Gender-related functional connectivity and craving during gaming and immediate abstinence during a mandatory break: Implications for development and progression of internet gaming disorder

Neural responses to gaming content on social media in young adults

Excessive gaming can impair both mental and physical health, drawing widespread public and clinical attention, especially among young generations. People are now more exposed to gaming-related content on social media than before, and this exposure may have a significant impact on their behavior. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unexplored. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study aimed to investigate the neural activity induced by gaming-related content on social media among young adults casually playing online games. While being assessed by fMRI, the participants watched gaming-related videos and neutral (nongaming) videos on social media. The gaming-related cues significantly activated several brain areas, including the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, superior/middle temporal gyrus, precuneus and occipital regions, compared with the neutral cues. Additionally, the participants' gaming desire levels positively correlated with a gaming-related cue-induced activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus. These findings extend previous studies on gaming cues and provide useful information to elucidate the effects of gaming-related content on social media in young adults. Continued research using real-world gaming cues may help improve our understanding of promoting gaming habits and provide support to individuals vulnerable to gaming addiction.

Sex differences of neural connectivity in internet gaming disorder and its association with sleep quality: an exploratory fMRI study

Objectives

Sex-specific differences in internet gaming disorder (IGD) neurophysiology remain underexplored. Here we investigated sex-related variability in regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) in IGD and their correlations with sleep quality.

Methods

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were performed on 52 subjects with IGD and 50 healthy controls (HCs). Two-way ANOVA was used to examine sex and diagnosis interactions in ReHo and FC, followed by post-hoc analyses to explore FC biomarkers for different sexes.

Results

In ReHo analysis, the four groups showed significant sex and diagnosis interactions in the right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG). FC analysis with rMFG as the seed region revealed a significant sex and diagnosis interaction effect in FC of the rMFG with the bilateral postcentral gyrus (PoCG). In male IGD group, FC between the rMFG and the bilateral PoCG correlates strongly with daytime dysfunction score and the Pittsburgh sleep quality inventory (PSQI) total score.

Conclusion

These findings emphasize the importance of considering sexual dimorphism in the neurobiology of IGD, which might influence subsequent treatment strategies.

From classrooms to controllers: how school closures shaped children's video gaming habits

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19-related school closures on screen time and video gaming habits among governmental school students in Qatar and explore the prevalence of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) within this context.

METHODS

A cross-sectional approach was employed, spanning two months from June to August 2022. A random sample of students aged 8-15 years was drawn from the national electronic health record system of Qatar. Telephone interviews with parents were conducted to collect data. The Parental Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (PIGDS) was used for IGD assessment.

RESULTS

Of 428 parents, 257 (60%) confirmed their child's engagement in video gaming during school closures. Participants averaged 11 years in age with 92 (35.8%) females and 165 (64.2%) males. Nationality included 62.6% expatriates and 37.4% Qatari locals. Average weekly screen time increased significantly from 19.7 ± 10.1 h to 31.9 ± 12.6 h during closure (p < 0.001). Video gaming time rose from 8.6 ± 8.6 h to 13.0 ± 12.4 h per week (p < 0.001). The prevalence of IGD was 8.6% (95% CI 5.4-12.7). Male students, expatriates, and those reporting increased video gaming time were more likely to develop IGD than their female and local counterparts.

CONCLUSION

The observed associations between video gaming increase and IGD highlight the need for focused interventions to address potential risks and promote healthier digital habits among this population.

Explicit and implicit effects of gaming content on social media on the behavior of young adults

Excessive gameplay can have negative effects on both mental and physical health, especially among young people. Nowadays, social media platforms are bombarding users with gaming-related content daily. Understanding the effect of this content on people's behavior is essential to gain insight into problematic gaming habits. However, this issue is yet to be studied extensively. In this study, we examined how gaming-related content on social media affects young adults explicitly and implicitly. We studied 25 healthy young adults (average age 21.5 ± 2.2) who played online games casually and asked them to report their gaming desire. We also conducted an implicit association test (IAT) to measure their implicit attitudes toward gaming-related content. We also investigated the relationship between these measures and various psychological factors, such as personality traits, self-efficacy, impulsiveness, and cognitive flexibility. The results revealed that participants had a higher explicit gaming desire when exposed to gaming-related cues on social media than neutral cues. They also had a robust positive implicit attitude toward gaming-related content on social media. Explicit gaming desire was positively correlated with neuroticism levels. Furthermore, the IAT effect was negatively correlated with self-efficacy and cognitive flexibility levels. However, there were no significant correlations between explicit gaming desire/IAT effect and impulsiveness levels. These findings suggest that gaming-related content on social media can affect young adults' behavior both explicitly and implicitly, highlighting the need for further research to prevent gaming addiction in vulnerable individuals.

The role of the cerebellum in internet gaming disorder-A systematic review

Recent studies increasingly highlight involvement of the cerebellum in drug craving and addiction. However, its exact role, that is, whether the cerebellum is a critical component of a brain network underlying addictive behaviour, or whether it rather is a facilitator or mediator, is still unclear. Findings concerning the newly recognized internet gaming disorder (IGD) suggest that changes in cerebellar connectivity and functioning are associated with behavioural/non-substance addiction. Here, we systematically review the literature on IGD and cerebellar involvement following the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 13 neuroimaging studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies utilized a broad range of diagnostic instruments and resulting cut-off criteria, rendering it difficult to compare findings. Results on altered cerebro-cerebellar connectivity in patients with IGD are mixed; most studies report altered or increased functional connectivity. Moreover, decreased cerebellar grey matter volume is reported. Studies have further indicated that differential activation patterns in the cerebellum may enable discrimination between healthy subjects and subjects with IGD, even allowing for prediction of treatment outcomes. Given the strong connectivity between the cerebellum and cerebral regions, the cerebellum may act as an intermediary between regions involved in craving and addiction and consequently affect symptoms of IGD. Results suggest differential involvement of the cerebellar lobes, emphasizing a need for high-resolution parcellation of the cerebellum in future studies. However, the studies included in the present review have small sample sizes and include mostly male participants. Thus, results may have limited generalizability yet highlight a crucial role of the cerebellum in IGD that needs further investigation.

Gender difference in network relationship between inter-temporal decisions and prefrontal activation levels in internet gaming disorder

Background

Impulsivity and decision-making are key factors in addiction. However, little is known about how gender and time sensitivity affect impulsivity in internet gaming disorder (IGD).

Objective

To investigate the gender difference of impulsive decision-making and relevant brain responses in IGD.

Methods

We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study with 123 participants, including 59 IGD individuals (26 females) and 64 matched recreational game users (RGUs, 23 females). Participants performed a delay-discounting task during fMRI scanning. We examined gender-by-group effects on behavioral and neural measures to explore the preference for immediate over delayed rewards and the associated brain activity. We also investigated the network correlations between addiction severity and behavioral and neural measures, and analyzed the mediating role of brain activity in the link between delay discounting parameters and IGD severity.

Results

We found significant gender-by-group interactions. The imaging results revealed gender-by-group interactions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial frontal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Post hoc analysis indicated that, for females, RGUs showed higher activity than IGD individuals in these brain regions, while for males IGD individuals exhibited higher activity than RGUs. The activation in the left IFG mediated the relation between Internet Addiction Test score and discount rate in females. In males, the activation in the right dlPFC mediated the relation between IAT score and time sensitivity.

Discussion

Our findings imply that male IGD participants demonstrate impaired intertemporal decisions associated with neural dysfunction. Influencing factors for impulsive decision-making in IGD diverge between males (time sensitivity) and females (discount rate). These findings augment our comprehension of the neural underpinnings of gender differences in IGD and bear significant implications for devising effective intervention strategies for treating people with IGD.

Disrupted dynamic network reconfiguration of the executive and reward networks in internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Studies have shown that people with internet gaming disorder (IGD) exhibit impaired executive control of gaming cravings; however, the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain unknown. In addition, these conclusions were based on the hypothesis that brain networks are temporally static, neglecting dynamic changes in cognitive processes.

