Do nicotine dependent subjects show functional differences in response to risk?
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1
University of Auckland, School of Pharmacy, New Zealand
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2
University of Auckland, Department of Psychological Medicine, New Zealand
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3
University of Auckland, Department of Psychology, New Zealand
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4
University of Melbourne, School of Psychological Sciences, Australia
The National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US describes drug addiction as a chronic and complex brain disease. Research has shown prolonged drug use causes changes in the brain's reward system that prompts compulsive drug use. However, to date studies investigating regional activation associated with risk-based decision making in drug users have typically not dissociated probability from magnitude of reward i.e. the increase in reward has been associated with an increase in the risk associated decision. We developed two tasks to investigate aspects of reward based decision making and to evaluate if the outcome of the gamble (i.e. win or loss) affected future selection. Nicotine dependent and healthy control subjects (18-40 years) behavioural responses were recorded whilst completing the two tasks. Behavioural data was analysed using SPSS. The two groups were compared for Reaction Time (RT) and accuracy. The influence of previous outcomes on future decision making was assessed by the proportion of large/small magnitude bets that followed losses/ gains. Data analysis showed there were no significant differences in either RT or accuracy, however the effects of positive or negative outcomes showed differences in future decision making between the two groups. The study shows clear differences during the evaluation of risk between nicotine dependent and healthy control subjects. The differences in reward selection after feedback reflects possible changes in reward based decision making in those with nicotine dependence.
Keywords:
Humans,
Reward,
risky decision making,
functional MRI,
Nicotine dependence
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Cognition and Executive Processes
Citation:
Curley
L,
Kydd
RR,
Kirk
IJ,
Russell
BR and
Hester
R
(2015). Do nicotine dependent subjects show functional differences in response to risk?.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00161
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Louise Curley, University of Auckland, School of Pharmacy, Auckland, New Zealand, l.curley@auckland.ac.nz