Why Quitting Gambling Is Hard: Scientists Find Brain Changes

A study by the University of Turku in Finland has found that gambling addiction is associated with changes in brain regions responsible for reward processing and behavioral control. The researchers concluded that difficulties in quitting gambling are linked not only to habits, but also to how the brain functions.

The first phase of the study involved 15 people with gambling addiction and 17 participants without the disorder. Using brain-scanning techniques, researchers monitored neural activity during the experiment.

The results showed that in healthy participants there is a balance between the brain’s reward center and areas responsible for self-control, with activity in one region restraining the other. In individuals with gambling addiction, this balance was disrupted, as the regions no longer effectively regulated each other.

Participants were then shown video clips depicting gambling activities as well as neutral scenes from everyday life. Among those with gambling addiction, exposure to gambling content triggered a sharp increase in activity in a brain region linked to habit formation. This response was driven by the opioid system, which is associated with pleasure and the motivation to repeat rewarding experiences.

In the second phase of the study, researchers examined older participants with an average age of 64. Individuals with gambling addiction were found to have lower volumes of grey matter—brain tissue containing nerve cells—in areas involved in decision-making and information processing.

Changes were also identified in white matter, which forms the network of connections between different parts of the brain. In one key region, participants with gambling addiction showed a higher number of micro-lesions, with their prevalence correlating with the severity of the disorder.

The authors noted that the study was based on a limited sample and does not determine whether the observed brain changes predated the onset of gambling or developed as a consequence of it.

The researchers plan to continue the work to track these processes over time.

Earlier, Gambling Park reported that study finds signs of gambling addiction in AI models.