Abstract
Background and Aims: Internet gaming disorder (IGD), as a relapse disease, has become a common mental health problem among Asian teenagers. Functional connections in the prefrontal lobo-striatum affect changes in impulsivity and inhibition. Therefore, exploration of the directional connections of the relevant brain regions in the prefrontal-striatal circuit and the synchronization level of the two hemispheres will help us to further understand the neural mechanism of IGD, which can provide guidance for the development of prevention and intervention strategies.Methods: Twenty-two adolescents with IGD, recruited through various channels, composed the IGD group. Twenty-six subjects, matching age, gender, and education level, were included in a recreational internet game users (RGUs) control group. Impulsivity and response inhibition were tested via general questionnaire, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Barratt impulsivity scale-11 (BIS-11), and a Stroop color-word task. A Granger causality analysis (GCA) was used to calculate the directional connection between the prefrontal and striatum with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as a region of interest (ROI). We chose voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) to determine brain hemisphere functional connectivity in the prefrontal-striatal circuits.Results: We found significant differences in impulsivity between the IGD group and RGU group, with members of the IGD group exhibiting higher impulsivity. Additionally, the response inhibition of adolescents with IGD in the Stroop color-word task was impaired. There was a significant difference in the directed connection of the left DLPFC and dorsal striatum between the IGD group and the RGU group.Conclusions: This study confirmed the role of prefrontal-striatal circuits in the neural mechanism of IGD in adolescents. In the IGD group, bilateral cerebral medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) synchronization was significantly reduced, which indicated that mOFC signal transmission in both hemispheres of the brain might be affected by impulse behavior and impaired response inhibition.
Highlights
The “42nd China Internet Development Statistics Report,” published by the China Internet Network Information Center, showed that the number of Internet users in China had reached 802 million, with an internet penetration rate of 57.7% by June 2018
While abnormal cognitive control in patients with internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been shown to be associated with changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the current study focused only on the strength of the functional connections between the prefrontal cortex and the striatum
Compared with the recreational online game users (RGUs) group, there was a significant difference in connection efficacy between the left DLPFC and the dorsal striatum in the IGD group, which indicates that the prefrontal striatum circuits of adolescents with IGD adolescents were partially damaged
Summary
The “42nd China Internet Development Statistics Report,” published by the China Internet Network Information Center, showed that the number of Internet users in China had reached 802 million, with an internet penetration rate of 57.7% by June 2018. With the popularity of the Internet, internet gaming disorder (IGD) [1] has had a considerable impact on public health. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition) has classified IGD as a disease that requires further study. A systematic review of more than 50 studies worldwide [2] suggested that IGD is more common in adolescents. Internet gaming disorder (IGD), as a relapse disease, has become a common mental health problem among Asian teenagers. Exploration of the directional connections of the relevant brain regions in the prefrontal-striatal circuit and the synchronization level of the two hemispheres will help us to further understand the neural mechanism of IGD, which can provide guidance for the development of prevention and intervention strategies
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