Tiny rat casino sheds light on gambling addiction
Posted January 20, 2016 11:14 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There may be a very good reason casinos add all those flashing lights, bells and music when you’re gambling. New research from UBC finds it encourages risky decision-making, even if you’re a rat.
The researchers built what’s basically a tiny rat casino, adding sounds and lights as the rodents gambled for sugary treats.
Associate Professor Catharine Winstanley points out there are a lot of sensory stimuli during human-sized betting.
“Literally, flashing lights and little tunes that happen when you win and we just wondered if we built those into our gambling games for rats and whether it would alter decision-making.”
Surprisingly, it did and in a very big way. The rats behaved like problem gamblers and they weren’t even offered the high roller suite.
“They were pairing bigger rewards with more interesting and exciting cues, increased risky decision-making which actually caused the animals to do worse on the task.”
What’s more, researchers were able to correct that behaviour by blocking a certain receptor in the brain that lays the groundwork for a possible treatment for gambling addiction in humans.
