Neural correlates of proactive and reactive motor response inhibition of gambling stimuli in frequent gamblers

Mechanisms of Proactive Adaptation in a Rewarded Response Inhibition Task: Executive, Motor, or Attentional Effects?

A growing number of studies have demonstrated the effects of reward motivation on inhibitory control performance. However, the exact neurocognitive mechanisms supporting these effects are not fully elucidated. In this preregistered study, we test the hypothesis that changes in speed-accuracy trade-off across contexts that alternatively incentivize fast responses versus accurate inhibition rely on a modulation of proactive inhibitory control, a mechanism intended to lock movement initiation in anticipation of stimulus presentation. Thirty healthy participants performed a modified Go/NoGo task in which the motivation to prioritize Go vs. NoGo successes was manipulated using monetary rewards of different magnitudes. High-density EEG was recorded throughout the task. Source-space analyses were performed to track brain oscillatory activities consistent with proactive inhibitory control. We observed that participants adapted their behavior to the motivational context but found no evidence that this adaptation relied on a modulation of proactive inhibitory control, hence failing to provide support for our pre-registered hypothesis. Unplanned analyses of brain-behavior relationships suggested an association between faster reaction times and enhanced top-down attention to the stimuli associated with larger rewards, as well as between increased commission error rates and stronger motor activations when Go stimuli were associated with larger rewards. The latter was related to inter-individual differences in trait reward responsiveness. These results highlight the need to carefully parse the different contributing mechanisms when studying the influence of reward motivation on inhibitory performance in impulsivity disorders. Exploratory results suggest alternative mechanisms that may be directly tested in further studies.

The relationship between perseverative thinking, proactive control, and inhibition in psychological distress: a study in a women's cohort

Cognitive control is a core feature of several mental disorders. A recent account poses that health problems may derive from proactive forms of cognitive control that maintain stress representation over time. The working hypothesis of the present study is that psychological distress is caused by the tendency to select a particular maladaptive self-regulation strategy over time, namely perseverative thinking, rather than by transient stimulus-response patterns. To test this hypothesis, we asked 84 women to carry out a battery of standardized questionnaires regarding their tendency to undertake perseverative thinking and their level of psychological distress, followed by cognitive tasks measuring the tendency to use proactive versus reactive control modality and disinhibition. Through a series of mediation analyses, we demonstrate that the tendency to use proactive control correlates with psychological distress and that this relation is mediated by perseverative thinking. Moreover, we show that the relation between low inhibitory control and psychological stress is more strongly mediated by perseverative thinking than impulsiveness, a classical construct that focuses on more transient reactions to stimuli. The present results underline the importance of considering psychological distress as the consequence of a maladaptive way of applying control over time, rather than the result of a general deficit in cognitive control abilities.

A Comparative Event-Related Potentials Study between Alcohol Use Disorder, Gambling Disorder and Healthy Control Subjects through a Contextual Go/NoGo Task

(1) Background: Inhibitory and rewarding processes that mediate attentional biases to addiction-related cues may slightly differ between patients suffering from alcohol use (AUD) or gambling (GD) disorder. (2) Methods: 23 AUD inpatients, 19 GD patients, and 22 healthy controls performed four separate Go/NoGo tasks, in, respectively, an alcohol, gambling, food, and neutral long-lasting cueing context during the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs). (3) Results: AUD patients showed a poorer inhibitory performance than controls (slower response latencies, lower N2d, and delayed P3d components). In addition, AUD patients showed a preserved inhibitory performance in the alcohol-related context (but a more disrupted one in the food-related context), while GD patients showed a specific inhibitory deficit in the game-related context, both indexed by N2d amplitude modulations. (4) Conclusions: Despite sharing common addiction-related mechanisms, AUD and GD patients showed different patterns of response to (non-)rewarding cues that should be taken into account in the therapeutic context.

