Brain Part That Causes Gambling Addiction Found

Cambridge scientists have discovered that the activation of a part of the brain called insula is responsible for gambling addiction as part of an earth-shattering study that could ultimately reduce such addiction.

The new research was led by Dr. Luke Clark and demonstrates that brain damage affecting the insula disrupts errors of thinking linked to gambling addiction.  Insula acts to control one’s emotions.

Clark’s study determined that during gambling activity, an individual misperceives their chances of winning due to a number of errors and distortion in thought.

“Near misses” for example are misinterpreted as encouragement to continue playing.

Dr. Clark noted that with coin tosses, having heads show up first led individuals to mistakenly believe that tails will have to appear next.

“While neuroimaging studies can tell us a great deal about the brain's response to complex events, it's only by studying patients with brain injury that we can see if a brain region is actually needed to perform a given task," said Clark.
For the control groups, both healthy patients and those with damage to their insula took part in the gambling tasks.
All of the groups with the exception of the patients with insula damage reported a heightened motivation to play following near-misses in the various gambling activities offered.
"Based on these results, we believe that the insula could be hyperactive in problem gamblers, making them more susceptible to these errors of thinking.
"Future treatments for gambling addiction could seek to reduce this hyperactivity, either by drugs or by psychological techniques like mindfulness therapies," Clark added.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com