Relying on findings from the burgeoning area of Neuroeconomics, Midbrain Mutiny makes the case that the neural basis of addiction's core is in sight. It is so convincing, in large part, because it simultaneously illuminates the very behavioral findings that have led others to doubt the feasibility of such a reduction. This is sure-footed pragmatism and, indeed, scientific unification at its most thrilling!
John Monterosso, University of California, Los Angeles
In this bold synthesis of contemporary research and theory bringing together advances in behavioral- and neuro- economics, Ross and colleagues provide a novel understanding of addiction and apply it to the growing international challenge of pathological gambling. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the science of addiction and addictive gambling and I predict will soon become the standard work for understanding the neuroscientific basis of gambling disorders.
Warren K. Bickel, Mills Chair of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention, and Director, Center for Addiction Research, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Midbrain Mutiny gathers together all current, significant research and theory on the psychology and neurology and economics of gambling. In this truly excellent book the authors organize that material, reconcile apparent differences, and make the compelling argument that we are on the verge of a significant breakthrough in treatment of disordered gambling.
Howard Rachlin, Psychology Department, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Researchers who want to study impulsive or irrational behavior are well advised to study gambling. It shares with substance addictions a concrete consumption pattern and physiological adaptation, and shares with purely emotional impulses the absence of an ingested agent and an allure for people of all levels of sophistication. Midbrain Mutiny integrates a wide range of research findings on impulsive motivation in general, and on gambling in particular, to develop a parsimonious model of disordered gambling that can also illuminate many other problem behaviors. The result is a superb platform on which neurophysiologists, imaging researchers, psychologists, economists, and philosophers of mind will be able to meet and connect their findings.
George Ainslie, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Temple Medical College
