Abstract
Converging evidence has proved the attentional bias of Internet addicts (IAs) on network information. However, previous studies have neither explained how characteristics of network information are detected by IAs with priority nor proved whether this advantage is in line with the unconscious and automatic process. To answer the two questions, this study aims to investigate whether IAs prioritize automatic detection of network information from the behavior and cognitive neuroscience aspects. 15 severe IAs and 15 matching healthy controls were selected using Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Dot-probe task with mask was used in the behavioral experiment, while deviant-standard reverse oddball paradigm was used in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment to induce mismatch negativity (MMN). In the dot-probe task, when the probe location appeared on the Internet-related picture’s position, the IAs had significantly shorter reaction time than do the controls; in the ERP experiment, when Internet-related picture appeared, MMN was significantly induced in the IAs relative to the controls. Both experiments show that IAs can automatically detect network information.
Highlights
Attentional bias means that addicts are more inclined to show attentional processing advantage over addiction-related cues[9]
Long-term addictive stimulation changes the brain system function related to the reward circuit, which is a dopamine functional projection area that consists of the ventral mesencephalon to ventral striatum in the ventral tegmental area, amygdala, diaphragmatic nucleus, prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex (Nacc)
Considering the behavioral level, dot-probe with masking task was used in Experiment 1 to investigate whether there is automatic detection advantage of the Internet-related pictures among the Internet addicts (IAs)
Summary
Attentional bias means that addicts are more inclined to show attentional processing advantage over addiction-related cues[9]. Network words induce higher activation in the inferior parietal lobule, middle occipital gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at the same time than do non-network words These brain regions are associated with attentional processing[12], suggesting that IAs put a large amount of neural resources on network-related words. Neural sensitization leads to the psychological and implicit characterization of addiction-related cues through addiction salience and causes a pathological desire for addictive behavior[15] From these two theories, it is not hard to draw a conclusion that, when it comes to the attentional bias, the researchers above emphasized the automatic and unconscious processing of addicts toward addiction-related cues. If the automatic detection advantage of IAs on characteristics of network information can be proved under the unconscious state, we will enrich the study of the area, and provide direct evidence of automatic processing advantage for the unconscious bias theories above. Visual MMN could be used in the study of perceptual processing ability of patients with various neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia[31,32], depression[33,34,35] and long-term amphetamine abusers[36] (for review see Kremláček, et al.[37])
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