Negative interpersonal scenes decrease inhibitory control in healthy individuals but not in gambling disorder patients

ABSTRACT

While impaired cognitive control and decision-making are clearly related to gambling disorder (GD), it remains unclear how they are affected by interpersonal problems as contextual cues for gambling. This study tested whether these impairments in GD are specifically present following presentations of negative interpersonal scenes. Inpatients with GD (n = 49) and healthy individuals (n = 29) performed a go/no-go and an intertemporal choice task with randomly presented pictures depicting either neutral scenes or negative interpersonal scenes related to a lack of autonomy (e.g. prison scene) or appreciation (e.g. thumb downwards). The reduction of inhibitory control in the go/no-go task after negative autonomy-related compared to neutral interpersonal scenes was significantly larger in the control compared to the GD group. Within the control group, we also found a reduction of inhibitory control after negative appreciation-related compared to neutral scenes. There were no further significant between- or within- group-effects. Unexpectedly, negative interpersonal scenes decreased inhibitory control in healthy individuals but not in GD patients that may be explained post hoc by differences in stress responses or emotion regulation in reaction to the negative scenes. The effects of interpersonal problems on gambling behaviour in GD cannot directly be explained by cue-induced impairments of inhibitory control or decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Inhibition
• cognitive control
• decision-making
• delay discounting
• gambling disorder
• interpersonal problems

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr Michael Höfler for his helpful comments on statistical issues.