Recent work has begun to consider this heterogeneity in pathological gambling more explicitly. Common gambling games differ on a multitude of psychological parameters that are known to influence rates of responding in animal behavior (e.g., delay between gambling response and its outcome), and contrasting motivational influences have also been described in problem gamblers; some gamblers emphasize the hedonic thrill and physiological arousal induced by gambling, while others describe an alleviation of low mood and distraction from stressors (i.e., negative reinforcement model). Within Blazszcynski and Nower’s (2002) influential Pathways Model of pathological gambling, executive dysfunction provides one source of heterogeneity. The model describes a subgroup of pathological gamblers with “antisocial impulsive” tendencies, characterized by premorbid ADHD or antisocial personality disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), coupled with neuropsychological evidence of dysexecutive syndrome. It is likely that assays of action cancellation problems (or response inhibition), such as measured by the Stop-Signal, are aligned with this executive dysfunction.
