Abstract
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is an impulse disorder or at least related to impulse control disorder. Deficits in executive functioning, including response monitoring, have been proposed as a hallmark feature of impulse control disorders. The error-related negativity (ERN) reflects individual’s ability to monitor behavior. Since IAD belongs to a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder, theoretically, it should present response monitoring functional deficit characteristics of some disorders, such as substance dependence, ADHD, or alcohol abuse, testing with an Erikson flanker task. Up to now, no studies on response monitoring functional deficit in IAD were reported. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether IAD displays response monitoring functional deficit characteristics in a modified Erikson flanker task. Twenty-three subjects were recruited as IAD group. Twenty-three matched age, gender, and education healthy persons were recruited as control group. All participants completed the modified Erikson flanker task while measured with event-related potentials. IAD group made more total error rates than did controls (p < 0.01); Reactive times for total error responses in IAD group were shorter than did controls (p < 0.01). The mean ERN amplitudes of total error response conditions at frontal electrode sites and at central electrode sites of IAD group were reduced compared with control group (all p < 0.01). These results revealed that IAD displays response monitoring functional deficit characteristics and shares ERN characteristics of compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder.
Highlights
With Internet’s rapid advance and social penetration, its negative effects have emerged prominently
Another study which investigated the existence of differences in cortical thickness of the Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in adolescents with Internet addiction disorder (IAD) displayed that subjects with IAD have significantly decreased cortical thickness in the right lateral OFC (Hong et al, 2013), which supports the view that the OFC alterations in adolescents with Internet addiction reflect a shared neurobiological marker of addiction-related disorders in general
A study that investigated deficient inhibitory control in individuals with IAD using a visual go/nogo task by event-related potentials (ERPs) indicated individuals with IAD were more impulsive than controls and shared neuropsychological and ERPs characteristics of compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder, which supports that IAD is an impulse disorder, or at least related to impulse control disorder (Zhou et al, 2010)
Summary
With Internet’s rapid advance and social penetration, its negative effects have emerged prominently. Many studies support the hypothesis that IAD is a new and often unrecognized clinical disorder that can cause relational, occupational, and social problems. Recent estimates of its high prevalence in young people, combined with evidence that IAD is a maladaptive behavior with potentially serious occupational and mental health consequences, support the validity of the diagnosis (Ko et al, 2012). Another study which investigated the existence of differences in cortical thickness of the Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in adolescents with IAD displayed that subjects with IAD have significantly decreased cortical thickness in the right lateral OFC (Hong et al, 2013), which supports the view that the OFC alterations in adolescents with Internet addiction reflect a shared neurobiological marker of addiction-related disorders in general. There has been much disagreement in the planning for DSM-V about how to conceptualize this relatively new condition, or its core psychopathology (Holden, 2001)
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