Environmental Influence on Gambling Behavior

Overview

In France, the prevalence of problem gambling and risk has been estimated at 1.3%. This disorder, currently considered a behavioral addiction is characterized by a loss of control and an excessive focus on the game. The literature on intervening psychological mechanisms in the development of the game led to think that the size of loss of control, central among players, could be understood as a reduction in control capacity but also as automatic activation behavior game. The task of Go-Nogo, commonly used in cognitive psychology, assesses the automatic and controlled components of behavior. Furthermore, different models of the concept of addiction underline the importance of the environment associated with addiction. However, no study takes into account the interaction between the game environment and the involvement of these mechanisms.

In this study, patients will realize, on a computer, various exercises (called "Go-Nogo") whose principle is: 2 symbols (for example, a circle and a square) appear in random order on the screen computer. The patient will not press the response button (key on the keyboard) that upon the occurrence of one of the two symbols, in dependence upon the command that it has been given by the psychiatrist, and this as quickly as possible. The patient will successively perform 3 versions of this exercise (with a neutral wallpaper, with neutral/games images or with neutral/games tones).Order of the 3 versions will be determined by randomization.

Conditions