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REVIEW article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1518435
This article is part of the Research Topic Translational research advancements utilizing the Iowa Gambling Task in preclinical and clinical studies: 30 years of the IGT View all 4 articles

Maximising translational value of the Iowa Gambling Task in preclinical studies through the use of the rodent touchscreen

Provisionally accepted
Brian Morris Brian Morris 1*Judith Pratt Judith Pratt 2
  • 1 University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 2 University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Iowa gambling task is widely employed to assess the evaluation of risk versus reward contingencies, and how the evaluations are implemented to gain advantageous returns. The cognitive processes involved can be compromised in psychiatric conditions, leading to the development of analogous tasks with translational value for use in rodents. The rodent touchscreen apparatus maximises the degree of similarity with the human task, and in this review we provide an outline of the use of rodent touchscreen gambling tasks in preclinical studies of psychiatric conditions. In particular, we describe how the basic task has been adapted to probe the relative contributions of different neurotransmitter systems, and specific aspects of cognition. We then offer a perspective on how the task might be employed most beneficially in future studies.

    Keywords: Gambling, touchscreen, Dopamine, impulsivity, Risk-reward

    Received: 28 Oct 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Morris and Pratt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Brian Morris, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.