Study Tracks Part of the Brain that is Linked to Gambling Addiction

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified the particular region of the brain called insula that is linked to gambling addiction.

 The finding reported in the journal PNAS examined why during gambling most people often misperceive their chances of winning.  The 'near-misses' encourage them to play further despite the odds remaining the same. Most of the gamblers are prone to certain wrong beliefs, also known as gambler's fallacy and the researchers in this study examined the neurological basis of these erroneous beliefs in patients suffering from injuries in different regions of the brain.

According to Dr.Clark , neuroimaging studies offer a lot of information on the brain's response to complex events. Only by studying the brain injury of a patient, doctors are able to identify the exact role of that part of the brain to conduct a given task.

For this study the patients with injuries in specific regions of the brain were made to participate in various gambling tasks. They suffered injuries on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala or the insula. The gambling game involved a slot machine game that gave wins and 'near misses' and the roulette game that had red or black predictions to observe gambling fallacies.

The control group also consisted of a mix of patients with injuries in other regions of the brain and healthy subjects. They also participated in the gambling tasks. They saw that among all the subjects, those with damage to insula showed an elevated motivation to play more after the near-misses in the slot machine game. They also played further in the roulette game.

Clark also said, "Based on these results, we believe that the insula could be hyperactive in problem gamblers, making them more susceptible to these errors of thinking. Future treatments for gambling addiction could seek to reduce this hyperactivity, either by drugs or by psychological techniques like mindfulness therapies."

Gambling is not only hard on your wallet but is also known to trigger psychological and physical health problems. It is listed as one of the most dangerous addiction and it is very necessary to have self control.