(Credit: Michael Kappel/Flickr) Casinos are exciting places. Glitzy facades, riotous color schemes, waitresses in skimpy outfits all combine to assault the senses. The action never stops and people often lose track of time — not to mention their money. Scientists at the University of British-Columbia, in a new study, demonstrated there's a method to the madness: They found that flashing lights and animated sounds encouraged rats to take risks in a simple gambling game. The sense-pleasing fanfare associated with striking it big at a casino, researchers say, plays a key role in convincing us to keep pressing our luck.
Using a rat-adapted model of the Iowa Gambling Task, the researchers taught rats to play a game of chance. The rats could nudge one of five buttons to receive a sugar tablet. The odds of earning an award were different for each button, but bigger wins corresponded with lower odds, just ...
