They call it the “rat casino,” but in this case, it's not a rundown gambling parlor in Atlantic City or some blighted corner of downtown Las Vegas.
It's a perfectly respectable laboratory in the psychology department at Miami University in Ohio. The researchers there are working to develop a drug to treat gambling addiction. But how, exactly, do you get rats to simulate the behavior of a desperate gambler pushing the button over and over again on a slot machine?
A team of psychologists led by Dr. Matthew McMurray has installed flashing lights and casino sounds just to give it a little ambience. The “gambling” rats are given two options: They can paw a lever and receive one sugary treat every time or they can touch another lever and receive three, but only some of the time. Researchers even modify the probability of the risky reward, just like some slot machines have better odds than others.
The healthy rodents get pretty good at making the optimal choices, but the stressed-out rats – those who had been put through a 15-day “stress paradigm” in which they are subjected to unpleasant experiences meant to mirror the stressors of human life – take the riskier option far more regularly.