Brain structures and activity during a working memory task associated with internet addiction tendency in young adults: A large sample study

Abstract

The structural and functional brain characteristics associated with the excessive use of the internet have attracted substantial research attention in the past decade. In current study, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and multiple regression analysis to assess the relationship between internet addiction tendency (IAT) score and regional gray and white matter volumes (rGMVs and rWMVs) and brain activity during a WM task in a large sample of healthy young adults (n = 1,154, mean age, 20.71 ± 1.78 years). We found a significant positive correlation between IAT score and gray matter volume (GMV) of right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG) and significant negative correlations with white matter volume (WMV) of right temporal lobe (sub-gyral and superior temporal gyrus), right sublobar area (extra-nuclear and lentiform nucleus), right cerebellar anterior lobe, cerebellar tonsil, right frontal lobe (inferior frontal gyrus and sub-gyral areas), and the pons. Also, IAT was significantly and positively correlated with brain activity in the default-mode network (DMN), medial frontal gyrus, medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, and anterior cingulate cortex during a 2-back working memory (WM) task. Moreover, whole-brain analyses of rGMV showed significant effects of interaction between sex and the IAT scores in the area spreading around the left anterior insula and left lentiform. This interaction was moderated by positive correlation in women. These results indicate that IAT is associated with (a) increased GMV in rSMG, which is involved in phonological processing, (b) decreased WMV in areas of frontal, sublobar, and temporal lobes, which are involved in response inhibition, and (c) reduced task-induced deactivation of the DMN, indicative of altered attentional allocation.

Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) alleviates chemotherapy related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in breast cancer survivors: A pilot study based on resting‐state fMRI

“…In this study, breast cancer patient changes in cognitive function may also be associated with activation of fALFF indictors in the temporal lobe. A large sample study recently found that the subgyral lobe of the temporal lobe functions as a very important brain region in human working memory 44 . This result is consistent with our fALFF analysis.…”

The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between internet addiction tendency and brain morphology

“…Patil and colleagues found that reduced spontaneous neuronal activity in the cerebellum was associated with a tendency of developing IA in healthy subjects 12 . A recent structural MRI study showed that the cerebellar volume was negatively correlated with IAT in healthy individuals 13 . The current result extended the previous finding by showing that there was a negative relationship between IAT scores and cerebellar volume in individuals with lower resting RMSSD.…”

“…Individuals with internet gaming disorder had functional or structural abnormalities in the PCu (e.g., decreased GMV) 7,47‐50 . Additionally, functional activity of the PCu showed a positive correlation with IAT scores in healthy young adults 13 . The GMV of the PCu was negatively correlated with IAT scores in healthy subjects 17 .…”

Brain Anatomy Alterations and Mental Health Challenges Correlate to Email Addiction Tendency

“…The neural correlates of internet addiction have been studied much more than the neural correlates of social networks addiction. In studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), internet addiction scores significantly correlate with GMVs in the right-middle frontal gyrus, supplementary motor area (SMA), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), cerebellum, right supramarginal gyrus, and the post-central gyrus (postCG) [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. There have been few studies examining the effects of social networking on brain anatomy.…”

“…On the basis of the previous studies, we hypothesized that higher EATS scores may be associated with structural alterations in the frontal and temporal areas known to contribute to dependence vulnerability [ 29 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Furthermore, we hypothesized that email addiction tendency is significantly positively correlated with the severity of depression symptoms and significantly negatively correlated with nonverbal reasoning abilities.…”