Attenuated self-serving bias in people with internet gaming disorder is related to altered neural activity in subcortical-cortical midline structures

Xiuyan Guo,Chenggong Wang,Yifan Wang,Li Zheng

doi:10.1186/s12888-020-02914-4

Abstract

BackgroundTo protect and maintain the positivity of self-concept, normal people usually show a self-serving bias (internal attribution of positive events and external attribution of negative events) by the motives of self-enhancement and self-protection. Additionally, self-serving assessments predominantly activate the subcortical-cortical midline structures (CMS) in healthy individuals. However, little is known about self-serving bias and its underlying neural correlates among individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD).MethodsTwenty-four participants with IGD and 25 recreational Internet gaming users (RGUs) were scanned while attributing the causes of positive/negative self- and other-related events that could occur in both the game-world and real-world contexts. Region-of-interest (within CMS regions) and parametric analysis were performed to investigate the neural correlates of self-serving bias in IGD.ResultsBehaviorally, the IGD participants attributed more negative and fewer positive events to themselves than RGU participants in both contexts. Neurally, during the attributions of negative events, the IGD participants exhibited increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation in both contexts compared with RGU participants. Higher vmPFC activation was associated with weaker self-protective motivation in the IGD group. Meanwhile, during the attributions of positive events, the IGD participants exhibited decreased precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex activation in the real world compared with RGU participants. Parametric analysis showed a reduced positive correlation between precuneus activation and self-attribution ratings of positive events in the real world in the IGD group relative to the RGU group.ConclusionThese results suggest that individuals with IGD show an attenuated self-serving bias and altered brain activity within CMS regions involved in self-attribution, providing evidence for the negative self-concept and weakened abilities in both self-enhancement and self-protection in IGD.

Highlights

To protect and maintain the positivity of self-concept, normal people usually show a self-serving bias by the motives of selfenhancement and self-protection
Except for exploring the self-serving bias in the real world, we explored this cognitive process in the Internet game world, considering that the individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) preferably use games to escape discomfort and are immersed in a virtual environment where they interact with other players
Subsequent simple-effect analysis performed on the groups showed that the IGD group exhibited increased brain response in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) than the Recreational Internet Gaming User (RGU) group in the negative condition [F (1, 47) = 4.42, p = 0.041, partial η2 = 0.09], but no group difference was found in the positive condition [F (1, 47) = 0.55, p = 0.461] (Fig. 4a)

Summary

Introduction

To protect and maintain the positivity of self-concept, normal people usually show a self-serving bias (internal attribution of positive events and external attribution of negative events) by the motives of selfenhancement and self-protection. Little is known about self-serving bias and its underlying neural correlates among individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Some individuals play online games excessively and persistently without considering the severe consequences, such as disrupted relationships, social deficits and poor academic/work performance [1, 2]. This manner of overusing online games is widely known as Internet gaming disorder (IGD), which has several clinical features such as loss of control, poor time management and craving [3,4,5]. Extensive empirical studies have focused on the complex set of cognitive processes in IGD and converged to the same findings that individuals with IGD exhibit impaired decision-making, poor executive control abilities and enhanced reward sensitivity [11,12,13]

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