Distinct neural activation patterns of age in subcomponents of inhibitory control: A fMRI meta-analysis

Inhibitory control (IC) is a fundamental cognitive function showing age-related change across the healthy lifespan. Since different cognitive resources are needed in the two subcomponents of IC (cognitive inhibition and response inhibition), regions of the brain are differentially activated. In this study, we aimed to determine whether there is a distinct age-related activation pattern in these two subcomponents. A total of 278 fMRI articles were included in the current analysis. Multilevel kernel density analysis was used to provide data on brain activation under each subcomponent of IC. Contrast analyses were conducted to capture the distinct activated brain regions for the two subcomponents, whereas meta-regression analyses were performed to identify brain regions with distinct age-related activation patterns in the two subcomponents of IC. The results showed that the right inferior frontal gyrus and the bilateral insula were activated during the two IC subcomponents. Contrast analyses revealed stronger activation in the superior parietal lobule during cognitive inhibition, whereas stronger activation during response inhibition was observed primarily in the right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral insula, and angular gyrus. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that activation of the left anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral insula, and left superior parietal lobule increased and decreased with age during cognitive inhibition and response inhibition, respectively. The results showed distinct activation patterns of aging for the two subcomponents of IC, which may be related to the differential cognitive resources recruited. These findings may help to enhance knowledge of age-related changes in the activation patterns of IC.

Contiguity of proactive and reactive inhibitory brain areas: a cognitive model based on ALE meta-analyses

Cognitive control is a critical feature in adapting our behavior to environmental and internal demands with two types of inhibition having been identified, namely the proactive and the reactive. Aiming to shed light on their respective neural correlates, we decided to focus on the cerebral activity before or after presentation of the target demanding a subject's stop as a way to separate the proactive from the reactive components associated with the tasks. Accordingly, we performed three Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses of fMRI studies exploring proactive and reactive inhibitory phases of cognitive control. For this purpose, we searched for fMRI studies investigating brain activity preceding or following target stimuli. Eight studies (291 subjects, 101 foci) were identified for the proactive analysis. Five of these studies and those previously analyzed by others (348 subjects, 199 foci) were meta-analyzed to explore the neural correlates of reactive inhibition. Overall, our results showed different networks for the two inhibitory components. Notably, we observed a contiguity between areas in the right inferior frontal gyrus pertaining to proactive inhibition and in the right middle frontal gyrus regarding reactive inhibition. These neural correlates allow proposal of a new comprehensive model of cognitive control.

Reliability assessment of temporal discounting measures in virtual reality environments

In recent years the emergence of high-performance virtual reality (VR) technology has opened up new possibilities for the examination of context effects in psychological studies. The opportunity to create ecologically valid stimulation in a highly controlled lab environment is especially relevant for studies of psychiatric disorders, where it can be problematic to confront participants with certain stimuli in real life. However, before VR can be confidently applied widely it is important to establish that commonly used behavioral tasks generate reliable data within a VR surrounding. One field of research that could benefit greatly from VR-applications are studies assessing the reactivity to addiction related cues (cue-reactivity) in participants suffering from gambling disorder. Here we tested the reliability of a commonly used temporal discounting task in a novel VR set-up designed for the concurrent assessment of behavioral and psychophysiological cue-reactivity in gambling disorder. On 2 days, thirty-four healthy non-gambling participants explored two rich and navigable VR-environments (neutral: café vs. gambling-related: casino and sports-betting facility), while their electrodermal activity was measured using remote sensors. In addition, participants completed the temporal discounting task implemented in each VR environment. On a third day, participants performed the task in a standard lab testing context. We then used comprehensive computational modeling using both standard softmax and drift diffusion model (DDM) choice rules to assess the reliability of discounting model parameters assessed in VR. Test-retest reliability estimates were good to excellent for the discount rate log(k), whereas they were poor to moderate for additional DDM parameters. Differences in model parameters between standard lab testing and VR, reflecting reactivity to the different environments, were mostly numerically small and of inconclusive directionality. Finally, while exposure to VR generally increased tonic skin conductance, this effect was not modulated by the neutral versus gambling-related VR-environment. Taken together this proof-of-concept study in non-gambling participants demonstrates that temporal discounting measures obtained in VR are reliable, suggesting that VR is a promising tool for applications in computational psychiatry, including studies on cue-reactivity in addiction.

