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

描述（由申请人提供）：病理性赌博是一种反复出现的适应不良的赌博行为，尽管有有害的负面后果或想要停止，但这种行为仍然存在。虽然近年来针对赌博的研究有所增加，但只有约3%涉及受控实验。大多数研究确实存在与人类参与者遭受严重的方法缺陷，突出需要开发更严格的方法来研究有助于问题赌博的变量。动物研究可以通过允许在较长时间内进行受控实验来减轻许多程序上的限制。这项研究的主要目标是开发一种严格的赌博动物模型，以捕捉人类赌博的重要特征，例如与增加对风险替代品的偏好有关的特征。赌博的一个重要特征是赢额的不可预测性，但很少有实证研究研究这种影响持续冒险。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受控分析，该方法允许以不同的幅度提供奖励，然后交换食物。通过系统地改变确定和不确定回报的大小，我们的目标是根据经验确定两种选择的价值与该选择提供的代币比例的关系。这些操作将确定最佳地产生对不确定（风险）和确定（非赌博）获胜金额的偏好的条件。此外，已经证明，当生物体的收入受到限制时，它们更容易遭受风险。第二个目的是研究可用收入的数量如何影响对不可预测的奖励金额的偏好。代币奖励允许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，然后可以单独交易赌博机会。这种操纵解决了不同的收入水平如何影响偏好不确定的回报，除了评估不同分布的赌博结果之间的偏好。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究与公共卫生有关，因为有必要开发一种赌博动物模型，以实证评估可能有助于减少对风险和不可预测结果偏好的因素。当有助于风险选择的变量被更好地理解，药理学和行为变量假设，以减少这种行为可以探索在一个受控的实验环境中自由的限制，目前的赌博研究。除了赌博的模型，这项研究对理解其他冲动人群的风险行为也有影响。

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.