Going to keep this thread now!

Hi ya Freda... just wanted to say hi really.. you seem in a good place at the mo.. nice.. cheers for now.. S.A 🙂

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Your brain on gambling

Science shows how slot machines take over your mind

By Jonah Lehrer | August 19, 2007

When Ann Klinestiver, a high school English teacher in Milton, W.Va., was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, she was desperate for anything that might calm the tremors caused by the disease. She found relief in a new drug called Requip.

"At first, the drug was like a miracle," Klinestiver says. "All my movement problems just disappeared."

Over time, however, Klinestiver needed higher and higher doses of the drug in order to ease her symptoms. That's when she became a gambling addict. Although she'd never been interested in gambling before, Klinestiver was suddenly obsessed with slot machines. Every day, she would drive to the local dog racing track and play slots until 3:30 in the morning. After a year of addictive gambling, Klinestiver lost more than $200,000.

Klinestiver's medication worked by imitating the effects of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain. Parkinson's is caused by the death of dopamine neurons in brain areas that control bodily movement. But dopamine also plays a central role in the pleasure centers of the brain, influencing how we see the world and respond to it. Recent medical studies have found that anywhere from 3 to 13 percent of patients on the kind of medication Klinestiver was taking develop severe gambling addictions or related compulsions. In early 2006, Klinestiver was taken off Requip. Her tremors worsened, but her gambling addiction vanished. "I haven't gambled in 18 months," she says. "I still think about the slots, but the obsession isn't there."

Stories like Klinestiver's, and research into dopamine's role in the brain, are helping neuroscientists understand the temptation of gambling and the scourge of gambling addiction. This research may also change the way we see casinos, and help shift the debate over whether the government should further regulate slots, roulette wheels, and other games of chance. From the perspective of the brain, gambling has much in common with addictive drugs, like C*****e. Both work by hijacking the brain's pleasure centers -- a lure that some people are literally incapable of resisting.

"Gambling games grew up around the frailty of our nervous system," says Read Montague, a professor of neuroscience at Baylor University. "They evolved to exploit specific hiccups in our brain."

In recent years, gambling has spread across America, with gambling generating revenues of $2.9 billion in New England in 2006. The question of gambling is of particular relevance for Massachusetts. Last month, the town of Middleborough voted in support of a massive new gambling complex, to be built on lands owned by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. Governor Deval Patrick is currently considering proposals to expand gambling across the state, and several developers are looking at sites in Boston.

The growth of the gambling industry has been accompanied by a large amount of new scientific research explaining the effects of gambling on the brain. The neural circuits manipulated by gambling originally evolved to help animals assess rewards, such as food, that are crucial for survival. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved with the processing of these rewards. Whenever we experience something pleasurable, such as winning a hand of blackjack or eating a piece of chocolate cake, our dopamine neurons get excited. These neurons help the brain learn about the pleasure, and attempt to predict when it will happen again.

Wolfram Schultz, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University, has exposed how this system operates on a molecular level. He has spent the last two decades measuring the activity of dopamine neurons in the brains of monkeys as they receive rewards of fruit juice. His experiments observe a simple protocol: Schultz flashes a light, waits a few seconds, and then squirts a few drops of apple juice into the monkey's mouth. While the monkeys are waiting for the sweet liquid, Schultz painstakingly monitors the response of individual cells.

At first, the neurons don't get excited until the juice is delivered. The cells are reacting to the actual reward. However, once the animal learns that the light always precedes the arrival of juice, the same neurons begin firing at the sight of the light instead of the reward. Schultz calls these cells "prediction neurons," since they are more interested in predicting rewards than in the rewards themselves.

These predictions are a crucial source of learning, since the monkey constantly compares its expectations of juice with what actually happens. For example, if the light is flashed but the juice never arrives, then the monkey's dopamine neurons stop firing. This is known as the "error signal." The monkey is disappointed, and begins to change its future predictions. However, if the monkey receives an unexpected reward -- the juice arrives without warning -- then the dopamine neurons get extremely excited. A surprising treat registers much larger than an expected one.

"A reward that's unpredictable typically counts three or four times as much," Schultz says.

Games of chance prey on this neural system. Consider, for example, the slot machine. You put in a coin and pull the lever. The reels start to whirr. Eventually, the machine settles on its verdict. Chances are you lost money.

But think about the slot machine from the perspective of your dopamine neurons. Whenever you win some money, the reward activates those brain cells intent on anticipating future rewards. These neurons want to predict the patterns inside the machine, to decode the logic of luck.

Yet here's the catch: slot machines can't be solved. They use random number generators to determine their payout. There are no patterns to decipher. There is only a little microchip, churning out arbitrary digits.

At this point, our dopamine neurons should just turn themselves off: the slot machine is a waste of mental energy. But this isn't what happens. Instead of getting bored by the haphazard payouts, our dopamine neurons become obsessed. The random rewards of gambling are much more seductive than a more predictable reward cycle. When we pull the lever and win some money, we experience a potent rush of pleasurable dopamine precisely because the reward was so unexpected. The clanging coins and flashing lights are like a surprising squirt of juice. The end result is that we are transfixed by the slot machine, riveted by the fickle nature of its payouts.

"The trick of a one-armed bandit," Montague says, "is that it provides us with the illusion of a pattern. We get enough rewards so that we keep on playing. Our cells think they'll figure out the pattern soon. But of course they won't."

The irony of gambling is that it's entertaining because it's so frustrating, at least for our dopamine neurons. One of the big remaining questions for scientists is why only some gamblers get addicted. While most people can walk away from the slot machines, some gamblers, like Klinestiver, can't resist the temptation. For these compulsive gamblers, the misplaced predictions of their dopamine neurons become self-destructive. These people are so blinded by the pleasures of occasionally winning that they slowly lose everything.

