@article{ref1,
title="Doubling down: increased risk-taking behavior following a loss by individuals with cocaine use disorder is associated with striatal and anterior cingulate dysfunction",
journal="Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging",
year="2017",
author="Gowin, Joshua L. and May, April C. and Wittmann, Marc and Tapert, Susan F. and Paulus, Martin P.",
volume="2",
number="1",
pages="94-103",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Cocaine use disorders (CUDs) have been associated with increased risk-taking behavior. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that altered activity in reward and decision-making circuitry may underlie cocaine user's heightened risk-taking. It remains unclear if this behavior is driven by greater reward salience, lack of appreciation of danger, or another deficit in risk-related processing. <br><br>METHODS: Twenty-nine CUD participants and forty healthy comparison participants completed the Risky Gains Task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. During the Risky Gains Task, participants choose between a safe option for a small, guaranteed monetary reward and risky options with larger rewards but also the chance to lose money. Frequency of risky choice overall and following a win versus a loss were compared. Neural activity during the decision and outcome phase were examined using linear mixed effects models. <br><br>RESULTS: Although the groups did not differ in overall risk-taking frequency, the CUD group chose a risky option more often following a loss. Neuroimaging analyses revealed that the comparison group showed increasing activity in the bilateral ventral striatum as they chose higher-value, risky options, but the CUD group failed to show this increase. During the outcome phase, the CUD group showed a greater decrease in bilateral striatal activity relative to the comparison group when losing the large amount, and this response was correlated with risk-taking frequency after a loss. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The brains of CUD individuals are hypersensitive to losses, leading to increased risk-taking behaviors, and this may help explain why these individuals take drugs despite aversive outcomes.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2451-9030",
doi="10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.02.002",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.02.002"
}