Affective differences in Iowa Gambling Task performance associated with sexual risk taking and substance use among HIV-positive and HIV-negative men who have sex with men

We investigated the relationship between emotional distress and decision making in sexual risk and substance use behavior among 174 (ages 25 to 50 years, 53% black) men who have sex with men (MSM), a population at increased risk for HIV. The sample was stratified by HIV status. Measures of affective decision making, depression, anxiety, sex acts, and substance use during the past 60 days were collected at our research center. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine the relationship between age, HIV status, anxiety, depression, and IGT performance in the prediction of number of risky sex acts and substance use days. Among those without anxiety or depression, both number of risky sex acts and drug use days decreased with better performance during risky trials (i.e., last two blocks) of the IGT. For those with higher rates of anxiety, but not depression, IGT risk trial performance and risky sex acts increased concomitantly. Anxiety also interacted with IGT performance across all trials to predict substance use, such that anxiety was associated with greater substance use among those with better IGT performance. The opposite was true for those with depression, but only during risk trials. HIV-positive participants reported fewer substance use days than HIV-negative participants, but there was no difference in association between behavior and IGT performance by HIV status. Our findings suggest that anxiety may exacerbate risk-taking behavior when affective decision-making ability is intact. The relationship between affective decision making and risk taking may be sensitive to different profiles of emotional distress, as well as behavioral context. Investigations of affective decision making in sexual risk taking and substance use should examine different distress profiles separately, with implications for HIV prevention efforts.     

Future-oriented decision-making in Generalized Anxiety Disorder is evident across different versions of the Iowa Gambling Task

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and excessive worrying are characterized by a preoccupation with the future. Thus, enhanced identification of potential future punishments or omissions of reward may be related to the disorder. To test this hypothesis, n = 47 students meeting GAD criteria according to the GADQ-IV (GAD analogues) or not (control participants) performed the Iowa Gambling Task, which has been related to sensitivity to future consequences. In order to disentangle sensitivity to future loss and sensitivity to high short-term loss magnitudes, which could also lead to enhanced Iowa Gambling Task performance, participants also performed a modified version of the task with reversed contingencies. In both versions, GAD analogues learned to avoid decisions with high probability of long-term loss significantly faster than control participants. Results, therefore, indicate that GAD is characterized by enhanced processing of potential future losses rather than sensitivity to large short-term loss.     

Iowa Gambling Task scores predict future drug use in bipolar disorder outpatients with stimulant dependence

Poor decision-making is associated with poor recovery in persons with bipolar disorder and drug relapse in persons with stimulant dependence. Cognitive predictors of stimulant use in those with comorbid bipolar and stimulant dependence are surprisingly absent. Our goal was to determine if a single baseline assessment of decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) would predict future drug use in bipolar disorder outpatients with comorbid stimulant dependence. Ninety-four men and women of multiple race/ethnic origins consented to participate in a 20-week study. Data analyses were performed on 63 comorbid bipolar outpatients completing at least four study weeks and 28 cocaine dependent volunteers without a mood disorder who participated as cocaine controls. There were no significant differences in IGT scores between comorbid patients and cocaine controls. In the comorbid group, IGT scores significantly predicted future drug use during the study. Age, sex, race, years of mental illness, or mood state did not significantly influence IGT scores. This is the first longitudinal study to show that IGT scores obtained at a single baseline assessment predicts future objective drug use in comorbid bipolar disorder outpatients with cocaine or methamphetamine dependence. Evaluating decision-making with the IGT may provide clinicians with valuable insight about the trajectory of their patients' risk for future drug use. These data suggest a need to augment existing treatment with cognitive restructuring to prevent slips and relapses in comorbid bipolar patients. The lack of a bipolar control group and a modest sample size may limit data interpretations.     

Iowa Gambling Task Impairment Is Not Specific To Ventromedial Prefrontal Lesions

Prior research suggests that the Iowa Gambling task is performed poorly by individuals with lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). The current study investigated whether impaired performance in individuals with frontal lobe damage is determined by the existence of VMPFC lesions. A total of 14 participants with VMPFC lesions and 6 participants with frontal lesions not involving the VMPFC region were compared. Both the VMPFC and non-VMPFC groups made significantly more disadvantageous card selections than healthy comparison participants. While these findings suggest that frontal lesions impair Iowa Gambling task performance, they do not support the claim of a specific association between Iowa Gambling task impairment and VMPFC lesions.     

Integrating frequency and magnitude information in decision-making in schizophrenia: An account of patient performance on the Iowa Gambling Task

BackgroundThe Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara et al., 1994) has frequently been used to assess risky decision making in clinical populations, including patients with schizophrenia (SZ). Poor performance on the IGT is often attributed to reduced sensitivity to punishment, which contrasts with recent findings from reinforcement learning studies in schizophrenia.MethodsIn order to investigate possible sources of IGT performance deficits in SZ patients, we combined data from the IGT from 59 SZ patients and 43 demographically-matched controls with data from the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) in the same participants. Our analyses sought to specifically uncover the role of punishment sensitivity and delineate the capacity to integrate frequency and magnitude information in decision-making under risk.ResultsAlthough SZ patients, on average, made more choices from disadvantageous decks than controls did on the IGT, they avoided decks with frequent punishments at a rate similar to controls. Patients also exhibited excessive loss-avoidance behavior on the BART.ConclusionsWe argue that, rather than stemming from reduced sensitivity to negative consequences, performance deficits on the IGT in SZ patients are more likely the result of a reinforcement learning deficit, specifically involving the integration of frequencies and magnitudes of rewards and punishments in the trial-by-trial estimation of expected value.     