METHODS

Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 402 subjects [162 subjects with IGD and 240 recreational game users (RGUs)]. The community structure (recruitment and integration) of the executive control network (ECN) and the basal ganglia network (BGN), which represents the reward network, of patients with IGD and RGUs were compared. Mediation effects among the different networks were analyzed.

RESULTS

Compared to RGUs, subjects with IGD had a lower recruitment coefficient within the right ECN. Further analysis showed that only male subjects had a lower recruitment coefficient. Mediation analysis showed that the integration coefficient of the right ECN mediated the relationship between the recruitment coefficients of both the right ECN and the BGN in RGUs.

CONCLUSIONS

Male subjects with IGD had a lower recruitment coefficient than RGUs, which impairing their impulse control. The mediation results suggest that top-down executive control of the ECN is absent in subjects with IGD. Together, these findings could explain why subjects with IGD exhibit impaired executive control of gaming cravings; these results have important therapeutic implications for developing effective interventions for IGD.

Cue-reactivity to distal cues in individuals at risk for gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Gaming disorder (GD) is a disorder due to addictive behaviors (ICD-11). Cue-reactivity and craving are relevant mechanisms in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. When confronted with cues showing in-game content (proximal cues) individuals with higher symptom severity show increased cue-reactivity. Based on conditioning and addiction theories on incentive sensitization, cue-reactivity responses may generalize to more distal cues, e.g. when individuals at risk of developing a GD are confronted with a starting page of an online game. In cue-reactivity paradigms so far, only proximal gaming cues have been used.

METHODS

We investigated the effect of distal gaming cues compared to gaming-unrelated control cues on cue-reactivity and craving in 88 individuals with non-problematic use of online games (nPGU) and 69 individuals at risk for GD (rGD). The distal cues showed the use of an electronic device (e.g., desktop PC or smartphone) whose screen showed starting pages of either games (target cues), shopping- or pornography sites (control cues) from a first-person perspective.

FINDINGS

We found significantly higher urge and arousal ratings as well as longer viewing times for gaming-related compared to gaming-unrelated control cues in rGD compared to nPGU. Valence ratings did not differ between groups.

INTERPRETATION

The results demonstrate that already distal gaming-specific cues lead to cue-reactivity and craving in rGD. This finding indicates that based on conditioning processes, cue-reactivity and craving develop during the course of GD and generalize to cues that are only moderately related to the specific gaming activity.

Quality of life and mental health of adolescents: Relationships with social media addiction, Fear of Missing out, and stress associated with neglect and negative reactions by online peers

Social networking is proliferating globally and in Vietnam, but this led to several negative aspects of adolescents' health, including physical activity, sleep quality, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. This study aimed to identify the relationship between social media usage and examine risk factors (Fear of Missing out and Risk of Neglect) on social media usage, and the overall quality of life and mental health among individuals actively using social media networks. An online cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities in Vietnam (Hanoi, Tuyen Quang, and Can Tho) from September through to October 2021. A structured questionnaire assessed for characteristics of social media use and other associated factors. 1891 participants were recruited, with 98.4% having access to social media. s. Factors like "PHQ-9 score", "Problematic Internet use", and "Time average used social media per day", were negatively associated with the EQ5D5L Index. By contrast, "Gender", and "Using smartphone" were positive factors of the EQ5D5L Index. "FOMO score" and "self-harm and suicide" were positive factors of the PHQ-9 score while "Using smartphone" was negative. In terms of self-harm and suicide, "FOMO score" and "Problematic Internet use" were positive factors, by contrast, "Using smartphone" was a negative factor. This is the first study to examine social media addiction among Vietnamese adolescents, its relationship with FOMO score, stresses associated with rejection and neglect, and the overall quality of life. Our results highlighted there is a relationship between FOMO score and impaired overall quality of life, increased depressive symptoms, and an association between stresses relating to negative rejection and FOMO score.

Relationships Between Gaming Disorder, Risk Factors, and Protective Factors Among a Sample of Chinese University Students Utilizing a Network Perspective

Research has demonstrated that some risk and protective factors of gaming disorder (GD) have been identified. However, the interaction of GD with risk and protective factors has rarely been examined from a network analysis perspective. Therefore, the present study examined the relationships between GD, risk factors (i.e., social anxiety and fear of missing out), and protective factors (i.e., resilience, authenticity, and family closeness) utilizing a network analysis approach among a sample of Chinese university students. A cross-sectional study with 1364 participants was performed using the Gaming Disorder Test, the short version of Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), the Chinese Trait-State Fear of Missing Out Scale (T-SFoMOSC), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Authenticity Scale, and a single item assessing family closeness. Social anxiety, FoMO, and two factors of authenticity (i.e., self-alienation and accepting external influence) had positive relationship with GD, while resilience, authentic living, and family closeness had negative relationship with GD. Social anxiety was identified as the core node in the domain-level network. The item "continuation or escalation of gaming" (gd3) and the item "gaming problems" (gd4) constituted the highest edge weight in the facet-level network. The network comparison demonstrated there were no significant differences in relation to network structures and global strengths between gender. The findings suggest bivariate relationships among GD, risk factors (i.e., social anxiety and fear of missing out), and protective factors (i.e., resilience, authenticity, and family closeness). Interventions for GD must be considered through preventing risk factors and increasing protective factors including improving the gaming motivation and maladaptive cognition to decrease negative emotion (e.g., social anxiety and FoMO), enhancing resilience, authentic living and parent-child relationship, as well as decreasing self-alienation and accepting external influence.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11469-023-01049-3.

Parent-Adolescent Conflict, Peer Victimization, and Internet Gaming Disorder Among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of OXTR Gene rs53576 Polymorphism

Despite growing evidence that parent-adolescent conflict positively correlates with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) among adolescents, its underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms have yet to be thoroughly examined. Based on the social development model and gene-environment interaction perspective, this study investigates whether the indirect association of parent-adolescent conflict, which impacts adolescent IGD through peer victimization, was moderated by the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene rs53576 polymorphism. Overall, 673 Chinese adolescents (Mean_age = 12.81 years; SD = 0.48 years; 54% boys) were included in this study. The participants completed questionnaires concerning parent-adolescent conflict, peer victimization, and IGD, and genomic DNA was extracted from each participant's saliva and buccal cells. The findings indicated that peer victimization mediated the link between parent-adolescent conflict and IGD among adolescents. The OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism also moderated this indirect link. Specifically, the indirect effect of parent-adolescent conflict on adolescent IGD through peer victimization was significant for adolescents with AA homozygotes. However, it was non-significant for adolescents with GA and GG genotypes. This research simultaneously considers the roles of family, peers, and genetics in adolescent IGD. Furthermore, it provides beneficial information to customize interventions for adolescent IGD prevention.

Deficient dynamics of prefrontal-striatal and striatal-default mode network (DMN) neural circuits in internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Studies have proven that individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) show impaired cognitive control over game craving; however, the neural mechanism underlying this process remains unclear. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the dynamic features of brain functional networks of individuals with IGD during rest, which have barely been understood until now.

METHODS

Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 333 subjects (123 subjects with IGD (males/females: 73/50) and 210 healthy controls (males/females: 135/75)). First, the data-driven methodology, named co-activation pattern analysis, was applied to investigate the dynamic features of nucleus accumbens (the core region involved in craving/reward processing and addiction)-centered brain networks in IGD. Further, machine learning analysis was conducted to investigate the prediction effect of the dynamic features on participants' addiction severity.

RESULTS

Compared to controls, subjects in the IGD group showed decreased resilience, betweenness centrality and occurrence in the prefrontal-striatal neural circuit, and decreased in-degree in the striatal-default mode network (DMN) circuit. Moreover, these decreased dynamic features could significantly predict participants' addiction severity.

LIMITATIONS

The causal relationship between IGD and the abnormal dynamic features cannot be identified in this study. All the subjects were university students.

