1Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Weiss, 21, I-34128, Trieste, Italy.
2Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia, 8, I-35131, Padova, Italy.
J Behav Addict. 2020 Jun 16;9(2):339-346. doi: 10.1556/2006.2020.00021. Print 2020 Jun.
Many psychopathologies, including addictions, are characterized by inhibitory control deficits. In this regard, recent studies on substance-related disorders (SRD) have shown an impairment in the ability to inhibit potentially interfering memories, despite preserved motor inhibition. To investigate whether the same dissociation could also characterize gambling disorder (GD) in a transdiagnostic perspective, we tested both cognitive and motor inhibitory processes through dedicated tasks, for the first time in this behavioral addiction.
30 outpatients with GD and 30 healthy controls performed a go/no-go task addressing the integrity of motor inhibition, and the Retrieval Practice Paradigm, a task addressing the integrity of memory inhibition as indexed by the Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) effect. Self-report questionnaires assessing impulsivity were also administered.
Whereas RIF was similar across the two groups, patients showed more commission errors in the go/no-go task, and higher self-rated scores of impulsivity than controls.
The present findings suggest preserved memory inhibition and impaired motor response inhibition in GD, a pattern of inhibitory deficits opposite to that previously reported for SRD. Therefore, although both GD and SRD are characterized by altered inhibitory processing, a more fine-grained analysis revealed a specific inhibitory profile indicating vulnerability in different inhibitory components.
The present study highlights the need to investigate the multifaceted construct of inhibition more thoroughly, using performance measures able to assess its various components. This approach would enable to both better characterize different psychopathologies and orient their treatment.
许多精神病理学，包括成瘾，都表现出抑制控制缺陷。在这方面，最近关于物质相关障碍（SRD）的研究表明，尽管运动抑制保持不变，但潜在干扰记忆的抑制能力受损。为了从跨诊断的角度研究这种分离是否也可以描述赌博障碍（GD），我们首次在这种行为成瘾中通过专门的任务测试了认知和运动抑制过程。
30 名 GD 门诊患者和 30 名健康对照组进行了 Go/No-Go 任务，以评估运动抑制的完整性，以及检索实践范式，这是一项评估记忆抑制完整性的任务，其指标为检索诱导遗忘（RIF）效应。还进行了评估冲动性的自我报告问卷。
尽管两个组的 RIF 相似，但患者在 Go/No-Go 任务中犯的错误更多，并且自我报告的冲动性评分高于对照组。
本研究结果表明，GD 存在记忆抑制保留和运动反应抑制受损，这种抑制缺陷模式与之前报告的 SRD 相反。因此，尽管 GD 和 SRD 都表现出改变的抑制处理，但更精细的分析显示了特定的抑制特征，表明在不同的抑制成分中存在脆弱性。
本研究强调需要更彻底地研究抑制的多方面结构，使用能够评估其各个组成部分的表现措施。这种方法不仅可以更好地描述不同的精神病理学，还可以指导它们的治疗。
