Heuer A, Mennig M, Schubö A, Barke A. Impaired disengagement of attention from computer-related stimuli in Internet Gaming Disorder: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.
J Behav Addict 2021;
10:77-87. [PMID:
33427693 PMCID:
PMC8969859 DOI:
10.1556/2006.2020.00100]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2020] [Revised: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Attentional biases contribute to the maintenance of addictive behaviors. For the problematic use of online gaming - recognized as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) - first evidence points to a bias towards in-game stimuli. This study aimed to provide behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for a generalized bias towards computer-related stimuli, and to identify the specific attentional processes contributing to this bias: facilitated attention deployment, impaired disengagement or failed suppression.
METHOD
Twenty participants with IGD and 23 casual gamers performed a visual search task with photographs of real-world objects. Either the target or a to-be-ignored distractor was addiction-relevant (computer-related), whereas all other items were addiction-irrelevant (related to cars or sport). Event-related potential components associated with facilitated attentional deployment to the target (NT), its post-selection processing (SPCN), and suppression of irrelevant information (PD) were analyzed.
RESULTS
Unlike casual gamers, gamers with IGD exhibited prolonged reaction times and increased SPCN amplitudes for computer-related stimuli, reflecting their continued attentional processing. At the individual level, larger SPCN amplitudes were associated with longer delays in reaction time.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
This pattern of results indicates that the disengagement of attention from computer-related stimuli is impaired in IGD. More generally, our findings demonstrate that conditioning processes occur in IGD, and thus open up new avenues for treatment.
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