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Testing the Interplay of Gambling, Emotion and Reward

NCT06122298 · Status: RECRUITING · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 120

Last updated 2025-07-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Background The nature and direction of dysfunctional reward processing in gambling disorder remains unclear. We aim to test a novel neurobiological model of gambling addiction, that takes into account inter-individual differences, as well as the multifactorial nature of gaming addiction.

Objectives

Primary objective:

This project will test the hypothesis that there are two opposite brain phenotypes that characterize two distinct subpopulations of gamblers, so-called impulsive vs. emotional, respectively.

Secondary objective:

This project will also seek to determine whether the brain phenotypes proposed above are capable of predicting gambling behavior outside the laboratory.

Study design The primary objective will be tested using a reward task and a facial emotion recognition task performed by participants in an fMRI scanner.

The secondary objective will be tested by combining fMRI measures with behavioral measures from everyday life collected via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA).

Study population This study will focus on individuals with gambling problems, as well healthy subjects with no gambling problems and no psychiatric comorbidities.

Outcomes/Endpoints

Primary endpoint:

We will compare striatum and amygdala reactivity between the three groups of impulsive gamblers, emotional gamblers and healthy subjects.

Secondary endpoint:

We will assess the correlation between emotional states and gambling behavior in everyday life, based on striatum and amygdala reactivity, using multiple linear regression models.

Conditions

  • Gambling Addiction

Interventions

OTHER

fMRI

A brain imaging technique that measures in vivo the activity of brain areas by detecting local changes in blood flow.

OTHER

Ecological Momentary Assessment

studies people's thoughts and behaviour in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual's normal environment, at or close to the time they carry out that behaviour

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

    collaborator OTHER_GOV

  • Hôpital le Vinatier

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Guillaume SESCOUSSE, PHD · CH Le Vinatier

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-03-27
Primary Completion
2027-05-20
Completion
2028-05-20

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06122298 on ClinicalTrials.gov