Project Details
Projekt
RP3: Shift from reward-driven to compulsive behaviors: The role of reduced punishment sensitivity in gaming disorder and pornography use disorder
Applicants
Dr. Stephanie Antons; Professor Dr. Rudolf Maria Stark
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
Term
since 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411232260
Gaming disorder (GD) and pornography use disorder (PUD) are both characterized by continued engagement in the specific behavior despite experiencing negative consequences. While most current addiction theories focus on reinforcement learning in addiction development, punishment sensitivity has so far been neglected. Punishment sensitivity describes the adaptive suppression of a behavior in response to negative consequences. It is a personal characteristic that differs markedly among the general population but might also change during the course of disorders such as addictive behaviors. As an innovative approach, we aim to assess behavioral and neural correlates of punishment sensitivity in individuals at different stages of GD and PUD as well as healthy control participants. We expect punishment sensitivity to be reduced in individuals with pathological symptoms of GD and PUD, and aim to identify whether this effect is specific to negative consequences resulting from the addictive behavior and whether the type of consequences (positive/negative punishment, gratification/compensation) and the temporal contingency (short- or long-term consequences) affect punishment sensitivity in the natural environment. Six groups of male participants will be examined during fMRI: participants with unproblematic, risky, and pathological use of games, and participants with unproblematic, risky, and pathological use of pornography (N=162, 27 per group). We will use a modified version of the well-studied Reward Incentive Delay Task by combining the reward delivery (gaming-related, pornography-related, or neutral video clips) in some trials with aversive events. The experimental design allows the degree of general and addictive behavior-specific punishment sensitivity to be identified based on behavioral and neural measures. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), we will examine types and temporal contingency of positive and negative consequences resulting from the addictive behavior in daily life and how these consequences affect the urge for and engagement in the addictive behavior. We will investigate the relationship between experimentally measured punishment sensitivity and punishment sensitivity in daily life by combining neuroimaging and EMA assessments with new statistical methods such as connectome-based predictive modeling. RP3’s research focus is on punishment sensitivity as one factor explaining the shift from reward-driven to compulsive behavior in GD and PUD. Thus, it is strongly linked to RP4, RP2, and RP10 due to their foci on cue reactivity (RP4, RP10) and cue devaluation (RP2, RP4), and the use of fMRI (RP4, RP10). Further synergistic effects are expected with RP5 and RP11.
DFG Programme
Research Units
