Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 29;14(1):26015. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-73899-3.
Habitual responses towards addiction-related cues play a relevant role in the development and maintenance of addictions. Such automatic responses may be more likely under stress, as stress has been shown to induce a shift from goal-directed to habitual behavior. The current study investigated these mechanisms in risky gaming behavior. Individuals with risky gaming behavior (n = 68), as established by a structured clinical interview, and a matched control group (n = 67) completed a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm with gaming-related cues and rewards. After the Pavlovian training, participants underwent a stress (Trier Social Stress Test) or control condition before performing the instrumental training and the transfer phase of the PIT paradigm. To assess habitual behavior, the gaming-related rewards were devalued after half of the transfer phase. In both groups, gaming-related cues enhanced the choice of the gaming-related reward and this gaming PIT effect was reduced, however, not eliminated by the devaluation. Unexpectedly, stress did not significantly increase responding for the gaming-related reward in participants aware of the stimulus-outcome associations, however seemed to enhance habitual responding in unaware participants. Our findings underline the relevance of gaming-related cues in triggering habitual responses, which may undermine attempts to change a problematic gaming behavior.
习惯性地对成瘾相关线索做出反应，在成瘾的发展和维持中起着重要作用。在压力下，这种自动反应可能更为常见，因为压力已被证明会导致从目标导向行为向习惯行为转变。本研究调查了风险博弈行为中的这些机制。通过结构化临床访谈确定具有风险博弈行为的个体（n=68）和匹配的对照组（n=67）完成了与博弈相关的线索和奖励的条件性位置偏爱到工具性转移（PIT）范式。在条件性位置偏爱训练后，参与者在进行工具性训练和 PIT 范式的转移阶段之前，经历了应激（特里尔社会应激测试）或对照条件。为了评估习惯行为，在转移阶段的一半之后，对与博弈相关的奖励进行了贬值。在两个组中，与博弈相关的线索都增强了对与博弈相关的奖励的选择，而这种博弈 PIT 效应虽然有所降低，但并未被消除。出乎意料的是，在意识到刺激-结果关联的参与者中，应激并没有显著增加对与博弈相关的奖励的反应，但在无意识参与者中似乎增强了习惯性反应。我们的研究结果强调了与博弈相关的线索在引发习惯性反应方面的重要性，这可能会破坏改变有问题的博弈行为的尝试。
