Abstract
Although internet gaming disorder (IGD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) represent opposite ends of the impulsivity and compulsivity dimensions, the two disorders share common neurocognitive deficits in response inhibition. However, the similarities and differences in neurophysiological features of altered response inhibition between IGD and OCD have not been investigated sufficiently. In total, 27 patients with IGD, 24 patients with OCD, and 26 healthy control (HC) subjects participated in a Go/NoGo task with electroencephalographic recordings. N2-P3 complexes elicited during Go and NoGo condition were analyzed separately and compared among conditions and groups. NoGo-N2 latency at the central electrode site was delayed in IGD group versus the HC group and correlated positively with the severity of internet game addiction and impulsivity. NoGo-N2 amplitude at the frontal electrode site was smaller in OCD patients than in IGD patients. These findings suggest that prolonged NoGo-N2 latency may serve as a marker of trait impulsivity in IGD and reduced NoGo-N2 amplitude may be a differential neurophysiological feature between OCD from IGD with regard to compulsivity. We report the first differential neurophysiological correlate of the altered response inhibition in IGD and OCD, which may be a candidate biomarker for impulsivity and compulsivity.
Highlights
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), in which similarities and differences in impulsive and compulsive disorders could be compared and further investigated from multiple perspectives[6]
Hermann et al showed that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients had reduced frontal activity during the NoGo condition, and that anteriorization was negatively correlated with Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale (Y-BOCS) scores[34]
Studies including Internet gaming disorder (IGD) subjects have reported inconsistent results, which may be due to differences in task complexity among studies; no significant neurophysiological correlate of impulsivity has been identified[17,30,31,32]
Summary
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), in which similarities and differences in impulsive and compulsive disorders could be compared and further investigated from multiple perspectives[6]. Two other studies reported increased NoGo-N2 amplitudes in excessive gamers or smartphone users and interpreted the results as compensatory hyperactivity for response inhibition failure[31,32] These inconsistencies may be due to variation in task difficulty among studies, which is known to have an effect on the direction of NoGo-N2 amplitude alteration (i.e., enhanced or decreased)[33]. We investigated the similarities and differences in response inhibition of IGD versus OCD during Go/NoGo task performance We measured both behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of response inhibition and used tasks of equal difficulty in each group to control for any possible effect of task complexity on ERP responses. We expected any failure in inhibitory control, in IGD or OCD, to be related to different neurophysiological features between the disorders with respect to impulsivity and compulsivity
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