Abstract

Background: Gambling urges in pathological gambling (PG) often immediately precede engagement in selfdestructive gambling behavior.An improved understanding of the neural correlates of gambling urges in PG would advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying PG and would help direct research into effective treatments.Methods: Echoplanar functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess brain function during viewing of videotaped scenarios with gambling, happy, or sad content.Participants rated the quality and magnitude of their emotional and motivational responses.Results: Men with PG (n=10) reported mean±SD greater gambling urges after viewing gambling scenarios vs control subjects (n = 11) (5.20 ± 3.43 vs 0.32 ± 0.60; 2 1,19 =21.71;PϽ.001).The groups did not differ significantly in their subjective responses to the happy (P=.56) or sad (P = .81)videotapes.The most pronounced between-group differences in neural activities were observed during the initial period of viewing of the gam-