Neurochemistry of response inhibition and interference in gambling disorder: a preliminary study of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA+) and glutamate-glutamine (Glx)

BACKGROUND

Neurobehavioral research on the role of impulsivity in gambling disorder (GD) has produced heterogeneous findings. Impulsivity is multifaceted with different experimental tasks measuring different subprocesses, such as response inhibition and distractor interference. Little is known about the neurochemistry of inhibition and interference in GD.

METHODS

We investigated inhibition with the stop signal task (SST) and interference with the Eriksen Flanker task, and related performance to metabolite levels in individuals with and without GD. We employed magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to record glutamate-glutamine (Glx/Cr) and inhibitory, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA+/Cr) levels in the dorsal ACC (dACC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and an occipital control voxel.

RESULTS

We found slower processing of complex stimuli in the Flanker task in GD (P < .001, η2p = 0.78), and no group differences in SST performance. Levels of dACC Glx/Cr and frequency of incongruent errors were correlated positively in GD only (r = 0.92, P = .001). Larger positive correlations were found for those with GD between dACC GABA+/Cr and SST Go error response times (z = 2.83, P = .004), as well as between dACC Glx/Cr and frequency of Go errors (z = 2.23, P = .03), indicating general Glx-related error processing deficits. Both groups expressed equivalent positive correlations between posterror slowing and Glx/Cr in the right dlPFC (GD: r = 0.74, P = .02; non-GD: r = .71, P = .01).

CONCLUSION

Inhibition and interference impairments are reflected in dACC baseline metabolite levels and error processing deficits in GD.

The neural basis of gambling disorder: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Previous imaging studies suggested that impairments of prefrontal-striatal and limbic circuits are correlated to excessive gambling. However, the neural underpinnings of gambling disorder (GD) continue to be the topic of debate. The present study aimed to identify structural changes in GD and differentiate the specific brain activity patterns associated with decision-making and reward-processing. We performed a systematic review complemented by Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses on morphometric and functional studies on neural correlates of GD. The ALE meta-analysis on structural studies revealed that patients with GD showed significant cortical grey-matter thinning in the right ventrolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex compared to healthy subjects. The ALE meta-analyses on functional studies revealed that patients with GD showed a significant hyperactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex and in the right ventral striatum during decision-making and gain processing compared to healthy subjects. These findings suggest that GD is related to an alteration of brain mechanisms underlying top-down control and appraisal of gambling-related stimuli and provided indications to develop new interventions in clinical practice.

Spatiotemporal brain signal associated with high and low levels of proactive motor response inhibition

Proactive motor response inhibition is used to strategically restrain actions in preparation for stopping. In this study, we first examined the event related potential (ERP) elicited by low and high level of proactive response inhibition, as assessed by the stop-signal task. Corroborating previous studies, we found an increased amplitude of the contingent negative variation (CNV) in the high level of proactive inhibition. As the main goal of the present study, swLORETA was used to determine the neural generators characterising CNV differences between low and high levels of proactive inhibition. Results showed that the higher level of proactive inhibition involved numerous generators, including within the middle and medial frontal gyrus. Importantly, we observed that the lower level of proactive inhibition also involved a specific neural generator, within the frontopolar cortex. Altogether, present findings identified the specific brain sources of ERP signals involved in the later phase of motor preparation under low or high levels of proactive motor response inhibition.

Considering Motor Excitability During Action Preparation in Gambling Disorder: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

