Instantaneous Respiratory Response of Gamer with High-Risk Internet Gaming Disorder during Game-Film Stimuli by Using Complementary Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition

Abnormal psychological performance as potential marker for high risk of internet gaming disorder: An eye-tracking study and support vector machine analysis

Individuals with high risk of internet gaming disorder (HIGD) showed abnormal psychological performances in response inhibition, impulse control, and emotion regulation, and are considered the high-risk stage of internet gaming disorder (IGD). The identification of this population mainly relies on clinical scales, which are less accurate. This study aimed to explore whether these performances have highly accurate for discriminating HIGD from low-risk ones. Eye tracking based anti-saccade task, Barratt impulsiveness scale (BIS), and Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS) were used to evaluate psychological performances in 57 individuals with HIGD and 52 matched low risk of internet gaming disorder (LIGD). HIGD group showed significantly increased BIS total (t = −2.875, p = 0.005), attention (t = −2.139, p = 0.035), motor (t = −2.017, p = 0.046), and non-planning (t = −2.171, p = 0.032) scores, but significantly decreased WLEIS emotion regulation score (t = 2.636, p = 0.010) and correct rate of eye tracking anti-saccade task (t = 2.294, p = 0.024) compared with LIGD group. BIS total score was negatively correlated with the WLEIS total (r = −0.473, p < 0.001) and WLEIS emotion regulation (r = −0.366, p < 0.001) scores. A combination of the WLEIS emotion regulation score and the correct rate of anti-saccade task could discriminate HIGD from LIGD with 91.23% sensitivity, 82.69% specificity, and 87.16% accuracy. Participants with higher gaming hours daily were 40 times more likely to be high risk than their counterparts (p < 0.001). Hence, psychological performances were worse in HIGD. A combination of abnormal emotion regulation and response inhibition might be a potential marker to identify HIGD individuals.

Escapism-Based Motivation Affected the Psychological Performances of High-Risk Internet Gaming Disorder Individuals

Background

Escapism-based motivation (EBM) is considered as one of the diagnostic criteria for internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, how EBM affects the high risk of IGD (HIGD) population remains unclear.

Methods

An initial number of 789 college students participated in the general, internet gaming behavior, and motivation surveys. After multiple evaluations, 57 individuals were identified as HIGD (25 with EBM, H-EBM; 32 with non-EBM, H-nEBM). In addition, 51 no-gaming individuals were included as the control group (CONTR). The cohorts completed the psychological assessments and eye-tracking tests, and analyses of group differences, correlations, and influencing factors of the indicators were performed.

Results

The Barratt impulsiveness score of H-nEBM and H-EBM was significantly higher than that of CONTR (MD = 3.605, P = 0.017; MD = 3.744, P = 0.022). In addition, emotional intelligence self-emotion management ability was significantly lower in the H-EBM than in CONTR (MD = -2.038, P = 0.004). Correct rates and reaction times in the anti-saccade task differed significantly between the three groups (F = 3.525, P = 0.033; F = 4.459, P = 0.014). However, no differences were found in the comparison of the digital span test (DST), trail making test (TMT), animal verbal fluency test, Stroop test, and mental rotation test results. The anti-saccade test indicators were positively correlated with the DST results but negatively correlated with the Stroop test results (P < 0.05). Correct rates in the mental rotation test were negatively correlated with the TMT results but positively correlated with the DST results (P < 0.05). The participants with high Stroop test scores and no lover experience and who were raised by their grandparents were likely to develop EBM to engage in high risk of internet gaming disorder (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

EBM has a significantly negative effect on impulsivity, self-emotion management ability, and response inhibition in the HIGD participants.

Toward instantaneous frequency of respiration to investigate the risk of internet gaming disorder

With the development of Internet, the number of people with symptoms of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has increased. In the past, psychologists used retrospective questionnaires to diagnose IGD. However, it is difficult to diagnose IGD symptoms instantaneously using retrospective questionnaires due to the requirement of an Internet gaming experience of greater than 6 months and the limitations of retrospective memory. Observing the physiological regulation system might instantaneously diagnose IGD. However, observation of instantaneous physiological response is limited due to the lack of appropriate techniques. Our previous study successfully combined complimentary ensemble empirical mode decomposition and normalized direct quadrature to obtain respiratory instantaneous frequency (IF) to overcome this limitation. This study uses game-related films as stimulus materials to observe the difference in respiratory IF response per second of gamers with high-risk IGD (HIGD) and low-risk IGD (LIGD). The result showed that the respiratory IF of gamers with HIGD is lower than those of gamers with LIGD at the time of stimulation. In addition, the study also observes the dynamic change in respiratory IF per second (IF_diff). The results showed that the instant at which a significant difference is observed in IF_diff between HIGD and LIGD can be matched to the stimulation of the films. In summary, this study demonstrated that the IF_diff of gamers with HIGD and LIGD are different when stimulated. Therefore, this suggests that IF_diff might be used as a potential physiological marker to instantaneously distinguish and diagnosis the risk of IGD.Clinical Relevance- This study investigates the dynamically psychophysiological response regulation by analyzing the respiratory IF of gamers diagnosed with IGD.