Cortical Thickness Abnormalities in Late Adolescence with Online Gaming Addiction

Abstract

Online gaming addiction, as the most popular subtype of Internet addiction, had gained more and more attention from the whole world. However, the structural differences in cortical thickness of the brain between adolescents with online gaming addiction and healthy controls are not well unknown; neither was its association with the impaired cognitive control ability. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans from late adolescence with online gaming addiction (n = 18) and age-, education- and gender-matched controls (n = 18) were acquired. The cortical thickness measurement method was employed to investigate alterations of cortical thickness in individuals with online gaming addiction. The color-word Stroop task was employed to investigate the functional implications of the cortical thickness abnormalities. Imaging data revealed increased cortical thickness in the left precentral cortex, precuneus, middle frontal cortex, inferior temporal and middle temporal cortices in late adolescence with online gaming addiction; meanwhile, the cortical thicknesses of the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insula, lingual gyrus, the right postcentral gyrus, entorhinal cortex and inferior parietal cortex were decreased. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the cortical thicknesses of the left precentral cortex, precuneus and lingual gyrus correlated with duration of online gaming addiction and the cortical thickness of the OFC correlated with the impaired task performance during the color-word Stroop task in adolescents with online gaming addiction. The findings in the current study suggested that the cortical thickness abnormalities of these regions may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of online gaming addiction.

Altered Functional Connectivity of the Insula and Nucleus Accumbens in Internet Gaming Disorder: A Resting State fMRI Study

“…Subjects with IGD have been reported to have decreased cortex thickness [19] , lower white matter density [20] , and impaired error-process activation over insula [21] . Based on the previous studies, we hypothesized that FC between the insula, inferior frontal lobe, and DLPFC is associated with IGD.…”

Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume and interactions

“…One small study in internet addiction showed lower cortical thickness in the OFC [Hong et al, 2013], with another reporting lower volume in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [Yuan et al, 2011] and two studies suggesting lower ACC volumes [Yuan et al, 2011; Zhou et al, 2011]. Two small studies in internet gaming disorders reported decreased volumes in OFC [Weng et al, 2013; Yuan et al, 2013], and two larger studies reported smaller volumes in cingulate cortex [Lin et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2015] with single studies reporting decreases in DLPFC [Wang et al, 2015], inferior frontal [Lin et al, 2014], superior parietal [Wang et al, 2015] and inferior parietal [Yuan et al, 2013] cortices. With respect to subcortical structures, one small study reported higher ventral striatal (VS) volumes in gambling disorder [Koehler et al, 2013] with no subcortical differences reported in the other studies.…”

Impact of Internet Addiction on Mental Health: An Integrative Therapy Is Needed

“…Recently various morphometric studies on cortical centres of the brain with IA have found possible neural mechanisms. Brain regions which are involved in executive control, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and anterior cingulate cortex (Acc) showed decreased grey matter volume [23][24][25][26] and reduced cortical thickness [27,28]. In addition, cortical volume loss in striatum and insular cortex is also measured [29,30].…”