Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Avenida Ipiranga 6690 - Prédio 63, Jardim Botânico, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacopsychology Laboratory Department of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
BMC Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 5;19(1):211. doi: 10.1186/s12888-019-2198-0.
Chronic cocaine use is associated with cognitive deficits, including poor performance on neuropsychological tasks of memory, executive functions, theory of mind and decision-making. However, the relationship between cocaine use disorder and social decision-making remains unclear. This is particularly relevant given the fact that many cocaine abusers present impairments in social functioning. In this sense, game theory paradigms have been helping to comprehend the behavior of psychiatric patients when they directly engage in social situations, which may better approximate many of their real-life choices.
The present study investigated social decision-making in individuals with or without cocaine use disorder, examining their behavior in the Prisoner's Dilemma and in the Ultimatum Game. Thus, 129 females diagnosed with cocaine use disorder and 55 females with no history of substance abuse were recruited and performed both social decision-making tasks. Additional assessments included information about demographics, patterns of substance consumption and executive function performance.
Females with cocaine use disorder opted more often to not defect in the Prisoner's Dilemma, while in the Ultimatum Game they frequently chose to accept the first and unfair offer as responders. These effects were more pronounced within females with long-term history of cocaine use. Associations between cocaine use disorder and altered social decision-making were independent from demographic and executive function variables.
The influence of cocaine use disorder on social decision-making was detected in both game paradigms, resulting in more cooperative behavior in the Prisoner's Dilemma and higher acceptance rate of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game. Further studies should focus on investigating these associations to shed light on the putative biopsychosocial factors underlying the observed effects.
慢性可卡因使用与认知缺陷有关，包括记忆、执行功能、心理理论和决策等神经心理学任务表现不佳。然而，可卡因使用障碍与社会决策之间的关系仍不清楚。鉴于许多可卡因滥用者的社交功能受损，这一点尤其重要。从这个意义上说，博弈论范式有助于理解精神病患者在直接参与社交情境时的行为，这可能更接近他们许多现实生活中的选择。
本研究调查了有无可卡因使用障碍的个体的社会决策，考察了他们在囚徒困境和最后通牒游戏中的行为。因此，招募了 129 名被诊断患有可卡因使用障碍的女性和 55 名没有滥用药物史的女性，并让她们完成了这两个社会决策任务。其他评估包括人口统计学信息、物质消费模式和执行功能表现。
可卡因使用障碍女性在囚徒困境中更倾向于不背叛，而在最后通牒游戏中，她们作为响应者经常选择接受第一个不公平的提议。这些影响在长期使用可卡因的女性中更为明显。可卡因使用障碍与改变社会决策之间的关联独立于人口统计学和执行功能变量。
在两个博弈论范式中都检测到可卡因使用障碍对社会决策的影响，导致囚徒困境中更具合作性的行为，以及最后通牒游戏中更高的不公平提议接受率。进一步的研究应集中在调查这些关联上，以揭示观察到的影响背后的潜在生物心理社会因素。
