Wagner Ben, Mathar David, Peters Jan
Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Faculty of Psychology, Chair of Neuroimaging, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Comput Psychiatr. 2022 Jul 5;6(1):142-165. doi: 10.5334/cpsy.84. eCollection 2022.
Gambling disorder is a behavioral addiction that negatively impacts personal finances, work, relationships and mental health. In this pre-registered study (https://osf.io/5ptz9/) we investigated the impact of real-life gambling environments on two computational markers of addiction, temporal discounting and model-based reinforcement learning. Gambling disorder is associated with increased temporal discounting and reduced model-based learning. Regular gamblers (n = 30, DSM-5 score range 3-9) performed both tasks in a neutral (café) and a gambling-related environment (slot-machine venue) in counterbalanced order. Data were modeled using drift diffusion models for temporal discounting and reinforcement learning via hierarchical Bayesian estimation. Replicating previous findings, gamblers discounted rewards more steeply in the gambling-related context. This effect was positively correlated with gambling related cognitive distortions (pre-registered analysis). In contrast to our pre-registered hypothesis, model-based reinforcement learning was improved in the gambling context. Here we show that temporal discounting and model-based reinforcement learning are modulated in opposite ways by real-life gambling cue exposure. Results challenge aspects of habit theories of addiction, and reveal that laboratory-based computational markers of psychopathology are under substantial contextual control.
赌博障碍是一种行为成瘾，会对个人财务、工作、人际关系和心理健康产生负面影响。在这项预先注册的研究（https://osf.io/5ptz9/）中，我们调查了现实生活中的赌博环境对成瘾的两个计算指标——时间折扣和基于模型的强化学习的影响。赌博障碍与时间折扣增加和基于模型的学习减少有关。经常赌博者（n = 30，DSM-5评分范围为3-9）以平衡顺序在中性环境（咖啡馆）和与赌博相关的环境（老虎机场所）中完成这两项任务。数据使用漂移扩散模型进行建模，以通过分层贝叶斯估计进行时间折扣和强化学习。重复先前的研究结果，赌博者在与赌博相关的情境中对奖励的折扣更为陡峭。这种效应与赌博相关的认知扭曲呈正相关（预先注册的分析）。与我们预先注册的假设相反，基于模型的强化学习在赌博情境中得到了改善。在这里我们表明，时间折扣和基于模型的强化学习受到现实生活中赌博线索暴露的相反方式的调节。研究结果对成瘾习惯理论的某些方面提出了挑战，并揭示了基于实验室的精神病理学计算指标受到大量情境因素的控制。