Cognitive correlates of under-ambiguity and under-risk decision making in high-functioning patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Introduction: Impairment of decision making in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis is still controversial, and its neuropsychological correlates have never been explored thoroughly, especially in patients with minimal physical and cognitive deficits. In the present study we investigated the cognitive underpinnings of decision making under ambiguous and explicit conditions in patients with very mild relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, using a dice and a card gambling game. Method: The study sample included 60 patients and 35 healthy subjects. In the Game of Dice Task, winning and losing probabilities are obvious to the subject, while in the Iowa Gambling Task they are initially ambiguous and have to be gradually identified. Performance at the two tasks was correlated with scores obtained at tests investigating cognitive processing speed, memory, language and executive functions. Results: Patients’ performance did not differ from that of controls at either gambling task. There was only a trend for them to be significantly slower than healthy subjects in progressively recognizing advantageous decks in the Iowa Gambling Task. While the Game of Dice was unrelated to neuropsychological tests, predictors of performance at the Iowa task were Letter Fluency and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test for the initial, under-ambiguity, trials and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test for the last, purely under-risk, trials. Conclusions: Our results suggest that high-functioning patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis are substantially capable of making advantageous decisions, even if they may be slower in processing options and shifting strategy when selection criteria are not explicit.     

The Iowa Gambling Task in fMRI images

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a sensitive test for the detection of decision‐making impairments in several neurological and psychiatric populations. Very few studies have employed the IGT in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations, in part, because the task is cognitively complex. Here we report a method for exploring brain activity using fMRI during performance of the IGT. Decision‐making during the IGT was associated with activity in several brain regions in a group of healthy individuals. The activated regions were consistent with the neural circuitry hypothesized to underlie somatic marker activation and decision‐making. Specifically, a neural circuitry involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (for working memory), the insula and posterior cingulate cortex (for representations of emotional states), the mesial orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (for coupling the two previous processes), the ventral striatum and anterior cingulate/SMA (supplementary motor area) for implementing behavioral decisions was engaged. These results have implications for using the IGT to study abnormal mechanisms of decision making in a variety of clinical populations. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Intolerance of uncertainty as a mediator of reductions in worry in a cognitive behavioral treatment program for generalized anxiety disorder

Growing evidence suggests that intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a cognitive vulnerability that is a central feature across diverse anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to reduce IU, it remains to be established whether or not reductions in IU mediate reductions in worry. This study examined the process of change in IU and worry in a sample of 28 individuals with GAD who completed CBT. Changes in IU and worry, assessed bi-weekly during treatment, were analyzed using multilevel mediation models. Results revealed that change in IU mediated change in worry (ab = −0.20; 95% CI [−.35, −.09]), but change in worry did not mediate change in IU (ab = −0.16; 95% CI [−.06, .12]). Findings indicated that reductions in IU accounted for 59% of the reductions in worry observed over the course of treatment, suggesting that changes in IU are not simply concomitants of changes in worry. Findings support the idea that IU is a critical construct underlying GAD.     

Cognitive and emotional processing associated with the Season of Birth and dopamine D4 receptor gene

The 7-repeats variant of the dopamine D4 receptor (7R) VNTR polymorphism has been associated with higher novelty seeking (NS) and disadvantageous decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Season of Birth (SOB) is a significant determinant of NS. SOB and L-DRD4 genetic polymorphism may independently and interactively influence similar behaviors through their common effects on the dopaminergic system. Two hundred and twenty-seven healthy males grouped in summer-born/4-repeats (4R) (n = 75), winter-born/4R (n = 90), summer-born/7R (n = 31) and winter-born/7R (n = 31) groups, completed multimodal assessment for personality, planning for problem solving and decision making. Winter-born/7R subjects had significantly worse IGT performance throughout the task compared to 4R individuals, while summer-born 7R subjects had intermediate, although not significantly different performance. Moreover, winter-born/7R subjects had increased behavioral approach to reward without parallel reduction in sensitivity to fear or to social approval cues. The DRD4-by-SOB groups did not differ in planning for problem solving. These results suggest that a DRD4-by-SOB interaction is associated with increased behavioral approach to reward and risk taking but efficient problem solving. In addition, these results further support the hypothesis that SOB modifies the behavioral expression of dopaminergic genetic polymorphism. SOB should be included in future studies of risky behaviors and behavioral genetic studies of the dopamine system.     

The prospective influence of COVID-19 affective risk assessments and intolerance of uncertainty on later dimensions of health anxiety

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to increase risk for the development of health anxiety. Given that elevated health anxiety can contribute to maladaptive health behaviors, there is a need to identify individual difference factors that may increase health anxiety risk. This study examined the unique and interactive relations of COVID-19 affective risk assessments (worry about risk for contracting/dying from COVID-19) and intolerance of uncertainty to later health anxiety dimensions. A U.S. community sample of 364 participants completed online self-report measures at a baseline assessment (Time 1) and one month later (Time 2). Time 1 intolerance of uncertainty was uniquely associated with the Time 2 health anxiety dimension of body vigilance. Time 1 affective risk assessments and intolerance of uncertainty were uniquely associated with later perceived likelihood that an illness would be acquired and anticipated negative consequences of an illness. The latter finding was qualified by a significant interaction, such that affective risk assessments were positively associated with anticipated negative consequences of having an illness only among participants with mean and low levels of intolerance of uncertainty. Results speak to the relevance of different risk factors for health anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight targets for reducing health anxiety risk.