CONCLUSIONS

The present results revealed the underlying brain networks of uncontrollable craving and game-seeking behaviors in individuals with IGD during rest. The decreased dynamics of the prefrontal-striatal and striatal-DMN neural circuits might be potential biomarkers for predicting the addiction severity of IGD and potential targets for effective interventions to reduce game craving of this disorder.

The unbalanced behavioral activation and inhibition system sensitivity in internet gaming disorder: Evidence from resting-state Granger causal connectivity analysis

BACKGROUND

Patients with behavioral or substance addiction show an unbalanced behavioral activation system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity. However, the relationship between internet gaming disorder (IGD) and BAS/BIS is obscure and the neurobiological mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear.

METHODS

We recruited 154 IGDs and 229 recreational game users (RGUs) in the current study. First, we explored the relationship between BAS/BIS and IGD. Second, subjects were subdivided into subgroups by BAS/BIS sensitivity. Third, whole-brain Granger causal connectivity (GCC) of striatum and amygdala subdivisions was estimated for the subgroup. Fourth, mediation analysis was performed to explore the role of connectivity in the relationship between IGD and BAS/BIS sensitivity.

RESULTS

We found the IGD group scored higher than the RGU on BIS and BASf (fun-seeking) sensitivity. Then, we identified 4 (2*2) subgroups: low/high risk of IGD with low/high BAS/BIS sensitivity groups. Two-way ANCOVA main results of interaction effects showed that in the high BAS/BIS group, the RGU exhibited increased strength in the GCC from the left putamen to the right cuneus, and the IGD exhibited decreased strength in the GCC from the right medial frontal gyrus to the caudate, from the left superior frontal gyrus to the centromedial amygdala, and from the right superior parietal lobule to the left laterobasal amygdala. Moreover, the GCC from the centromedial amygdala to the middle frontal gyrus mediated the directional relationship between BIS and IAT (Young's internet addiction test) scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The IGD individuals exhibited higher BIS and BAS-fun seeking sensitivity. Moreover, IGD with unbalanced BAS/BIS sensitivity exhibited alternative connectivity patterns involving amygdala and striatum subdivisions. These findings suggest a neurobiological mechanism for an alternation between IGD and RGU with different BAS/BIS sensitivity.

Sex differences in neural substrates of risk taking: Implications for sex-specific vulnerabilities to internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Sex differences in internet gaming disorder (IGD) remain unknown. Investigating sex-specific neural features that underlie the core risk factor (i.e., risk-taking) of IGD would help in understanding sex-specific vulnerabilities to IGD and advance sex-specific treatments and prevention for IGD.

METHODS

111 participants (28 IGD males, 27 IGD females, 26 recreational game user (RGU) males, 30 RGU females) completed a probability discounting task during fMRI scanning.

RESULTS

First, among RGUs, males showed a higher risk-taking tendency and greater neural activation associated with risk/value evaluation for reward (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left putamen) and smaller activation associated with cognitive control (the inferior frontal gyrus) than females during the contrast of risky-safe choices. Moreover, males showed a greater modulatory effect of risky choices on the connection from the vmPFC/ACC to the left putamen than females. Second, IGD males showed decreased activation in the vmPFC/ACC and left putamen compared to RGU males, whereas this decrease did not exist in IGD females.

DISCUSSION

Males show a higher risk-taking tendency than females. Altered neural substrates associated with risky decision-making exist in IGD males but not in IGD females.

CONCLUSIONS

The present findings fill the gap in information on the behavioral and neural substrates underlying IGD among females and demonstrate that a high risk-taking tendency is a risk factor and core symptom only in IGD males but not in IGD females. It is necessary to design and adopt distinct treatments and prevention strategies for IGD in males and females.

Considering gender differences in the study and treatment of internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a multifaceted and complex addictive disorder characterized by poor impulse control and altered reward sensitivities, among other features. IGD is a male-predominant condition, and gender-related differences may contribute importantly to the development and maintenance of, and recovery from, IGD.

METHODS

The current manuscript proposes a framework that incorporates gender-related considerations at different stages of IGD and proposes potential strategies for the prevention and treatment of IGD.

RESULTS

At the development stage, high impulsivity, impaired inhibitory control, and aggressive behaviors have been more frequently observed among males than females, suggesting potential risk factors for the development of IGD. Loneliness and other emotional dysregulation have been more frequently noted among females (than among males) with IGD. At the maintenance stage, males may be more sensitive to gaming-related rewards than females, and acute gaming behaviors may elicit higher cravings among males than among females and thus weaken their inhibitory control. In recovery, females with IGD have reported more negative mood states than males, and females' gaming behaviors have been linked with affective disorders.

DISCUSSIONS

The model proposed here highlights gender-related differences in modulating the behavioral and neural systems that contribute to a three-stage framework of IGD. Additional investigation into gender-related differences in IGD may further advance the field by uncovering complex relationships that may underlie vulnerability and provide insights into the development of gender-specific prevention and treatment strategies.

Gender-related differences in involvement of addiction brain networks in internet gaming disorder: Relationships with craving and emotional regulation

BACKGROUND

Abnormal interactions among addiction brain networks associated with intoxication, negative affect, and anticipation may have relevance for internet gaming disorder (IGD). Despite prior studies having identified gender-related differences in the neural correlates of IGD, gender-related differences in the involvement of brain networks remain unclear.

METHODS

One-hundred-and-nine individuals with IGD (54 males) and 111 with recreational game use (RGU; 58 males) provided resting-state fMRI data. We examined gender-related differences in involvement of addiction brain networks in IGD versus RGU subjects. We further compared the strength between and within addiction brain networks and explored possible relationships between the strength of functional connectivities within and between addiction brain networks and several relevant behavioral measures.

RESULTS

The addiction brain networks showed high correct classification rates in distinguishing IGD and RGU subjects in men and women. Male subjects with versus without IGD showed stronger functional connectivities between and within addiction brain networks. Moreover, the strength of the connectivity within the anticipation network in male IGD subjects was positively related to subjective craving. However, female subjects with versus without IGD showed decreased functional connections between and within addiction brain networks. The strength of connectivity between the anticipation and negative-affect brain networks in female IGD subjects was negatively related to maladaptive cognitive emotion-regulation strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Addiction brain networks have potential for distinguishing IGD and RGU individuals. Importantly, this study identified novel gender-related differences in brain-behavior relationships in IGD. These results help advance current neuroscientific theories of IGD and may inform gender-informed treatment strategies.

Prevalence of gaming disorder in East Asia: A comprehensive meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Asian countries are deemed to be high prevalence areas for gaming disorder (GD). This meta-analysis is the first to synthesize the overall prevalence of GD in East Asia and investigate characteristics that influence prevalence estimates.

METHODS

Systematic and independent searches were conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library since their inception to January 27, 2021. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality scale was used for quality assessment. A random effect model was used to calculate the overall GD prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

RESULTS

In total, 22 articles (26 studies) comprising 51,525 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The overall pooled prevalence of GD in East Asia was 12%, 95% CI (10%-15%); this figure was adjusted to 6%, 95% CI (3%-9%) for a representative sample. Higher prevalence was observed in males than in females (16% vs. 8%, respectively, P < 0.05). Subgroup and meta-regression analyses revealed that studies among gamers or those without random sampling reported significantly higher prevalence rates. There were no significant differences between countries/regions, sample size, quality score, proportion of males, and scale used.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of GD in East Asia is higher than that in other world regions. Future studies should extend such epidemiological research to other regions to calculate the accurate prevalence of GD to benefit the local identification, prevention, policy formulation, and treatment efforts. Considering its negative effects, effective preventive and treatment measures for GD in East Asia need greater attention.

Relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

Many studies have explored the relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction from different theoretical perspectives; however, the results have been different. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction.

