RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pathological Choice: The Neuroscience of Gambling and Gambling Addiction
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 17617
OP 17623
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3231-13.2013
VO 33
IS 45
A1 Luke Clark
A1 Bruno Averbeck
A1 Doris Payer
A1 Guillaume Sescousse
A1 Catharine A. Winstanley
A1 Gui Xue
YR 2013
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/45/17617.abstract
AB Gambling is pertinent to neuroscience research for at least two reasons. First, gambling is a naturalistic and pervasive example of risky decision making, and thus gambling games can provide a paradigm for the investigation of human choice behavior and “irrationality.” Second, excessive gambling involvement (i.e., pathological gambling) is currently conceptualized as a behavioral addiction, and research on this condition may provide insights into addictive mechanisms in the absence of exogenous drug effects. This article is a summary of topics covered in a Society for Neuroscience minisymposium, focusing on recent advances in understanding the neural basis of gambling behavior, including translational findings in rodents and nonhuman primates, which have begun to delineate neural circuitry and neurochemistry involved.