Loss Aversion and Choice Difficulty in Gambling Patients: An fMRI investigation

Daniel Freinhofer*, Philipp Schwartenbeck, Natasha Thon, Tina Eigenberger, Wolfgang Aichhorn, Melanie Lenger, Friedrich M. Wurst, Martin Kronbichler

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferencePoster

Abstract

Several studies reported reduced loss aversion in pathological gambling (PG) patients and we wanted to explore with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which brain regions display differences between PG patients and controls in the processing of gains and losses. In addition, we compared the processing of choice difficulty between these groups. We recorded behavioral responses as well as brain images of 23 PG patients and 20 controls while they completed a gambling task in the MRI scanner, where they had to decide to either accept or reject gambles with different amounts of potential gain and loss. There was no significantly reduced loss aversion in PG patients nor were there brain regions related to different processing of gains or losses between groups. However, reaction times as well as brain activity in the right anterior insula were less influenced by choice difficulty in PG patients compared to controls. Although we did not find reduced loss aversion in gambling patients, our finding regarding choice difficulty and the anterior insula makes - in line with the somatic marker hypothesis - a novel contribution to the insula’s unique role in addiction disorders.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2021
EventSalzburg Mind-Brain Annual Meeting (SAMBA) 2021 - Virtual, Virtual, Austria
Duration: 15 Jul 202116 Jul 2021

Online-Conference

Online-ConferenceSalzburg Mind-Brain Annual Meeting (SAMBA) 2021
Abbreviated titleSAMBA 2021
Country/TerritoryAustria
CityVirtual
Period15/07/2116/07/21

Fields of Science and Technology Classification 2012

  • 501 Psychology

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