Decreased neuronal activity in reward circuitry of pathological gamblers during processing of personal relevant stimuli

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 31; no. 11; pp. 1802 - 1812
• Main Authors: de Greck, Moritz, Enzi, Björn, Prösch, Ulrike, Gantman, Ana, Tempelmann, Claus, Northoff, Georg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.11.2010; Wiley-Liss
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; brain imaging; Brain Mapping; fMRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gambling - physiopathology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical sciences; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Nervous system; Neurons - physiology; Nucleus Accumbens - physiopathology; pathological gambling; personal relevance; Personality. Affectivity; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Putamen - physiopathology; Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry; Reward; reward system; Sexuality. Sexual behavior; brain imaging; fMRI; Nervous system diseases; pathological gambling; Radiodiagnosis; reward system; Central nervous system; Reward; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; personal relevance; Encephalon
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20981

Pathological gamblers impress by an increasing preoccupation with gambling, which leads to the neglect of stimuli, interests, and behaviors that were once of high personal relevance. Neurobiologically dysfunctions in reward circuitry underlay pathological gambling. To explore the association of both findings, we investigated 16 unmedicated pathological gamblers using an fMRI paradigm that included two different tasks: the evaluation of personal relevance and a reward task that served as a functional localizer. Pathological gamblers revealed diminished deactivation during monetary loss events in some of our core reward regions, the left nucleus accumbens and the left putamen. Moreover, while pathological gamblers viewed stimuli of high personal relevance, we found decreased neuronal activity in all of our core reward regions, including the bilateral nucleus accumbens and the left ventral putamen cortex as compared to healthy controls. We demonstrated for the first time altered neuronal activity in reward circuitry during personal relevance in pathological gamblers. Our findings may provide new insights into the neurobiological basis of pathological gamblers' preoccupation by gambling. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.