling the region with an external metal plate—a process that is harmless and reversible—the monkeys were 30 to 40 percent less likely to make risky bets. Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and study co-author Veit Stuphorn says the findings were not entirely unanticipated, given the role the SEF and its neighboring areas play in decisions. Yet he is intrigued that an area of the brain is so tied in with processing the risk associated with a particular behavior without actually causing the behavior itself. It also, Stuphorn suggests, represents a possible treatment target for those prone to excessively risky pursuits like problem gambling. But not just yet. And in the long run possibly direct interventions in the form of brain stimulation. Yale University neuroscientist Daeyeol Lee, who was not involved in the new research, is also optimistic. Yet, as Daeyeol points out, reward is complex. The SEF is likely to be involved in the anticipation of reward and helping control dopamine activity in a reward area called the basal ganglia. Another study published last week, also in Current Biology , adds an additional layer to the neuroscience of gambling risk—the feeling of regret. In 10 neurosurgical patients the authors measured electrical activity in a brain region called the orbitofrontal cortex—part of the prefrontal cortex near the SEF—while presenting them with gambling scenarios. They used electrodes to analyze brain activity as each study subject decided whether or not to make a bet, right after a bet and when—a half a second later—they learned the outcome. By comparing the findings to previous brain recordings associated with regret, they deduced that during the split second between placing a bet and learning the outcome our brains frantically replay previous betting decisions. We recall the regret we felt from losing prior bets and from not betting more on those we won. Senior author Ming Hsu, an associate professor in the Haas School of Business and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, both at the University of California, Berkeley, notes this rumination on past choices is probably an evolutionarily means of improving future decision-making. Scientists have long known the prefrontal cortex is involved in complex decision-making. An early clue was the case of Phineas Gage, a 19th-century railroad foreman who, in some accounts, become wildly impulsive after an explosion drove an iron bar through the front of his brain. Hsu thinks the rapid replay of past decisions could explain why the prefrontal cortex is implicated in conditions like depression and addiction, both of which involve a willful neglect of negative consequences, an apathy toward risk. As researchers like Hsu and Stuphorn gradually unravel the neurocircuitry of risk and reward, perhaps we will one day see better treatments for such conditions, most likely behavioral interventions or brain-stimulating technologies. We may also see treatments that quell the thrill and compulsion of problem gambling and other risky behaviors and encourage a bit more fiscal prudence. If so, perhaps those at risk of draining their bank accounts on the Vegas Strip will find themselves cashing in their chips, not squandering them. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Follow Bret Stetka on Twitter. You have free article s left. Already a subscriber? Sign in. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Learn More. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Sign In See Subscription Options.