Neural Systems Controlling Emotions Have Influence On Individual's Gambling Abilities

In " The Neurology of Free Will," Charles Duhigg puts a special importance on habits –their inner working and how they can change. Duhigg describes how habits work through the cycle of cue, routine, and reward. Angie Bachmann from being a bored housewife to losing all her money through uncontrollable gambling.

The amygdala of psychopaths have has been found to be hypoactive during fear conditioning (Birbaumer et al., 2005), moral decision-making (Glenn, Raine, & Schug, 2009), and social cooperation (Rilling et al., 2007). As expected, studies have also found the amygdala to be hypoactive in response to fearful faces or other affect-related activity (e.g. Carré et al., 2013; Kiehl et al., 2001). Nevertheless, Müller et al. (2003) found that psychopaths had increased activation in the amygdala (in addition to increased prefrontal activation) when viewing negative content (e.g. pictures of threatening animals, wounded people) which they interpreted as reflecting abnormal prefrontal – amygdala communication.” (Umbach et al., 2015,

Cook County was having more patients than it could handle complaining about chest pain. Also, determining if the pain could be a heart attack was a very inefficient and a long process with too much information. So they streamlined the process, mainly considering 4 things which were the EGG, fluid in lungs, systolic pressure, and unstable angina. The results were more accurate and saved time. This showed that, sometimes with too much information, there is too much of the complicaticated information and an answer can’t be reached and with less information a correct answer can be reached quickly.

Furthering the studies of psychopathy, there are two main theories that have been used to explain this abnormalities in the brain. The first theory is called the Somatic Marker Hypothesis of Damasio (1994) which proposed that damage to the prefrontal cortex in the brain causes poor decision making abilities which shows a lack of potential development for the somatic aspects that are linked to the excitement of rewards and/or punishment. This leads to an inconsiderate attitude towards any negative consequences as well as social rules or outcomes. This theory is supported by its neurobiological equivalent which is the orbitofrontal and medial frontal cortex in the brain which is responsible for decision making and other cognitive processes. Neuropsychological evidence proves that the Somatic

Looking at people brains that are at a higher risk can be beneficial to understanding changes before and after episodes. Scientist look at these people brains specifically at the frontal cortex, limbic system, and the amygdala for changes. The frontal cortex is the front part of a person brain used for decision making. Transmissions from the frontal cortex is sent to limbic system which is the site for processing emotions. Signals from the limbic system is sent to the amygdala where the brain experiences emotions. (Schneider)

The parabrachial nucleus is a center for regulation of physiologic manifestations of fear avoidance and anxiety 83. These connections develop information about whole body rotation and position with respect to gravity. This information is linked to threat assessment pathways via connections between parabrachial nucleus and the central nucleus of the amygdala 85. Connections between amygdala and superior colliculi and between amygdala and thalamus link visual and somatosensory inputs to threat assessment pathways 86. Sensory inputs and assessment of threat converge in the hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the insula, and anterior cingulate. These four structures are components of both the limbic and the vestibular cortex 87. Vestibuloparabrachial network and amygdala-locus coeruleus outputs

It is believed that a mutation in the prefrontal cortex predisposes some people to violence. The frontal lobe is what we use to make decisions and, when fully developed, allows us to think carefully about our actions before we take them. An alteration in the prefrontal cortex may make us susceptible to impulsive and rash behaviors. For example, teens tend to be more reckless than adults. The teen frontal lobe is not fully formed, which is the reason for this outcome. Teens also tend to rely on their amygdalas to make decision. The amygdala is the center for powerful emotions, such as anger, jealousy, and guilt. For example, psychopaths have been found to be void of guilt and regret as a result of “the amygdala [being] less activated when they

This research paper is a compilation of information gathered during lectures and through the web on the Nervous System and the Reward Pathway. This paper examines the structure of these systems, their discovery and the effects that drugs have on influencing these systems and how addictions are formed.

By finding places in the brain where behavioral traits lie we can understand that there may exist people with neuropathological disorders that can show 'rational-analytic behavior' that is dysfunctional in that it lacks the social emotions that guide

The case of Phineas Gage provides insight on how trauma or malformations to specific areas of the brain may produce changes in mannerisms in the areas of emotion, behavior, attention span, and could be the source of many other psychological disorders. Studies on the prefrontal cortex are not all in agreement on the extent that damage to the orbitofrontal cortex produces reduced inhibitions and emotional changes, or if these changes are symptomatic of damage producing impeded judgment based on future consequences (Stalnaker, Cooch &Freberg, 2013). Although, the specifics of what the orbitofrontal cortex does or does not do, the link between behavior and brain trauma is clear.

The authors explored the traditional view, focusing on structural and functional studies of grey matter and developmental differences in frontal lobe and emotion-related brain areas. They provided two explanations that weakened this view. First, biological factors were primarily responsible for predisposing risk tendencies. This made it difficult to account for cross-cultural differences. Second, because the brain was responsive to environmental stressors and was able to change accordingly, it was not known whether structural changes reflected those stressors.

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

Why do gamblers bet more after they just lost a hand? Why do investors throw good money after bad? Why do people believe that a string of losses makes a win more likely? Why do so many people say that they will win their money back in the next hand? Is part of the appeal of gambling its unpredictability? Or do we just look at it as a way to "get rich quick"? The answer to these questions may lie in the science of the brain. Some studies indicate that gamblers bet more after a loss because they are induced to fix an error. Their brains are telling them they've made a mistake and that they need to correct it (1). These studies could possibly explain other risky acts. If you ask many people why gamble, their

As educated people, we often try to ignore the influence of emotions on decision-making. Neuroscience evidence now shows that sound and rational decision making is contingent on prior accurate emotional processing. The basis for this is the somatic marker hypothesis. The somatic marker hypothesis provides a systems level neuroanatomical and cognitive framework for decision-making, the impact, and influence on it by emotions. The key idea of this hypothesis is that decision-making is a process that is influenced by marker signals that arise in bio regulatory processes, which includes those that express themselves in emotions and feelings. This influence can occur at multiple levels of operation, some of which occur consciously and some of which occur non-consciously (Bechara & Damasio, 2000).

Chapter 2 is centered on the early attempts to identify the brain’s components of emotions. Key researchers that are discussed are a Cornell neuroanatomist, James Papez, and aforementioned physician and neuroscientist Paul MacLean, who worked at Yale and the National Institutes of Mental Health. Together, this pair of researchers conducted seminal medial temporal lobe lesion experiments. The resulting idea was that the emotional brain is composed of a set of interconnected structures in the core of the brain. MacLean dubbed these structures as the “limbic system”. The function of the limbic system and it relationship to emotion was widely debated by many researchers.