Economic Theory and Cognitive Science

The explanatory power of economic theory is tested by the phenomenon of irrational consumption, examples of which include such addictive behaviors as disordered and pathological gambling. Midbrain Mutiny examines different economic models of disordered gambling, using the frameworks of neuroeconomics (which analyzes decision making in the brain) and picoeconomics (which analyzes patterns of consumption behavior), and drawing on empirical evidence about behavior and the brain. The authors argue that pathological gambling is a true addiction and that addictive gambling is the basic form of addiction, revealing the core character of all addiction.

1 Is There Such a Thing as Addiction?
2 Gambling in Scientific Focus 19
2.1 Knowledge for Policy 19
2.2 Classifying the Phenomena 30
3 Picoeconomics, Impulsive Consumption, and Disordered Gambling 43
3.1 Behavioral Economics and Picoeconomics 43
3.2 Intertemporal Choice and Impulsivity 53
3.3 The Picoeconomics of Impulsivity 62
3.4 Extensions of PE Research to Gambling 80
3.5 Temporal Discounting Revisited 88
4 Behavioral and Psychological Investigations of Disordered Gambling 95
4.1 Models and Experiments 95
4.2 Distinguishing Delay and Probability Discounting 98
4.3 Studies of Discounting in Substance Abusers 102
4.4 Studies of Gambling 103
4.5 Other Impulsivity Constructs 106
4.6 Evidence of Cognitive Impairment 108
4.7 Situational Influences on Choice and Decision 112
5 The Neuroeconomics of Addiction 117
5.1 Four Theses about Addiction and Pathological Gambling 117
5.2 Neuroeconomics 122
5.3 The Reward System 131
5.4 The Neurochemistry of Addiction 144
6 Addictive Gambling as the Basic Form of Addiction 159
6.1 Gambling as Reward System Manipulation 159
6.2 The Neuroscience of Pathological Gambling 168
7 Clinical Evidence and Implications 179
7.1 General Considerations 179
7.2 The Pharmacological Treatment of Pathological Gambling 181
7.3 D3 Dopamine Agonists and Partial Agonists 190
7.4 The Comorbidity of PG with Other Psychiatric Disorders 192
7.5 Nonpharmacological Interventions for PG 194
7.6 Classification of Gambling Disorders Revisited 200
8 The Microexplanation of Disordered Gambling 205
8.1 Local Reduction of PG to AG philosophical Motivations and Normative Implications 205
8.2 Local Reduction of PG to AG without "Sundering" of DG 218
8.3 A PE/NE Hybrid Microexplanation of DG 230
8.4 Alternative Accounts of Consumption Impulsivity and Confounding of Molar and Molecular Scales 235
8.5 A Final Illustration 247
Notes 251
References 261
Index