Neurosciene/Psychology: "Problem Gamblers Provoked by 'Near Misses' to Gamble More"
"Problem Gamblers Provoked by 'Near Misses' to Gamble More"by PhysOrg.com
"The brains of problem gamblers react more intensely to "near misses" than casual gamblers, possibly spurring them on to play more, according to new research in the May 5 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers found the brain region that responds to rewards by delivering a dose of the chemical dopamine was especially active in these individuals.
Studies have shown that pathological gambling is an addiction, similar in many ways to drug addiction. Now, U.K. researchers Luke Clark, PhD, of the University of Cambridge, and Henry Chase, PhD, of the University of Nottingham find that the degree to which a person's brain responds to near misses may indicate the severity of addiction. In a given year, more than two million U.S. adults feel an uncontrollable urge to gamble despite negative consequences. In this study, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 20 gamblers. The participants' gambling habits ranged from buying the occasional lottery ticket to compulsive sports betting.
During the experiment, volunteers used an onscreen slot machine with two spinning wheels of icons. When the two icons matched, the volunteer won about 75 cents, and the brain's reward pathways became active. An icon mismatch was a loss. However, when the wheels stopped within one icon of a match, the outcome was considered a near miss. Clark and his team found that near misses activated the same brain pathways that wins did, even though no reward was given. "These findings are exciting because they suggest that near-miss outcomes may elicit a dopamine response in the more severe gamblers, despite the fact that no actual reward is delivered," Clark said. "If these bursts of dopamine are driving addictive behavior, this may help to explain why problem gamblers find it so difficult to quit." In particular, the authors detected strong responses in the midbrain, an area associated with addiction that is packed with dopamine-releasing brain cells. They also found the near misses were linked with increased activity in brain regions called the ventral striatum and the anterior insula, areas tied with reward and learning.
Studies have shown that people who play games of chance, such as slot machines or the lottery, often mistakenly believe some level of skill is required to win. This illusion of control often pushes players to continue. Matthew Roesch, PhD, an expert in reward and behavior at the University of Maryland College Park who was unaffiliated with the study, said the increased levels of dopamine during near misses may be critical in driving pathological gambling and supporting the misconception that games of chance involve any skill."
- http://www.physorg.com/news192214997.html
And those "near misses" are no accident...
"Slot Machine Near Misses Are Perfectly Tuned to Stoke the Addiction"
"Slot Machine Near Misses Are Perfectly Tuned to Stoke the Addiction"
by Discover
"To a gambler’s brain, a near miss provides almost the same high as a win, according to a new study that helps explain the allure of slot machines and the difficulty that some gamblers have in walking away. “The near-miss is quite a paradoxical event,” researcher Luke Clark says. Gamblers who almost win put “their head down in their hands — they can’t believe it. And then the next thing they do is place another bet”.In the small study, published in "Neuron", researchers had 15 volunteers play a slot machine while their brain activity was recorded with fMRI scans. When the researchers compared the scans, they found that near misses drew more blood to reward regions such as the insula and the ventral striatum than full misses did. These areas are also activated by rewards like chocolate and cocaine; when the near misses partially activated the so-called reward pathway, it released pleasant doses of the brain chemical dopamine.
Researchers say it makes sense for the brain to respond to almost hitting a target. For some tasks, such as learning to kick a soccer ball into a goal or firing an arrow at a target, near-misses are informative. “You’re acquiring the skill, and the brain should pay attention to near-misses,” Clark says. But in gambling, almost winning has no effect on the next pull of the lever or roll of the dice. “Games of chance tell you nothing about future success,” he says. Gambling has essentially hijacked the natural reward system, Clark says, and he adds that it’s not only gambling addicts who have to worry about being tricked by their own brains. “Importantly, our volunteers in this study were not regular or problem gamblers, and so these findings suggest that the brain may naturally respond to near misses in this way”.
Slot machine makers capitalize on the near-miss effect. Researchers have found that they program their games to tease players with near misses about 30% of the time–a number previous studies have found optimal for getting gamblers to keep coming back. The researchers also found that when they gave the test subjects a sense of control over the game’s outcome by letting them choose when to stop the first reel of the slot machine, the effect of near misses was heightened. That’s another stratagem that Vegas got wise to some time ago."
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