Abstract
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is associated with deficits in social communication and avoidance of social contact. It has been hypothesized that people with IAD may have an impaired capacity for empathy. The purpose of the current study was to examine the processing of empathy for others’ pain in IADs. Event-related potentials produced in response to pictures showing others in painful and non-painful situations were recorded in 16 IAD subjects and 16 healthy controls (HCs). The N1, P2, N2, P3, and late positive potential components were compared between the two groups. Robust picture × group interactions were observed for N2 and P3. The painful pictures elicited larger N2 and P3 amplitudes than the non-painful pictures did only in the HC group but not in the IAD group. The results of this study suggest that both of the early automatic and of the later cognitive processes of pain empathy may be impaired in IADs. This study provides psychophysical evidence of empathy deficits in association with IAD. Further studies combining multidimensional measurements of empathy are needed to confirm these findings.
Highlights
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has been described as an inability to control internet use despite severe negative consequences and is generally conceptualized as a behavioral addiction (Tam and Walter, 2013; D’Hondt et al, 2015; Kuss and Lopez-Fernandez, 2016), representing a specific impairment that involves online and/or offline web misuse, and it is mainly relevant for young generations (Grant et al, 2010; Balconi et al, 2017)
Both groups response faster to painful situation comparing to the non-painful situation (IAD_P: 633.488 ± 54.928 ms; IADs observing the non-painful pictures (IAD_NP): 669.714 ± 74.255 ms; HCs observing the painful pictures (HC_P): 645.528 ± 55.207 ms; HCs observing the non-painful pictures (HC_NP): 684.085 ± 61.851 ms)
For Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) scores, we run independent t-tests to compare the scores of IAD group and healthy controls (HCs) group for all four subscales
Summary
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has been described as an inability to control internet use despite severe negative consequences and is generally conceptualized as a behavioral addiction (Tam and Walter, 2013; D’Hondt et al, 2015; Kuss and Lopez-Fernandez, 2016), representing a specific impairment that involves online and/or offline web misuse, and it is mainly relevant for young generations (Grant et al, 2010; Balconi et al, 2017). The top-down controlled process, on the other hand, refers to the process that is under control of the intentions of the observer and can be voluntarily modulated by factors such as the instructions, task demands, prior experience, social relations, etc., (Fan and Han, 2008) This model can help us to resolve which stage of empathy may be impaired in IADs. IAD may be comorbid with other psychiatric states, especially depression and anxiety (Sanders et al, 2000; Yen et al, 2007; Wei et al, 2012; Lai et al, 2015). If the voluntary, top-down processing is impaired, it should be evident in the P3 and/or LPP (Ibanez et al, 2011)
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