Principal Investigator: Clayton Neighbors, PhD, University of Houston
Awarded $233,570 in 2014
Aim: Evaluate the efficacy of the first-ever online screen/brief intervention for gambling among college and university students, hosted by the NCRG’s website, CollegeGambling.org, in a nationwide sample.
Principal Investigator: Martin Zack, PhD, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Awarded $101,200 in 2014
Aim: Develop an animal model that accurately reflects the brain and behavioral profile of disordered gambling in order to test medications to treat the specific needs of people with a gambling disorder.
Principal Investigator: Sherry H. Stewart, PhD, Dalhousie University
Awarded $172,500 in 2014
Aim: Understand the implicit thought patterns that could play a role in the development of a gambling disorder, by exploring whether or not disordered gamblers have an “approach bias” (i.e. the automatic tendency to approach or conduct a risky-behavior rather than avoid it).
Principal Investigator: Donald R. Lynam, PhD, Purdue University
Awarded $172,037 in 2014
Aim: Develop a model to understand the intersecting factors of affect and impulse control traits on the development of a gambling disorder in order to allow for tailored interventions for disordered gamblers.
Principal Investigator: Michael J.A. Wohl, PhD, Carleton University
Awarded $27,772 in 2014
Aim: Determine what factors influence a person’s readiness to change behavior and receive help for a gambling disorder.
Principal Investigator: Debi A. LaPlante, PhD, Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance
Awarded $34,447 in 2014
Aim: Better understand risk and resilience factors among Native American youth who will be assessed at regular community events, in partnership with the Healing Lodge of Seven Nations.
Principal Investigator: Jamie Donahey Roitman, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
Awarded $34,500 in 2014
Aim: Devise an animal model of disordered gambling to understand the extent to which risky decision-making processes are innate or altered by experience; how different patterns of neural activity drive behavior toward risk-seeking or avoidance; and how therapeutic methods can alter neural activity to reduce disordered gambling behavior.
Principal Investigator: Damien Brevers, PhD, University of Southern California
Awarded $169,861 in 2014
Aim: Understand the interactions between inhibition control, impulsivity and craving processes in addiction at a behavioral and neurobiological level.
Brevers, D., Noël, X., He, Q., Melrose, J. A., & Bechara, A. (2015). Increased ventral-striatal activity during monetary decision making is a marker of problem poker gambling severity. Addiction Biology. http://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12239
Principal Investigator: Shaun Patel, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Awarded $1,500 in 2014
The Travel Grant supported Dr. Patel’s participation in the poster session at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, where he presented on a study of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation while engaged in a financial decision-making task.
Principal Investigator: Amanda Persons, PhD, Rush University Medical Center
Awarded $1,294 in 2014
The Travel Grant supported Dr. Person’s participation in the poster session at the 2014 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Her study tested the impact of a serotonergic medication on decision making, using a novel rat model of cost/benefit decision making.
