Ability to use the wait-and-see strategy in pathological gamblers.
Pathological gamblers (PGs) perform differently on neurocognitive tests than do healthy controls (HC). The aim of this study was to assess "waiting ability" - a major components of inhibition control-using a modified Stop Signal Task (SST) in a population of male PGs (N=55), and HCs (N=53). Results indicated no differences between PGs and HCs in reaction times, intra-individual response variability, or number of false alarms and misses. In conclusion, PGs were not impaired in their ability to manipulate their on-line response strategy during the experimental task and were instead able to change their strategy to decrease the number of false alarms. However, much more empirical and theoretical work needs to be carried out in order to understand the key neural basis of impulsivity among PGs.
Research Department, Beer Yaakov/Ness Ziona Mental Health Centre, P.O. Box 1, Beer Yaakov 70350, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel; Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Beer Yaakov-Ness Ziona Mental Health Centre, Israel.
Semion
S
Kertzman
Environics Analytics, Toronto, Canada.
Michael
M
Vainder
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Tali
T
Visne
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Anat
A
Aizer
Research Department, Beer Yaakov/Ness Ziona Mental Health Centre, P.O. Box 1, Beer Yaakov 70350, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Moshe
M
Kotler
Research Department, Beer Yaakov/Ness Ziona Mental Health Centre, P.O. Box 1, Beer Yaakov 70350, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel. Electronic address: pinhasd@post.tau.ac.il.
Pinhas N
PN
Dannon
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D065786:Delay Discounting; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values
Pathological gamblers; Stop Signal Task; Wait-and-see strategy