Jonah Lehrer is an editor at large at Seed magazine. His first book, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," will be published in November.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Gambling in Massachusetts

Opinion:

RICHARD A. MCGOWAN: Ethics of gambling

ADRIAN WALKER: Playing the jobs chip

More opinion articles on gambling in Massachusetts

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Got to win the biggest post of the year .. lol!

Oh thank you Graham! that was really sweet of you 🙂

I enjoyed reading that.

Ive been for my first session back with my gambling counsellor today, and feel good about that. We didnt get any actual counselling done, because she had to do a bit of a re assessment due to the 5 month gap, but I feel confident in her abilities. That is enough in itself.

I, of course actually have to do the work, but I feel confident she is very capable in navigating me through it.

She also said that I seem to have made great growth and progress since she last saw me, she says its obvious I am in a better place than I was. Its encouraging to hear this.

I feel knackered today, didnt sleep very well. Have been very restless and anxious in my sleep some nights lately. I got myself really over stimulated and anxious last night, by going into an arcade and playing virtually before I knew what I was doing.

I didnt fully engage in a 'session' though. I sort of snapped myself out of it, having lost less than £10. I know the amount isnt necessarily important, but the point is, I dealt with it differently than I would have in the past. I wasnt getting much out of it anymore.

I do believe that this tendency to just gravitate into arcades is force of habit and compulsion. I need to watch out for this, because its very dangerous. I wasn't 'planning' to go in at all, but because my bus stopped right outside an arcade I think I was caught off guard and sort of drifted in like a zombie in a trance. Auto pilot.

I was very annoyed, as it meant I missed my meditation class which was the whole point of my journey. However, Im happy with my general progress in recovery so far. I feel like Im still learning how to make this a permanent lifestyle change, and Im still making classic rookie errors.

It is what it is. Today I will not gamble.

Hi Freda thanks for your message. And yes it can be tiring - all the energy needed for this long road in trying to quit. Its good you come right back to your senses after your slip. Classic mistake I made last year was comitting to stop - slipped and then did nothing to stop the slide. More aware this year of that than last. Keep it going 1 step at a time. And next time you pass an arade be Alert!!!! Good thoughts to you 🙂 All the best Blocked.

Have a good gamble free weekend Freda 🙂

Jas xx

Hi Freda

Good to talk in chat. Stay strong and one week will become 2 and 3 and 4.

I like you have lost friends due to gambling. some of that is my fault, some it is because they werent really true friends.

You will make more friends in the future and some of those will be life lasting.

Hi Freda,

Interesting article. Ive been reading similar things for years. Its spot on really, dont you think. The compulsion, the craving, the anticipation of the next win is in reality the craving for or the anticipation of the next little (or big!) hit of dopamine. I used to be able to maintain my dopamine high for hours on end before I eventually crashed.

I find for me that the craving for the dopamine high intensifies when I feel stuck in life or otherwise have an unresolved problem or just have no idea how to deal with how i feel about something. It is not easy. I do not find it easy. But the important point is that I/you and everyone else on this forum continues to make the effort to try and change and learn to try and live without the dopamine high. Take care.. S.A 🙂

Am having trouble logging into chat...

Is saying login failed, incorrect password/login details. Hmm.

Anyway, had a good weekend, gamble free. Went to meditation class tonight, it was my favourite, the monk. I love him.

Hi Freda

Glad to hear you had a gamble free weekend. Shame the chat was cancelled tonight - I hear it was because all the Gamcare staff were down the Casino!

Speak soon

Happy to hear you had a good gamble free weekend Freda, how goes it on the work front.

Hoping all continues as smoothly as possible.

Love

W x

Hi Freda

Popping in to say thank you so very much and farewell, i will email michele and ask her to pass my email address on to you, if i dont hear from you i hope very much life works out good for you..I hope your wedding goes well and i hope you have years and years of happiness together...You have made me laugh and cry lol, your a sweety and im a soppy ******, but hey who cares!!! i dont lol!

Anyway all the very best to you and thanks again, your great! andrew xx

Feeling quite sad that my mate ands is calling time on his diary. However, this is what he needs to do so this makes me very happy 🙂

I am myself, posting less these days. I needed a feeling of belonging, I needed to feel part of something - a community, a group. This site has given me that in the short term. I have found that in the real world now, with the lovely buddhists and at the charity for mad people. I didn't realise how important it was to me until I got it back.

I used to have it where I grew up, because I worked in our local pub and knew everyone. It was a lovely feeling. However, I moved to the city 4 years ago now and it doesn't feel the same anymore when I go back. Im so happy Ive found a new place where Im welcome and can be myself.

I have been having lovely feelings of happiness and excitement over the last couple of weeks, and it is so nice after having previously felt so low.

I had counselling today, and I felt really happy that we made sense together of what I need to overcome emotionally. I have carried around feelings of not being good enough all my life, and the fear that my best will not be good enough and I will be rejected. This comes from growing up around people who were impossible to please. I have understand where it comes from, for some years now - but it hasn't helped me to actually stop feeling that way. My counsellor seems to understand this, and this is what we are going to work toward. How lovely!

I feel peaceful tonight.

Hi Freda its so nice to read your in a good place with your self and mind. I wish you well ... it helps so much to read diarys such as yours. Good thoughts to your Blocked.

Freda,I always read your diary,although i haver never posted on it,i guess we all read lots of diaries and post on some and not others,we would all be on here 24/7 otherwise!!!,I just wanted to say that i'm very pleased that you are finding such a lot of emotional peace now,it's very clear that you have made so much effort not only to stop gambling but to change the way you think about every aspect of your life.Do keep posting,your diary always gives me food for thought.

seano.