Targeted brain manipulation could cure depression and gambling addiction

Risk or security? With mental illnesses this choice is disturbed

Do we choose a safe or a risky procedure in an action? We weigh this decision several times a day. While risky action often promises greater benefits, it also carries more risk that the action will not achieve the desired result. A safe approach is usually associated with fewer dangers, but often with more effort or less benefits. In certain mental illnesses such as depression or impulse control disorders such as gambling addiction, this choice is manipulated. Researchers have now found a possible way to put the decisions back into balance by targeted counter-manipulation.

Neurologists from MedUni Vienna and the NYU School of Medicine have jointly discovered how to use brain activity to determine whether an individual will next perform a risky or safe action. In the animal model, the researchers were able to show that the stimulation of certain nerve cells can change this decision. The research results presented the team recently in the journal "Neuron".

What depressives have too little, gambling addicts have too much. An individual's willingness to take risks can be recognized on the basis of brain activity, according to a recent study. (Image: picture-waterfall / fotolia.com)

What do gambling addiction and depression have in common??

As the researchers report, in both depression and gambling addiction, the free choice between risky and safe behavior is disturbed. Those affected find it very difficult to change this situation themselves. Depressed individuals are prone to excessive safety needs. "Getting out of bed even in the morning becomes an often unbridgeable challenge," says study author Johannes Passecker in a press release on the study results.

Gambling addicts are prone to chronic risk taking

In the case of gambling addicts, on the other hand, it is exactly the opposite. According to Passecker, those affected remain in the same pattern of thinking and are therefore no longer able to correctly assess the possible losses and consequences of their risk-taking behavior. The timely switching to the security variant was disturbed in these people.

Course of the study

His research tested the study team on rats. In a series of experiments, the animals had a choice between a safe and a risky variant. In the safe variant, the animals in each case received a small amount of food. In the risky variant, the rodents could grab four times the amount of food or run out completely empty. These ratios were changed several times during the trials. Over time, the animals developed a strategy between risk and safety that allowed them the highest possible yield. Throughout the experiment, the brain's brain waves were recorded and analyzed.

Identify risk or safety from brain waves

Based on the neuronal activity in a certain brain region, the so-called prefrontal cortex, the researchers were able to predict whether the rat would opt for a safe or risky procedure. Each time, when the activity of the nerve cells in this brain region increased sharply, the rodents decided on the safe way. If the activity remained low, the risk variant was chosen.

How rats can be animate to more risk

In further experiments, the research team succeeded in stimulating the rodent's brain so that they chose the risky variant. To do this, they introduced artificial proteins into the rat brain, which could then be activated by a laser. When activated, these proteins suppressed the activity of the prefrontal cortex. "As a result, the rats always took full risk and ignored even persistent failure," the researchers write.

New treatment option for mental illness?

The goal of the scientists is to identify the pathways and cell types in the brain that are responsible for altering or maintaining behavior. It should also be better understood how the different brain regions collect the relevant aspects that ultimately lead to a decision. "This would make it possible in the future to better understand and treat disorders such as gambling addiction, but also depression," the brain experts conclude.

Brain research is making progress

Recently, a research team has succeeded in making thoughts readable. Neurologists decoded the brainwaves of rats and recognized the future behavior of the animals in advance. (Vb)