METHODS

Studies published before November 2021 were identified through a systematic online search. A total of 22 studies, including 38 independent effect sizes were included from a systematic search of multiple databases, with a total sample size of 11,810 cases. Stata Version 16.0 was used for meta-analysis.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis based on random-effects model showed that mobile phone addiction was highly positively associated with attachment anxiety (r = 0.395, 95%CI [0.345, 0.442]) and weakly positively correlated with attachment avoidance (r = 0.194, 95%CI [0.137, 0.250]). The relationship between attachment anxiety and mobile phone addiction and that between attachment avoidance and mobile phone addiction were both moderated by mobile phone addiction measures but not moderated by gender and attachment measures.

CONCLUSION

There is a positive correlation between mobile phone addiction and insecure attachment. In the future, measures to prevent mobile phone addiction should focus on insecure attachment individuals and help them construct a healthy attachment relationship and secure attachment model.

A methodological checklist for fMRI drug cue reactivity studies: development and expert consensus

Cue reactivity is one of the most frequently used paradigms in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of substance use disorders (SUDs). Although there have been promising results elucidating the neurocognitive mechanisms of SUDs and SUD treatments, the interpretability and reproducibility of these studies is limited by incomplete reporting of participants' characteristics, task design, craving assessment, scanning preparation and analysis decisions in fMRI drug cue reactivity (FDCR) experiments. This hampers clinical translation, not least because systematic review and meta-analysis of published work are difficult. This consensus paper and Delphi study aims to outline the important methodological aspects of FDCR research, present structured recommendations for more comprehensive methods reporting and review the FDCR literature to assess the reporting of items that are deemed important. Forty-five FDCR scientists from around the world participated in this study. First, an initial checklist of items deemed important in FDCR studies was developed by several members of the Enhanced NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analyses (ENIGMA) Addiction working group on the basis of a systematic review. Using a modified Delphi consensus method, all experts were asked to comment on, revise or add items to the initial checklist, and then to rate the importance of each item in subsequent rounds. The reporting status of the items in the final checklist was investigated in 108 recently published FDCR studies identified through a systematic review. By the final round, 38 items reached the consensus threshold and were classified under seven major categories: 'Participants' Characteristics', 'General fMRI Information', 'General Task Information', 'Cue Information', 'Craving Assessment Inside Scanner', 'Craving Assessment Outside Scanner' and 'Pre- and Post-Scanning Considerations'. The review of the 108 FDCR papers revealed significant gaps in the reporting of the items considered important by the experts. For instance, whereas items in the 'General fMRI Information' category were reported in 90.5% of the reviewed papers, items in the 'Pre- and Post-Scanning Considerations' category were reported by only 44.7% of reviewed FDCR studies. Considering the notable and sometimes unexpected gaps in the reporting of items deemed to be important by experts in any FDCR study, the protocols could benefit from the adoption of reporting standards. This checklist, a living document to be updated as the field and its methods advance, can help improve experimental design, reporting and the widespread understanding of the FDCR protocols. This checklist can also provide a sample for developing consensus statements for protocols in other areas of task-based fMRI.

Sexual Differences in Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD): From Psychological Features to Neuroanatomical Networks

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been included in the 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a condition in need of further study, and gaming disorder was recognized by the World Health Organization as a mental disorder in the International Classification of Disease (ICD-11) of 2018. IGD has different characteristics in the two sexes and is more prevalent in males than females. However, even if the female gamer population is constantly growing, the majority of available studies analyzed only males, or the data were not analyzed by sex. To better elucidate sex differences in IGD, we selectively reviewed research publications that evaluated IGD separately for males and females collected in approximately one hundred publications over the past 20 years. The available data in this narrative review indicate that IGD is strongly dimorphic by sex for both its psychological features and the involvement of different brain areas. Impulsivity, low self-control, anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and depression are some of the psychological features associated with IGD that show a sex dimorphism. At the same time, IGD and its psychological alterations are strongly correlated to dimorphic functional characteristics in relevant brain areas, as evidenced by fMRI. More research is needed to better understand sex differences in IGD. Animal models could help to elucidate the neurological basis of this disorder.

Association of Internet gaming disorder symptoms with anxiety and depressive symptoms and substance use: an international cross-sectional study

Background

Problematic Internet gaming is an increasingly recognized global mental health problem. This multicultural cross-sectional study examined the association between Internet gaming disorder (IGD) symptoms and anxiety and depressive symptoms and substance use within a sample of young Internet users. In total, 3529 college/university students (1260 (35.7%) males; mean age 21 ± 3 years) were surveyed online. We assessed online gaming patterns using the Internet Gaming Disorder Self-report for College/University Students (ICMH-IGD), symptoms of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and symptoms of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale-7.

Results

IGD symptoms were associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and substance use, independent of time spent online, psychiatric diagnosis, culture, or sociodemographic characteristics. For males, more significant IGD symptoms were associated with more extended Internet browsing per day time and higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, while for females, with more extended Internet browsing per day time, marihuana use, and higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

Our study found that more overt symptoms of IGD were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and substance use. Still, these associations differed among males and females, suggesting that gender differences should be considered when planning specific treatments.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43045-022-00180-6.

Functional connectivity between the parahippocampal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus moderates the relationship between problematic mobile phone use and depressive symptoms: Evidence from a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) is prevalent and increases the risk for a variety of health problems. However, few studies have explored the neural mechanisms that might render adolescents more or less vulnerable. Here, we aimed to identify whether PMPU is associated with depressive symptoms and whether this relationship is moderated by intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) which is associated with PMPU.

METHODS

In this longitudinal study, we included 238 students (mean age = 19.05, SD = 0.81) that came from a university in Hefei, China. They all finished MRI scans at baseline and completed questionnaires both at baseline and 1 year later. A self-rating questionnaire for adolescent problematic mobile phone use and depression anxiety stress scale-21 were used to assess PMPU and depressive symptoms. We first assessed the relationship between PMPU and depressive symptoms using an autoregressive cross-lagged model. Then, we detected the brain regions that were associated with PMPU. Moreover, the neuroimaging results were extracted to explore whether the iFC of these brain regions moderated the relationship between PMPU and depression.

RESULTS

Consistent with our hypotheses, PMPU was positively associated with depressive symptoms, and the relationship between PMPU and depressive symptoms was moderated by iFC of the left parahippocampal gyrus-right middle temporal gyrus both at baseline and after 1 year (β = 0.554, P = 0.003; β = 0.463, P = 0.016, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

These results advance the understanding of PMPU and suggest that iFC of the left parahippocampal gyrus-right middle temporal gyrus may be a neurobiological contributor to its relationship with depressive symptoms.

Neural classification of internet gaming disorder and prediction of treatment response using a cue-reactivity fMRI task in young men

BACKGROUND

Neural mechanisms underlying internet gaming disorder (IGD) are important for diagnostic considerations and treatment development. However, neurobiological underpinnings of IGD remain relatively poorly understood.

METHODS

We employed multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA), a machine-learning approach, to examine the potential of neural features to statistically predict IGD status and treatment outcome (percentage change in weekly gaming time) for IGD. Cue-reactivity fMRI-task data were collected from 40 male IGD subjects and 19 male healthy control (HC) subjects. 23 IGD subjects received 6 weeks of craving behavioral intervention (CBI) treatment. MVPA was applied to classify IGD subjects from HCs and statistically predict clinical outcomes.

RESULTS

MVPA displayed a high (92.37%) accuracy (sensitivity of 90.00% and specificity of 94.74%) in the classification of IGD and HC subjects. The most discriminative brain regions that contribute to classification were the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, precuneus, and posterior lobe of the right cerebellum. MVPA statistically predicted clinical outcomes in the craving behavioral intervention (CBI) group (r = 0.48, p = 0.0032). The most strongly implicated brain regions in the prediction model were the right middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, anterior/posterior lobes of the cerebellum and left postcentral gyrus.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings about cue-reactivity neural correlates could help identify IGD subjects and predict CBI-related treatment outcomes provide mechanistic insight into IGD and its treatment and may help promote treatment development efforts.