A lack of inhibitory control appears to contribute to the development and maintenance of addictive disorders. Among the mechanisms thought to assist inhibitory control, an increasing focus has been drawn on the so-called preparatory suppression, which refers to the drastic suppression observed in the motor system during action preparation. Interestingly, deficient preparatory suppression has been reported in alcohol use disorders. However, it is currently unknown whether this deficit also concerns behavioral, substance-free, addictions, and thus whether it might represent a vulnerability factor common to both substance and behavioral addictive disorders. To address this question, neural measures of preparatory suppression were obtained in gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and matched healthy control subjects. To do so, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the left and the right motor cortex to elicit motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in both hands when participants were performing a choice reaction time task. In addition, choice and rapid response impulsivity were evaluated in all participants, using self-report measures and neuropsychological tasks. Consistent with a large body of literature, the MEP data revealed that the activity of the motor system was drastically reduced during action preparation in healthy subjects. Surprisingly, though, a similar MEP suppression was observed in GDPs, indicating that those subjects do not globally suffer from a deficit in preparatory suppression. By contrast, choice impulsivity was higher in GDPs than healthy subjects, and a higher rapid response impulsivity was found in the more severe forms of GD. Altogether, those results demonstrated that although some aspects of inhibitory control are impaired in GDPs, these alterations do not seem to concern preparatory suppression. Yet, the profile of individuals suffering of a GD is very heterogeneous, with only part of them presenting an impulsive disposition, such as in patients with alcohol use disorders. Hence, a lack of preparatory suppression may be only shared by this sub-type of addicts, an interesting issue for future investigation.

Examining neural reactivity to gambling cues in the age of online betting

Purpose of Review

The goal of this review is to provide new insights as to how and why functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research on gambling cue reactivity can contribute to significant progress towards the understanding of gambling disorder. After having offered a detailed description of experimental paradigms and a comprehensive summary of findings related to gambling cue reactivity, the present review suggests methodological avenues for future research.

Recent Findings

The fMRI literature on problem gambling has identified the main neural pathways associated with reactivity to gambling cues. Yet, the current knowledge on the key factors underlying cue reactivity in gambling is still very incomplete. Here, we suggest that the recent expansion of online sports betting calls for a new line of research offering a fine-grained and up-to-date approach of neural cue reactivity in gambling disorder.

Summary

Experimental designs that investigate individual-specific and study-specific factors related to sports betting have the potential to foster progress towards efficient treatment and prevention of gambling disorder.

Competing Motivations: Proactive Response Inhibition Toward Addiction-Related Stimuli in Quitting-Motivated Individuals

We examined whether addiction-related cues impact proactive inhibition (the restraint of actions in preparation for stopping) in individuals who are motivated to quit gambling or cannabis use. In Study 1, treatment-seeking individuals with cannabis use disorder and matched controls performed a stop-signal task that required them to inhibit categorizing cannabis or neutral pictures, and within varying levels of stop-signal probability. In Study 2, two groups of individuals, who applied to a voluntary self-exclusion program toward gambling, performed the stop-task following relaxation or gambling craving induction, with results compared to non-gamblers. Study 1 showed that despite being less efficient in proactive inhibition, individuals with cannabis use disorder exhibited heightened proactive inhibition toward cannabis cues. In Study 2, proactive inhibition toward gambling cues was heightened in gamblers after craving, but the degree of proactive adjustment decreased as a function of induced changes in gambling-related motivation. Present findings demonstrate that exposure to addiction-related cues can modulate proactive inhibition in individuals who are motivated to restrict their addictive behaviors.

Proactive and Reactive Motor Inhibition in Top Athletes Versus Nonathletes

We examined proactive (early restraint in preparation for stopping) and reactive (late correction to stop ongoing action) motor response inhibition in two groups of participants: professional athletes ( n = 28) and nonathletes ( n = 25). We recruited the elite athletes from Belgian national taekwondo and fencing teams. We estimated proactive and reactive inhibition with a modified version of the stop-signal task (SST) in which participants inhibited categorizing left/right arrows. The probability of the stop signal was manipulated across blocks of trials by providing probability cues from the background computer screen color (green = 0%, yellow =17%, orange = 25%, red = 33%). Participants performed two sessions of the SST, where proactive inhibition was operationalized with increased go-signal reaction time as a function of increased stop-signal probability and reactive inhibition was indicated by stop-signal reaction time latency. Athletes exhibited higher reactive inhibition performance than nonathletes. In addition, athletes exhibited higher proactive inhibition than nonathletes in Session 1 (but not Session 2) of the SST. As top-level athletes exhibited heightened reactive inhibition and were faster to reach and maintain consistent proactive motor response inhibition, these results confirm an evaluative process that can discriminate elite athleticism through a fine-grained analysis of inhibitory control.