Pathological gambling (PG), a behavioral addiction resembling substance abuse disorder can be modeled in laboratory rats using slot machine task (rSMT). Animals that respond to the cues suggesting, but not warranting food reward (‘near miss’ responses) can be classified as ‘gamblers’. This pathological response apparently persists in some animals and could be viewed as a behavioral trait. The correct response in this task involves a number of cognitive processes, including cognitive flexibility, i.e., an ability to adapt to the changing rules. This phenomenon may be assessed in rodents in the attentional set shifting task (ASST). We investigated whether ‘gamblers’ differed from ‘non-gamblers’ in cognitive flexibility. Animals were trained in rSMT by responding to a series of three flashing lights. A winning trial was signaled when all three lights were illuminated. At the end of each trial, rat chose between responding on the ‚collect‘ lever (that on the ‘win’ trials resulted in reward delivery, and on the ‘loose’ trials in a time penalty), or responding on the ‘roll’ lever that initiated the next trial. Then, the ‘gamblers’ and ‘non-gamblers’ were tested in the ASST. Animals exhibiting a ‘gambling’ trait required more trials to reach criterion at the Reversal and Extra Dimensional (ED) phases of ASST, that require animals to switch their attention to previously irrelevant stimulus exemplars or stimulus dimension, respectively. These results suggest that impairment of cognitive flexibility may play an important role in pathological gambling phenomenon. Supported by the grant NR 72/H/E/13 from the Ministry of Health
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