Is the I-PACE (Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution) model valid in South Korea? The effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on internet gaming disorder and the mediating effect of stress on adolescents

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on internet gaming disorder (IGD) and the mediating effect of stress based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model.

METHODS

The 2017 survey data from one community addiction management center in South Korea were analyzed. A sample of 3,593 adolescents (mean age = 13.75 years, SD = 2.22) were recruited from 23 elementary, middle and high schools and 11 local children's centers. The mediating effect was analyzed by the three-step analysis method.

RESULTS

Our study found that ACEs had a significant effect on the stress score (B = 1.420, P < 0.001) and the stress scale score had a significant effect the IGD score (B = 0.127, P < 0.001). After adjusting for the stress score in the model, ACEs had a significant effect on the IGD score (B = 0.328, P < 0.001), and the stress score had partial mediating effects (B = 0.1802, 95% C. I: 0.131-0.239).

DISCUSSION

We found that ACEs directly affect IGD and that ACEs directly affect IGD through stress in support of the I-PACE model. In the sensitivity analysis, the mediating effect of stress in the low-risk IGD group was significant, but the mediating effect of stress in the high-risk IGD group was not significant. Prior ACEs should be considered when interviewing IGD clients. In addition, enhancing stress management skills would be beneficial to IGD clients with a history of ACEs, and actions reducing exposure to ACEs in childhood are necessary.

Exploration of Psychological Mechanism of Smartphone Addiction Among International Students of China by Selecting the Framework of the I-PACE Model

The I-PACE (interaction of person-affect-cognition-execution) model explains that the causes of addiction are the result of individual susceptibility (genetic and personality), psychopathological factors (negative emotions), and cognitive and affective factor interaction. The issue of smartphone addiction and its emerging effects are now becoming an essential social enigma. This study is aimed at exploring how personal, affective, cognitive, and execution factors accelerate the mechanism of smartphone addiction among international students. Randomly selected, six hundred international students have constituted the population for our study. All participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire included demographics (gender, place of stay, educational level, and reason for smartphone usage), Mobile Phone Addiction Index, Loneliness Scale (UCLA), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. 20.3% (n = 122) of international students are agonized with smartphone addiction, while 79.7% (n = 478) use smartphones at an average level. Students' place of stay, neuroticism personality, social desirability, self-esteem, loneliness, depression, perceived stress, and passive coping are associated with smartphone addiction. Loneliness and depression show a strong positive significant correlation, among other variables while loneliness, neurotic personality, depression, low self-esteem, stress, and passive coping are risk factors for smartphone addiction. This study reveals that international students are a high-risk group for smartphone addiction. It has a great deal of impact on students' behavior and psyche. Multiple social, psychological, affective, and cognitive factors affect smartphone addiction. It would be beneficial to direct the students to limit their phone usage and indulge in other healthy physical activities to complete academic goals.

Influence of abstinence on automatic detection bias to gaming cues in individuals with Internet gaming disorder: Evidence from visual mismatch negativity

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been classified by the DSM-5 as a condition for further study, and many studies have shown that the occurrence and maintenance of IGD and the automatic detection bias to gaming cues of individuals with IGD may be significantly related. However, whether abstinence, a common intervention method in behavioral addiction, can adjust the automatic detection bias in individuals with IGD and its underlying neural mechanisms is unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of 7 days of abstinence from gaming on automatic detection bias, negative affect and craving in individuals with IGD with event-related potential technology. A total of 50 IGD subjects were recruited in this study and randomly divided into abstinence and control groups. Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) was induced using a standard-deviant reversed oddball paradigm, and differences in automatic detection bias, negative affect, and craving between the two groups were recorded and compared at baseline, day 3, and day 7. The results showed that compared with baseline, vMMN, negative affect and craving were significantly enhanced on day 3 and significantly diminished on day 7 in the abstinence group but not in the control group, and the changes in vMMN were significantly correlated with changes in negative affect and craving in both groups. This study demonstrates that abstinence can restore automatic detection bias in individuals with IGD and that abstinence has to last for 7 days to have a significant effect, while recovery may be related to the negative affect and craving.

Imbalanced sensitivities to primary and secondary rewards in internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a type of behavioral addiction characterized by poorly controlled and interfering patterns of game playing. Studies have suggested that the IGD is usually accompanied by increased desire or craving for gaming, suggesting that secondary rewards related to gaming may become more salient than those for primary rewards like food. However, this hypothesis has not been formally tested and potential neural mechanisms remain unclear.

METHODS

This is a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Twenty-one IGD subjects and 23 matched individuals with recreational game use (RGU) were scanned when exposed to gaming (secondary rewards), food (primary rewards) and neutral cues. Group-by-cue-type interaction analyses and subsequent within-group analyses for fMRI data were performed and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analyses explored further potential neural features.

RESULTS

IGD subjects' subjective craving responses to gaming cues were higher than to food cues, while the opposite was observed in RGU subjects. Group-by-cue interaction effects implicated the precuneus and precuneus-caudate FC. Simple effect analysis showed that for IGD subjects, gaming-related cues elicited higher FC in precuneus-caudate relationships than did food-related cues. In the RGU subjects, the opposite was observed. Significant correlations were found between brain features and craving scores.

CONCLUSIONS

These results support the hypothesis regarding imbalances in sensitivities to different types of reward in IGD, and suggest neural mechanisms by which craving for gaming may make secondary rewards more salient than primary ones, thus promoting participation in addictive patterns of gaming.

Latent Profile of Internet and Internet Game Usage Among South Korean Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: Globally, more people are spending time on the Internet and gaming since the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Consequently, concerns about developing behavioral addiction of adolescents have been raised. Such risk could be greater for adolescents in South Korea where the majority of adolescents have access to the Internet and own a smartphone. In fact, statistics indicate that Korean youths are spending significantly more time on the Internet and gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on the patterns of time spent on the Internet and Internet gaming show inconsistent results. The aim of this study is to investigate the latent profiles of the Internet and Internet game usage among adolescents in South Korea. Method: Data from a national survey on elementary and middle school students across South Korea were used. The sample consists of 3,149 respondents, and 2,984 responses were analyzed after removing missing responses. Latent profile analysis was performed to investigate the number of latent profiles for the Internet and Internet game usage time. To validate the profiles, differences in problematic gaming behavior, sex, and neuroticism were examined. Results: Seven profiles were found: Casual User, Moderate User, Smartphone User, Internet User, PC Internet Gamer, Heavy User, and Excessive User. Validation of the profiles indicated differences in problematic gaming behavior, sex, and neuroticism among selected profiles. Conclusion: This study presented different profiles of the Internet and Internet game usage among adolescents in South Korea. Profiles with higher game usage time scored higher in problematic game use compared to other profiles. Males were more likely to be in the profiles with high gaming time, and females were more likely to be in Internet and Smartphone User profiles. The results indicate that Internet and Internet gaming usage patterns could be classified by the type of device used and the content of the Internet.

Neural substrates of deficient cognitive control in individuals with severe internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is rapidly becoming a worldwide health concern. The prefrontal-subcortical model of self-regulation emphasizes that an impaired prefrontal cognitive control system and an overwhelming subcortical reward-seeking system are both crucial factors in health problems, including addiction. This study focused on the cognitive control system of IGD, aiming to investigate whether cognitive control is altered and the underlying neural correlates in college students with IGD.

METHODS

Thirty college students with IGD and twenty-five matched healthy controls were asked to complete a stop-signal task that measures cognitive control while being monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS

Compared to the controls, only the college students with severe IGD, rather than those with mild IGD, had deficient brain activity involved in inhibitory control and response execution (specifically, the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex and primary motor cortex); this result implies that cognitive control deficits are closely linked to addiction severity in individuals with IGD. Regarding performance monitoring function, college students with IGD exhibited unabated behavioral and brain activity, as did the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

Combined with our previous finding that the subcortical reward system was enhanced in individuals with IGD, the present findings extend the prefrontal-subcortical model of self-regulation from the perspective of IGD in a college student population and thus provide useful insight for the effective prevention and treatment of IGD.

