Toward an Animal Model of Gambling: The Economics of Risky Choice

描述（由申请人提供）：病态赌博是反复出现的不适应赌博行为，尽管有有害的负面后果或希望停止，但这种行为仍然存在。尽管近年来有关赌博的研究有所增加，但只有3%的研究涉及对照实验。大多数以人类为参与者的研究都存在严重的方法缺陷，这凸显了开发更严格的方法来研究导致问题赌博的变量的必要性。动物研究可以减轻许多程序上的限制，因为它允许长时间的控制实验。这项研究的主要目标是建立一个严谨的动物赌博模型，以捕捉人类赌博的重要特征，比如那些与风险选择偏好增加有关的特征。赌博的一个关键特征是获胜金额的不可预测性，但很少有实证工作研究这种对持续冒险的影响。目前的一个研究目标是使用代币奖励方法对数量偏好进行控制分析，该方法允许以不同的大小提供奖励，然后交换食物。通过系统地改变确定和不确定收益的大小，我们的目标是通过经验确定两种替代方案的价值与该替代方案提供的代币比例的关系。这些操作将决定对不确定（风险）和确定（非赌博）获胜金额产生最佳偏好的条件。此外，已经证明，当生物的收入受到限制时，它们更容易冒险。第二个目的是检验可用收入的数量如何影响对不可预测的奖励数量的偏好。代币奖励允许一种类似于人类货币的方法，其中可用收入的数量可以被操纵。受试者将获得收入代币，然后可以单独交易以获得赌博机会。除了评估赌博结果的不同分布之间的偏好外，这种操纵还解决了不同收入水平如何影响对不确定收益的偏好。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pathological gambling is recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior that persists despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. Although the amount of research focused on gambling has increased in recent years, only about 3% involves controlled experimentation. Most research that does exist with human participants suffers from serious methodological shortcomings, highlighting the need to develop more rigorous methods for studying the variables contributing to problem gambling. Animal research can alleviate many procedural limitations by allowing for controlled experimentation over extended periods of time. The primary goal of the proposed research is to develop a rigorous animal model of gambling that captures important features of human gambling, such as those related to increased preference for risky alternatives. A critical feature of gambling is the unpredictability of win amounts, yet little empirical work has examined such effects on continued risk taking. One current research aim is to conduct a controlled analysis of amount preferences using a token reward methodology, which allows for rewards to be delivered in varying magnitudes and later exchanged for food. By systematically altering the magnitudes for certain and uncertain payoffs, we aim to empirically establish the value of the two alternatives in relation to the proportion of tokens provided by that alternative. These manipulations will determine conditions that optimally produce preferences for the uncertain (risky) and certain (non-gambling) win amounts. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that organisms are more risk-prone when their income is restricted. A second aim is to examine how the amount of available income influences preference for the unpredictable reward amount. Token rewards permit a methodology analogous to currency in humans, in which the amount of available income can be manipulated. Subjects will be provided with income tokens, which can then be individually traded for gambling opportunities. Such manipulations address how different income levels affect preference for uncertain payoffs, in addition to evaluating preferences between different distributions of gambling outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is relevant to public health in that the development of an animal model of gambling is necessary to empirically evaluate factors that may function to reduce preferences for risky, unpredictable outcomes. When variables contributing to risky choice are better understood, pharmacological and behavioral variables hypothesized to reduce such behavior can be explored in a controlled experimental environment free of limitations imposed by current gambling research. Beyond a model of gambling, this research has implications for understanding risky behavior in other characteristically impulsive populations.