Compensatory increase of functional connectivity density in adolescents with internet gaming disorder

Abstract

Behavioral studies have demonstrated visual attention bias and working memory deficits in individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD). Neuroimaging studies demonstrated that individuals with IGD presented abnormalities in brain structures and functions including resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) disturbance. However, most previous studies investigated IGD-related rsFC alterations by using hypothesis-driven methods with priori selection of a region of interest, which cannot provide a full picture of the rsFC changes in IGD individuals. In this study, we recruited 27 male IGD adolescents and 35 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) to investigate abnormal connective property of each voxel within whole brain of IGD adolescents using resting-state functional connectivity density (rsFCD) method, and further to evaluate the relationship between altered rsFCD and behavioral performances of visual attention and working memory. The results exhibited no significant intergroup difference in behavioral performance (visual working memory and attention). The IGD adolescents exhibited higher global/long-range rsFCD in the bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the right inferior temporal cortex (ITC)/fusiform compared with the HCs. Although no significant correlation survived after Bonferroni correction, higher global/long-range rsFCD of the bilateral DLPFC was correlated with the Young's internet addiction test (IAT) score and/or behavioral performance in IGD adolescents using an uncorrected threshold of P < 0.05. In conclusion, IGD adolescents demonstrated increased rsFCD in the brain regions involved in working memory, spatial orientation and attention processing, which indicated that increased rsFCD may reflect a compensatory mechanism for maintaining the normal behavioral performance in IGD adolescents compared with the HCs.

Cortical thickness and volume abnormalities in Internet gaming disorder: Evidence from comparison of recreational Internet game users

“…We noted a significant negative correlation between the cortical thickness of the left inferior parietal lobule and the IAT scores of the IGD group (Figure ). Consistently, previous studies indicated a significant correlation between Young's IAT scores and resting‐state functional connectivity density of the bilateral DLPFC in IGD (Du et al., ). Therefore, the present study inferred the structural changes in executive control in IGD.…”

“…On the basis of the findings of previous addiction studies, we hypothesized that compared with RGUs, IGD subjects would show lower cortical thickness and cortical volume in brain regions that are involved in executive control, decision making, and reward/loss processing. Previous studies indicated a significant correlation between structural changes in the previously stated brain regions and self‐rated craving or Internet addiction test (IAT) scores (Du et al., ; Sun et al., ). Therefore, in this study, we also collected the craving ratings and IAT scores and investigated their correlations with the brain structural indices.…”

Alterations of Resting-State Static and Dynamic Functional Connectivity of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Subjects with Internet Gaming Disorder

“…Based on previous studies, both functional and structural abnormalities of the DLPFC have been commonly observed in IGD (Yuan et al, 2011 , 2017 ; Du et al, 2017 ). Complex cognitive functions, such as conflict-induced behavioral adjustment, attention, working memory, and inhibitory control, have usually been associated with activations in DLPFC.…”

Random topology organization and decreased visual processing of internet addiction: Evidence from a minimum spanning tree analysis

“…Higher FC in IA has previously been reported in studies using different modalities, but the pattern of this FC and the methods vary considerably between studies. In many studies that used lower temporal resolution but high spatial resolution fMRI, an increased FC pattern was found (Du et al, ; Han, Kim, Bae, Renshaw, & Anderson, ; Hong, Sun, Bae, & Han, ). Such a correlation between increased FC and IA may be interpreted as a constructive, adaptive effect of prolonged internet use forming a training effect (Han et al, ).…”