Gaming to relieve tension or anxiety and associations with health functioning, substance use and physical violence in high school students

Gaming is popular among youth and gaming disorders have been introduced recently into psychiatric nomenclature systems. Motivations underlying gaming may include involvement to reduce negative emotional states and thus may link to psychiatric and overall health. Thus, the extent to which adolescents engage in gaming to relieve anxiety warrants additional investigation. Data from 2005 Connecticut high-school students were used to examine how adolescents who reported gaming to relieve tension or anxiety differed from those who reported gaming but not to relieve tension or anxiety on measures of demographics, academic performance, general health, extracurricular activities, dysphoria/depression symptoms, substance use, and aggressive or violent behaviors. Chi-square analyses and binomial and multinomial logistic regression models were conducted. Gaming to relieve anxiety was more prevalent in boys and Hispanic and Asian adolescents and associated with less extracurricular involvement, poorer academic performance, increased cigarette and other drug use, problematic internet use, and depression. Participants with gaming to relieve tension or anxiety were also more likely to report weapon-carrying, missing school because they felt unsafe, having been threatened with a weapon, having engaged in physical fights, and having experienced injuries from fights. As gaming to relieve anxiety was related to mental-health- and functioning-related measures, additional research is needed to examine the precise natures of these relationships and to translate the information into improved intervention strategies.

Disturbed craving regulation to gaming cues in internet gaming disorder: Implications for uncontrolled gaming behaviors

BACKGROUND

The ability to control craving for games is very important to abstain from Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and abundant clinical evidence has suggested that craving dysregulation is the essential pathogenesis for IGD. However, the neural mechanism underlying this feature remains unclear.

METHODS

Subjective evaluation and fMRI data from 44 participants (IGD participants: 21; recreational Internet game users (RGUs): 23) were collected while they were performing a regulation of craving task. We analyzed and compared their brain features while they regulated cravings to gaming stimuli.

RESULTS

Compared to RGUs, IGD participants showed enhanced brain activation in the right anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), orbitofrontal cortex and middle temporal gyrus and in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and thalamus during the regulation of craving task. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analysis revealed that IGD participants showed decreased functional connectivity between the right PCC and right inferior parietal lobule compared to that in RGU participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggested that deficits of craving regulation in IGD participant were associated with the imbalanced coordination between the reward network and the executive network. Enhanced game-seeking motivation and disturbed executive control are responsible for craving dysregulation in IGD participants. These findings suggest a biological mechanism for IGD that may help in finding potential interventions.

Disrupted prefrontal regulation of striatum-related craving in Internet gaming disorder revealed by dynamic causal modeling: results from a cue-reactivity task

BACKGROUND

Studies of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) suggest an imbalanced relationship between cognitive control and reward processing in people with IGD. However, it remains unclear how these two systems interact with each other, and whether they could serve as neurobiological markers for IGD.

METHODS

Fifty IGD subjects and matched individuals with recreational game use (RGU) were selected and compared when they were performing a cue-craving task. Regions of interests [anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), lentiform nucleus] were selected based on the comparison between brain responses to gaming-related cues and neutral cues. Directional connectivities among these brain regions were determined using Bayesian estimation. We additionally examined the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in a separate analysis based on data implicating the PCC in craving in addiction.

RESULTS

During fixed-connectivity analyses, IGD subjects showed blunted ACC-to-lentiform and lentiform-to-ACC connectivity relative to RGU subjects, especially in the left hemisphere. When facing gaming cues, IGD subjects trended toward lower left-hemispheric modulatory effects in ACC-to-lentiform connectivity than RGU subjects. Self-reported cue-related craving prior to scanning correlated inversely with left-hemispheric modulatory effects in ACC-to-lentiform connectivity.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggesting that prefrontal-to-lentiform connectivity is impaired in IGD provides a possible neurobiological mechanism for difficulties in controlling gaming-cue-elicited cravings. Reduced connectivity ACC-lentiform connectivity may be a useful neurobiological marker for IGD.

Reduced frontostriatal functional connectivity and associations with severity of Internet gaming disorder

Cognitive, functional, and structural brain factors involving frontal executive and striatal reward networks have been implicated in Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, frontostriatal network connectivity and its association with addiction severity are poorly understood in IGD. Resting-state fMRI data from 337 subjects (130 with IGD, 207 with recreational game use [RGU]) were collected. Striatal-cortical communications were measured with resting-state functional connectivity (FC) using coherent spontaneous fluctuations in the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent fMRI signal. Correlations were calculated between FC measures and IGD-related assessments (addiction severity and craving scores). Decreased FC was predominantly observed in IGD subjects, with IGD subjects showing decreased FC between the putamen and superior frontal gyrus (SFG), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the ventral striatum and IFG, superior temporal gyrus, and MFG. Disorder severity and craving scores were negatively correlated with FC between striatal and frontal brain regions. Associations between diminished FC in corticostriatal circuitry and clinical features (IGD craving, severity) suggest potential therapeutic targets for neuromodulation treatments. The extent to which frontostriatal circuits involving executive control over reward processes may be altered to treat IGD warrants additional study.

The functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area moderates the relationship between internet gaming disorder and loneliness

BACKGROUND

Individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD) usually report a higher sense of loneliness. Although studies have suggested a key role of the prefrontal cortex-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in both IGD and loneliness, the potential mechanism between IGD and loneliness remains unclear.

METHODS

Fifty-seven IGD and 81 matched recreational internet gamer users (RGU) underwent resting-state fMRI scans. The UCLA loneliness scale was used to measure loneliness. We first explored the brain areas that are both associated with loneliness and IGD severity. Then, the neuroimaging findings were extracted to test whether the rsFC of these brain regions moderates the relationship between IGD and loneliness.

RESULTS

We observed reduced rsFC between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the left precentral and the postcentral gyri and the supplementary motor area (SMA), which also correlated with increased IAT (Young''s internet addiction test) scores. More importantly, the rsFC of the DLPFC-precentral gyrus and the DLPFC-postcentral gyrus moderated the relationship between IGD severity and loneliness scores. Additionally, we also found that the rsFC of the left DLPFC-precentral gyrus, the DLPFC-postcentral gyrus and the right DLPFC-SMA moderated the relationship between self-reported gaming craving and the UCLA scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study confirmed the role of the DLPFC in reward control (game craving) and emotion regulation (loneliness). Additionally, the rsFC of the prefrontal cortex-supplementary motor area moderates IGD and loneliness. These findings provide valuable understanding of the two-way relationship between IGD and loneliness.

Sex difference in neural responses to gaming cues in Internet gaming disorder: Implications for why males are more vulnerable to cue-induced cravings than females

BACKGROUND

Although drug addiction studies have shown that females are more likely to become addicted and sensitive to drug cues, this feature seems reversed in Internet gaming disorder (IGD), of which males are more likely to be sufferers. Given the prevalence of IGD in the male population, the current study was set to examine the potential effect of sex on IGD's craving using a cue reactivity task.

METHODS

Sixty-five (32 males) IGD subjects underwent fMRI scanning during exposure to visual gaming cues and neutral cues. Brain responses to gaming cues relative to neutral cues were examined within two groups separately. In addition, Granger causal analysis (GCA) was conducted to investigate how the effective connectivity patterns were altered in male and female IGD subjects.

RESULTS

When facing gaming cues, lower regions of brain activation were observed in males compared to females, including the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the superior frontal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC); GCA results, using the PCC as the ROI, showed higher middle temporal gyrus-PCC-right ACC/parahippocampal gyrus effective connectivity in males as compared with females, when exposed to gaming cues.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that gaming cues could more severely disturb male IGD subjects' inhibition control function over game-elicited cravings compared to females, which might make it hard for males to control their game cravings and stop their gaming behaviors. This conclusion is valuable in understanding why males are more vulnerable to IGD than females.

