Abstract: Drug addicts and pathological gamblers usually prefer immediate reward and ignore the future consequences. They are inclined to choose the bad options those bring immediate gains but long-term losses, which implies a kind of decision-making deficits. The Delay Discounting Task (DDT), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT) are mainly three typical research paradigms and methods on decision -making deficits including impulsivity, myopia and risk-taking in addicts. Studies in recent years have demonstrated that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays an important role in human decision-making, such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Future directions in this area are introduced and anticipated.

Key words: addiction, decision-making deficit, delay discounting, gambling task, PFC