Abstract
ObjectivesInternet addiction (IA) has been associated with widespread brain alterations. Functional connectivity (FC) and network analysis results related to IA are inconsistent between studies, and how network hubs change is not known. The aim of this study was to evaluate functional and topological networks using an unbiased minimum spanning tree (MST) analysis on electroencephalography (EEG) data in IA and healthy control (HC) college students.MethodsIn this study, Young's internet addiction test was used as an IA severity measure. EEG recordings were obtained in IA (n = 30) and HC participants (n = 30), matched for age and sex, during rest. The phase lag index (PLI) and MST were applied to analyze FC and network topology. We expected to obtain evidence of underlying alterations in functional and topological networks related to IA.ResultsIA participants showed higher delta FC between left‐side frontal and parieto‐occipital areas compared to the HC group (p < 0.001), global MST measures revealed a more star‐like network in IA participants in the upper alpha and beta bands, and the occipital brain region was relatively less important in the IA relative to the HC group in the lower band. The correlation results were consistent with the MST results: higher IA severity correlated with higher Max degree and kappa, and lower eccentricity and diameter.ConclusionsFunctional networks of the IA group were characterized by increased FC, a more random organization, and a decrease of relative functional importance of the visual processing area. Taken together, these alterations can help us understand the influence of IA to brain mechanism.
Highlights
The consequences of the popularity of the internet are both benefi‐ cial and disadvantageous, while excessive use of the internet may leadHongxia Wang and Yan Sun contributed to this work.to internet addiction (IA)
We found that a significant increase in the Functional connectivity (FC) between the left frontal (AF7) and left parietooccipital (PO7) lobes in the IA group relative to healthy control (HC) restricted to the delta band
Our results revealed FC and topological differences between the IA and HC groups
Summary
The consequences of the popularity of the internet are both benefi‐ cial and disadvantageous, while excessive use of the internet may leadHongxia Wang and Yan Sun contributed to this work.to internet addiction (IA). The University of Pittsburgh's Psychology Professor Young defined the IA as the excessive or uncontrolled use of the internet with negative consequences to psychological, so‐ cial, and/or work functioning aspects (Dong, Lin, & Potenza, 2015; Young, 1998). With the advancement of neurological imag‐ ing detection techniques, structural and functional alterations of multiple brain regions have been found in IA. Some studies found that adolescents with IA exhibited increased coherence compared to HC participants regardless of psychological features (e.g., depression, anxiety, and impulsivity) (Kwan & Choi, 2015; Park et al, 2017), while others found that IA appears to result from reduced connectivity (Hong, Zalesky et al, 2013; Wee et al, 2014).
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