Altered modular segregation of brain networks during the cue-craving task contributes to the disrupted executive functions in internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that gaming-related cues could induce gaming cravings and bring about changes in brain activities in subjects with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, little is known about the brain network organizations in IGD subjects during a cue-craving task and the relationship between this network organization and IGD severity.

METHODS

Sixty-one IGD subjects and 61 matched recreational game users (RGUs) were scanned while performing a cue-craving task. We calculated and compared the participation coefficient (PC) among brain network modules between IGD subjects and RGUs. Based on the results, further group comparison analyses were performed to explain the PC changes and to explore the relationship between PCs and IGD severity.

RESULTS

While performing a cue-craving task, compared with RGUs, IGD subjects showed significantly decreased PCs in the default-mode network (DMN) and the frontal-parietal network (FPN). Specifically, the number of connections between nodes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and other nodes in the DMN of IGD subjects was much larger than that in RGUs. Correlation results showed that the number of DMN intra-modular connections was positively correlated with addiction severity and craving degree.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide neural evidence that can explain why cognitive control, emotion, attention and other functions are impaired in IGD subjects in the face of gaming cues, which leads to compulsive behavior toward games. These findings extend our understanding of the neural mechanism of IGD and have important implications for developing effective interventions to treat IGD subjects.

Gender-related differences in frontal-parietal modular segregation and altered effective connectivity in internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

Although previous studies have revealed gender-related differences in executive function in internet gaming disorder (IGD), neural mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear, especially in terms of brain networks.

METHODS

Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 78 subjects with IGD (39 males, 20.8 ± 2.16 years old) and 72 with recreational game use (RGU) (39 males, 21.5 ± 2.56 years old). By utilizing graph theory, we calculated participation coefficients among brain network modules for all participants and analyzed the diagnostic-group-by-gender interactions. We further explored possible causal relationships between networks through spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) to assess differences in between-network connections.

RESULTS

Compared to males with RGU, males with IGD demonstrated reduced modular segregation of the frontal-parietal network (FPN). Male IGD subjects also showed increased connections between the FPN and cingulo-opercular network (CON); however, these differences were not found in female subjects. Further spDCM analysis indicated that the causal influence from CON to FPN in male IGD subjects was enhanced relative to that of RGU males, while this influence was relatively reduced in females with IGD.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest poor modular segmentation of the FPN and abnormal FPN/CON connections in males with IGD, suggesting a mechanism for male vulnerability to IGD. An increased "bottom-up" effect from the CON to FPN in male IGD subjects could reflect dysfunction between the brain networks. Different mechanisms may underlie in IGD, suggesting that different interventions may be optimal in males and females with IGD.

Enhanced neural responses in specific phases of reward processing in individuals with Internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become a global health problem. The self-regulation model noted that a shift to reward system, whether due to overwhelming reward-seeking or impaired control, can lead to self-regulation failures, e.g., addiction. The present study focused on the reward processing of IGD, aiming to provide insights into the etiology of IGD. Reward processing includes three phases: reward anticipation, outcome monitoring and choice evaluation. However, it is not clear which phases of reward processing are different between individuals with IGD and healthy controls (HC).

METHODS

To address this issue, the present study asked 27 individuals with IGD and 26 HC to complete a roulette task during a functional MRI scan.

RESULTS

Compared with HC, individuals with IGD preferred to take risks in pursuit of high rewards behaviorally and showed exaggerated brain activity in the striatum (nucleus accumbens and caudate) during the reward anticipation and outcome monitoring but not during the choice evaluation.

DISCUSSION

These results reveal that the oversensitivity of the reward system to potential and positive rewards in college students with IGD drives them to approach risky options more frequently although they are able to assess the risk values of options and the correctness of decisions properly as HC do.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide partial support for the application of the self-regulation model to the IGD population. Moreover, this study enriches this model from the perspective of three phases of reward processing and provides specific targets for future research regarding effective treatment of IGD.

The imbalance between goal-directed and habitual systems in internet gaming disorder: Results from the disturbed thalamocortical communications

BACKGROUND

Converging evidence has identified the imbalance between goal-directed systems and habitual systems in the addiction process. The thalamocortical loop plays an important role in the habitual/goal-directed system. However, little is known about the role of the thalamus in goal-directed and habitual systems in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) patients. This study investigated whether thalamocortical circuit was disrupted and how they affected goal-directed and habitual behaviors in IGD patients.

METHODS

This is a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Twenty-five IGD patients and 25 matched recreational game users (RGUs) were scanned when they were in a resting state and were performing an instrumental learning task to obtain behavioral data related to habitual/goal-directed behavior. We used the whole-brain seed-based functional connectivity (FC) of the four thalamic nuclei (bilateral) and correlation analyses to examine the thalamocortical loop difference and relationship with habitual/goal-directed performance.

RESULTS

Compared with RGUs, IGD patients demonstrated significantly increased FC between the left midline nucleus (MN) and the right postcentral gyrus (PCG), and between the pulvinar and medial frontal gyrus (MFG). Correlation results showed that within the IGD group, the correct response rates of the participants to inconsistent stimulus-result pairs were positively correlated with the FC between the pulvinar and MFG. Inhibition-control scores were negatively correlated with the FC between the left MN and the PCG.

CONCLUSIONS

IGD patients showed disrupted thalamocortical communication that could further result in an imbalance between the goal-directed and habitual systems in IGD patients. These findings provide more information about the involvement of the thalamus in the pathophysiology of IGD, and as potential circuit-level biomarkers of IGD patients, these circuit alterations may be useful in treatment development and in monitoring treatment outcomes.

More stringent criteria are needed for diagnosing internet gaming disorder: Evidence from regional brain features and whole-brain functional connectivity multivariate pattern analyses

BACKGROUND

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is included in the DSM-5 as a provisional diagnosis. Whether IGD should be regarded as a disorder and, if so, how it should be defined and thresholded have generated considerable debate.

METHODS

In the current study, machine learning was used, based on regional and interregional brain features. Resting-state data from 374 subjects (including 148 IGD subjects with DSM-5 scores ≥5 and 93 IGD subjects with DSM-5 scores ≥6) were collected, and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was employed to classify IGD from recreational game use (RGU) subjects based on regional brain features (ReHo) and communication between brain regions (functional connectivity; FC). Permutation tests were used to assess classifier performance.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that when using DSM-5 scores ≥5 as the inclusion criteria for IGD subjects, MVPA could not differentiate IGD subjects from RGU, whether based on ReHo or FC features or by using different templates. MVPA could differentiate IGD subjects from RGU better than expected by chance when using DSM-5 scores ≥6 with both ReHo and FC features. The brain regions involved in the default mode network and executive control network and the cerebellum exhibited high discriminative power during classification.

DISCUSSION

The current findings challenge the current IGD diagnostic criteria thresholding proposed in the DSM-5, suggesting that more stringent criteria may be needed for diagnosing IGD. The findings suggest that brain regions involved in the default mode network and executive control network relate importantly to the core criteria for IGD.

Males are more sensitive to reward and less sensitive to loss than females among people with internet gaming disorder: fMRI evidence from a card-guessing task

BACKGROUND

Many studies have found an interesting issue in the Internet gaming disorder (IGD): males are always observed to be the majority. However, there are little research to exploring the differences in the neural mechanisms between males and females in decision-making process among people with IGD. Therefore, explore the reward/loss processing between different gender with IGD could help in understanding the underlying neural mechanism of IGD.

METHODS

Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were collected from 111 subjects (IGD: 29 males, 25 females; recreational internet game user (RGU): 36 males, 21 females) while they were performing a card-guessing task. We collected and compared their brain features when facing the win and loss conditions in different groups.

