Age differences in neural activity during slot machine gambling : an fMRI study

Anna C. McCarrey, Julie D. Henry, William von Hippel, Gabrielle Weidemann, Perminder S. Sachdev, Michael J. A. Wohl, Mark Williams

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study aimed to assess the potential association between age-related prefrontal brain changes and slot machine gambling, an activity that has become increasingly popular among older adults. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess healthy older and younger adults whilst playing a slot machine. Results revealed that the older group over-recruited several bilateral and contralateral brain structures relative to the younger group. Specifically, older adults exhibited increased neural activation in the superior prefrontal cortex and left orbitofrontal cortex, indicating greater reliance on these structures. These results suggest a compensatory mechanism, by which older adults recruit a greater number of neural networks from both hemispheres to complete the same gambling task as their younger peers. The broader implications of these findings are discussed in relation to theories of neurocognitive and degenerative change that occurs in late adulthood.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere49787
    Pages (from-to)1-6
    Number of pages6
    JournalPLoS One
    Volume7
    Issue number11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Open Access - Access Right Statement

    Copyright: 2012 McCarrey et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

    Keywords

    • aging
    • brain
    • cognition
    • fMRI
    • functional magnetic resonance imaging
    • gambling
    • prefrontal cortex
    • slot machines

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