Increased ventral anterior insular connectivity to sports betting availability indexes problem gambling.

brain connectivity; fmri; insular cortex; problem gambling; reward availability; sports betting; Humans; Insular Cortex; Brain; Motivation; Gambling; Sports; Medicine (miscellaneous); Pharmacology; Psychiatry and Mental Health

Abstract :

[en] With the advent of digital technologies, online sports betting is spurring a fast-growing expansion. In this study, we examined how sports betting availability modulates the brain connectivity of frequent sports bettors with [problem bettors (PB)] or without [non-problem bettors (NPB)] problematic sports betting. We conducted functional connectivity analyses centred on the ventral anterior insular cortex (vAI), a brain region playing a key role in the dynamic interplay between reward-based processes. We re-analysed a dataset on sports betting availability undertaken in PB (n = 30) and NPB (n = 35). Across all participants, we observed that sports betting availability elicited positive vAI coupling with extended clusters of brain activation (encompassing the putamen, cerebellum, occipital, temporal, precentral and central operculum regions) and negative vAI coupling with the orbitofrontal cortex. Between-group analyses showed increased positive vAI coupling in the PB group, as compared with the NPB group, in the left lateral occipital cortex, extending to the left inferior frontal gyrus, the anterior cingulate gyrus and the right frontal pole. Taken together, these results are in line with the central assumptions of triadic models of addictions, which posit that the insular cortex plays a pivotal role in promoting the drive and motivation to get a reward by 'hijacking' goal-oriented processes toward addiction-related cues. Taken together, these findings showed that vAI functional connectivity is sensitive not only to gambling availability but also to the status of problematic sport betting.

Disciplines :

Neurosciences & behavior

Author, co-author :

BREVERS, Damien ^✱; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences > Team Claus VÖGELE ; Louvain for Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Baeken, Chris ; Department of Psychiatry, UZ Brussel, Brussels, Belgium ; Department of Head and Skin, Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium ; Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Bechara, Antoine ; Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, California, Los Angeles, USA

He, Qinghua ; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Maurage, Pierre ; Louvain for Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Sescousse, Guillaume ; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center-INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR5292, PSYR2 Team, University of Lyon, Lyon, France

VÖGELE, Claus ; University of Luxembourg

Billieux, Joël ^✱; Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland ; Centre for Excessive Gambling, Addiction Medicine, Lausanne University Hospitals (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

^✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Increased ventral anterior insular connectivity to sports betting availability indexes problem gambling.

Publication date :

March 2024

Journal title :

Addiction Biology

ISSN :

1355-6215

eISSN :

1369-1600

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Inc, United States

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

e13389

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/adb.13389

Name of the research project :

R-AGR-3548 - C18/BM/12552025 BETHAB - part UL - VÖGELE Claus

Funders :

Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg

Available on ORBilu :

since 19 December 2024

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