Personality traits and neurophysiological correlates affect gambling behavior in Parkinson’s Disease

Background: Personality traits, such as reward sensitivity and impulsivity, and dopaminergic treatment are crucial characteristics related to the development of gambling behavior in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients [1]. Pathological Gambling (PG) manifests as a persistent gambling behavior, characterized by dysfunctional decision-making, emotional impairment and high-risk behaviors [2, 3]. Thus, the role of personality components and prefrontal cortex activity in Parkinson’s patients with or without gambling were explored with a special focus on emotional and decision processes [4]. Materials and methods: Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance and hemodynamic cortical activity, measured by functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) were recorded in PD patients, divided into three groups according to their gambling status. Sample included PD patients with active gambling behavior (Parkinson’s Disease Gamblers, PDG); PD patients who remitted from PG (Parkinson’s Disease Non- Gamblers, PDNG); and a control group composed by patients with PD only. Results: Findings highlighted that gambling behavior in Parkinson’s Disease Gamblers is strongly predictive of dysfunctional cognitive strategy; affecting anomalous cortical response with a left hemispheric unbalance in dorsal areas; and it is related to more reward sensitivity personality trait. Conclusions: Overall, Parkinson’s Disease Gamblers patients differed from Parkinson’s Disease Non-Gamblers and control group from both behavioral and brain response to decision-making, showing a pathological condition related to emotional and cognitive aspects. References 1. Brewer JA, Potenza MN. The neurobiology and genetics of impulse control disorders: Relationships to drug addictions. Biochem Pharmacol. 2008; 75:63–75. 2. Balconi M, Finocchiaro R. Decisional impairments in cocaine addiction, reward bias, and cortical oscillation “unbalance.” Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2015; 11:777–86. 3. Balconi M, Finocchiaro R, Campanella S. Reward Sensitivity, Decisional Bias, and Metacognitive Deficits in Cocaine Drug Addiction. J Addict Med. 2014; 8:399–406. 4. Balconi M, Grippa E, Vanutelli ME. What hemodynamic (fNIRS), electrophysiological (EEG) and autonomic integrated measures can tell us about emotional processing. Brain Cogn. 2015; 95:67–76.