Problem Gamblers Struggle to Learn From Losses, Study Finds
A study from Caltech has revealed significant differences in how recreational and problem gamblers process losses, shedding light on why some struggle to walk away from gambling. The research, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that problem gamblers’ brains process losses more slowly, which hinders their ability to learn from mistakes.
Researchers conducted a study with 40 participants, evenly divided between problem gamblers and recreational gamblers, none of whom had undergone treatment for gambling disorders. Participants performed gambling-related decision-making tasks while their brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
During these tasks, participants were expected to either maximise winnings or learn from losses to adjust their strategies. While both groups activated similar brain regions, problem gamblers processed losses differently, particularly in the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex — areas linked to slower information processing and prediction errors.
John O’Doherty, Fletcher Jones Professor of Decision Neuroscience and lead researcher, explained:
“If there’s a big discrepancy between what you’re expecting to get and what you actually get, you’ll have a big prediction error, which means you need to update your learning so next time you will be able to make better, more accurate predictions.”
The slower learning style exhibited by problem gamblers, according to O’Doherty, results in a gradual update of their decision-making strategies. This may leave them less prepared for sudden changes, a common feature in gambling scenarios.
Co-author Kiyohito Iigaya, assistant professor of neurobiology at Columbia University, highlighted that while slower learning can be advantageous in stable situations, it becomes detrimental in unpredictable environments like gambling:
“Slow learning is good when things are going slowly because it gives us accurate predictions of what’s going to happen. But slow learning is bad when things change suddenly.”
The study contributes to the understanding of problem gambling by identifying neurological differences in how losses are processed, but researchers caution against oversimplifying the findings.
“The activation of these brain regions in problem gamblers is not going to be the whole story,” O’Doherty noted. “Future research with a larger participant pool is needed to uncover more complexities.”
This discovery may pave the way for improved interventions and treatments tailored to individual problem gamblers.