RESULTS

For winning conditions, IGD group showed hypoactivity in the lingual gyrus than RGU group, male players showed hyperactivity in the left caudate nucleus, bilateral cingulate gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), right precuneus and inferior parietal lobule relative to the females. And significant sex-by-group interactions results showed higher brain activities in the thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus and lower brain activities in Inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were observed in males with IGD than females. For losing conditions, IGD group showed hypoactivity in the left lingual gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus and right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) compared to the RGU group, male players showed hyperactive left caudate nucleus and hypoactive right middle occipital gyrus relative to females. And significant sex-by-group interactions results showed that compared to females with IGD, males with IGD showed decreased brain activities in the IFG and lingual gyrus.

CONCLUSIONS

First, there appeared to be no difference in reward processing between the IGD and RGU group, but IGD showed less sensitivity to loss. Secondly, male players showed more sensitivity to rewards and less sensitivity to losses. Last but not least, males and females showed opposite activation patterns in IGD degree and rewards/losses processing. And male IGD subjects are more sensitive to reward and less sensitive to loss than females, which might be the reason for the gender different rates on IGD.

Decreased effective connection from the parahippocampal gyrus to the prefrontal cortex in Internet gaming disorder: A MVPA and spDCM study

OBJECTIVES

Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is essential for the condition's diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, the pathological mechanisms of IGD remain elusive at present. Hence, we employed multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) and spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) to explore this issue.

METHODS

Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 103 IGD subjects (male = 57) and 99 well-matched recreational game users (RGUs, male = 51). Regional homogeneity was calculated as the feature for MVPA based on the support vector machine (SVM) with leave-one- out cross-validation. Mean time series data extracted from the brain regions in accordance with the MVPA results were used for further spDCM analysis.

RESULTS

Results display a high accuracy of 82.67% (sensitivity of 83.50% and specificity of 81.82%) in the classification of the two groups. The most discriminative brain regions that contributed to the classification were the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus (PG), right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Significant correlations were found between addiction severity (IAT and DSM scores) and the ReHo values of the brain regions that contributed to the classification. Moreover, the results of spDCM showed that compared with RGU, IGD showed decreased effective connectivity from the left PG to the right MFG and from the right PG to the ACC and decreased self-connection in the right PG.

CONCLUSIONS

These results show that the weakening of the PG and its connection with the prefrontal cortex, including the ACC and MFG, may be an underlying mechanism of IGD.

Addiction severity modulates the precuneus involvement in internet gaming disorder: Functionality, morphology and effective connectivity

Although higher precuneus activation has often been observed in subjects with addictions when facing addiction-relevant cues, the recruitment of the precuneus is not consistent across studies. Here, we examined the extent to which addiction severity may relate to precuneus involvement during cue reactivity in internet gaming disorder (IGD). We recruited 65 subjects with IGD, collected brain responses when exposed to gaming cues and assessed brain structure. We correlated IGD severity with brain responses during a cue-craving task, precuneus volume, and connectivity with respect to inputs/outputs to/from the precuneus. In the cue-craving task, IGD severity was positively correlated with precuneus activation when exposed to gaming cues. IGD severity was also positively correlated with the volume of precuneus and connectivity from the hippocampal gyrus to the precuneus. IGD severity was also negatively correlated with connectivity from the middle frontal gyrus to the precuneus. In IGD, IGD severity relates to precuneus involvement with respect to functionality, morphology, and connectivity. The precuneus may act as a platform for integrating potential contradictory information between executive control and sub-cortical cravings.

Altered neural processing of negative stimuli in people with internet gaming disorder: fMRI evidence from the comparison with recreational game users

BACKGROUND

Abundant clinical studies have suggested that emotion dysregulation seems to be the essential pathogenesis for Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, the neural mechanism of emotion regulation for IGD is still unclear.

METHODS

Subjective evaluation and fMRI data were collected from 50 subjects (IGD: 24; recreational game user (RGU): 26) while they were performing an emotion reappraisal task. We collected and compared their brain features during emotion processing of different visual stimuli.

RESULTS

Higher activation in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), right ventral ACC, left claustrum and bilateral insula was observed in participants with IGD during emotion reappraisal relative to that of the RGU participants. In addition, generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis also showed that IGD participants had stronger functional connectivity between the right insula and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) than the RGU participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that IGD participants could not down-regulate their negative emotional experiences as efficiently as the RGU participants, although they engaged more cognitive resources. These results reveal the special neural circuits of emotion dysregulation in IGD individuals and provide new neural perspective for the intervention of IGD.

Impaired regulation of both addiction-related and primary rewards in individuals with internet gaming disorder

Poor executive function (EF) has been implicated in addictions. Among "hot" EFs (i.e., those involving motivations and emotions), poor regulation of craving has been proposed to underlie addiction development in substance-use disorders (SUDs), making such regulation a potential treatment target. However, regulation of craving remains poorly understood in internet gaming disorder (IGD). Additionally, prior studies of cold EFs (e.g., inhibition and cognitive flexibility under neutral conditions) in IGD have provided mixed results and mostly included only male subjects. We addressed these issues by instructing 54 participants (26 with IGD including males and females, and 28 control subjects) to perform a regulation-of-craving (ROC) task and a Stroop color-word-interference task. Compared to control subjects, individuals with IGD revealed deficits in regulation for both gaming- and food-related craving, but no differences in Stroop performance. The current study provides initial empirical support suggesting regulation impairments for both addiction-related and primary rewards among individuals with IGD. The findings are consistent with studies in SUDs, suggesting that impaired regulation of craving may be a relevant transdiagnostic construct across SUDs and behavioral addictions. The findings suggest targeting regulation of "hot" processes should be considered in IGD treatment development.

Sex differences in resting-state cerebral activity alterations in internet gaming disorder

Although evidence has shown that the prevalence rates of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) differ between males and females, few studies have examined whether such sex differences extend to brain function. This study aimed to explore the sex differences in resting-state cerebral activity alterations in IGD. Thirty male participants with IGD (IGDm), 23 female participants with IGD (IGDf), and 30 male and 22 female age-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state functional MRI. Maps of the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) were constructed. A two-factor ANCOVA model was performed, with sex and diagnosis as the between-subject factors. Then, post hoc pair-wise comparisons were performed using two-sample t-tests within the interaction masks. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) was used to assess the behavioral inhibition function. We found that the ALFF values in the orbital part of the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) were lower in IGDm than in HCm, which were negatively correlated with BIS-11 scores. IGDm also demonstrated lower connectivity between the orbital part of the left SFG and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the right angular gyrus, and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex than HCm. Furthermore, IGDm had lower seed connectivity between the orbital part of the left SFG and the PCC than ICDf. Our findings suggest that (1) the altered ALFF values in the orbital part of the left SFG represent a clinically relevant biomarker for the behavioral inhibition function of IGDm; (2) IGD may interact with sex-specific patterns of FC in male and female subjects.

Cue-elicited craving-related lentiform activation during gaming deprivation is associated with the emergence of Internet gaming disorder

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is associated with negative health measures. However, little is known regarding the brain mechanisms or cognitive factors that may predict transitions from regular game use (RGU) to IGD. Such knowledge may help identify individuals who are particularly vulnerable to IGD and aid in prevention efforts. One hundred forty-nine individuals with RGU were scanned when they were performing a cue-elicited-craving task before gaming and after gaming was suddenly ceased. One year later, 23 were found to have developed IGD (RGU_IGD). We compared the original data from these 23 RGU_IGD subjects and 23 one-to-one matched subjects still meeting criteria for RGU (RGU_RGU). RGU_IGD and RGU_RGU subjects showed similarities in the cue-elicited-craving task before gaming. Significant group-by-time interaction identified the bilateral lentiform nucleus. Post hoc analysis showed the interaction was related to increased activation in the RGU_IGD subjects following gaming. Significant correlations were observed between self-reported cravings and lentiform activation in the RGU_IGD subjects. Among individuals with RGU, gaming-cue-induced lentiform activation following a session of gaming may predict subsequent development of IGD. The findings suggest a biological mechanism for emergence of IGD that may help inform prevention interventions.