Decreased modulation by the risk level on the brain activation during decision making in adolescents with internet gaming disorder.

Guijin Du,Quan Zhang,Xiaodong Li,Yang Zhang,Xin Du,Xin Qi,Peihong Gao,Wen Qin,Yongxin Yang

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00296

Abstract

Greater impulse and risk-taking and reduced decision-making ability were reported as the main behavioral impairments in individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD), which has become a serious mental health issue worldwide. However, it is not clear to date how the risk level modulates brain activity during the decision-making process in IGD individuals. In this study, 23 adolescents with IGD and 24 healthy controls (HCs) without IGD were recruited, and the balloon analog risk task (BART) was used in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to evaluate the modulation of the risk level (the probability of balloon explosion) on brain activity during risky decision making in IGD adolescents. Reduced modulation of the risk level on the activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the active BART was found in IGD group compared to the HCs. In the IGD group, there was a significant negative correlation between the risk-related DLPFC activation during the active BART and the Barratt impulsivity scale (BIS-11) scores, which were significantly higher in IGD group compared with the HCs. Our study demonstrated that, as a critical decision-making-related brain region, the right DLPFC is less sensitive to risk in IGD adolescents compared with the HCs, which may contribute to the higher impulsivity level in IGD adolescents.

Highlights

Internet gaming disorder has become increasingly prevalent around the world, especially in Asia (Wu et al, 2013; Tang et al, 2014), and results in an adverse impact on various behavioral and psychosocial aspects (Ko et al, 2010)
The two-sample t-test revealed that the average response time (RT) was shorter in internet gaming disorder (IGD) group than in the healthy controls (HC) while the active mode took place (P = 0.03), the number of the total pumps was significantly more in the IGD group (P < 0.001)
There was no significant correlation between the activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and Young’s online internet addiction test (IAT) scores in the IGD group

Summary

Introduction

Internet gaming disorder has become increasingly prevalent around the world, especially in Asia (Wu et al, 2013; Tang et al, 2014), and results in an adverse impact on various behavioral and psychosocial aspects (Ko et al, 2010). Behavioral research suggested that a reduced risky decision-making ability is one of the most important behavioral impairments in IGD individuals (Pawlikowski and Brand, 2011; Yao et al, 2015). Risky decision-making-related brain activation in IGD individuals made more disadvantageous choices on the Game of Dice Task compare with HCs and that such an impairments may be partly the result of failure to utilize feedback (Pawlikowski and Brand, 2011; Yao et al, 2014). IGD individuals tend to exhibit disadvantageous risky decision making and encounter more adverse situations (Yao et al, 2015), which may lead to a negative effect on IGD individuals and society. It is important to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the altered risky decision making in IGD individuals

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion