Striatum morphometry is associated with cognitive control deficits and symptom severity in internet gaming disorder

Abstract

Internet gaming disorder (IGD), identified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) Section III as a condition warranting more clinical research, may be associated with impaired cognitive control. Previous IGD-related studies had revealed structural abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex, an important part of prefrontal-striatal circuits, which play critical roles in cognitive control. However, little is known about the relationship between the striatal nuclei (caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens) volumes and cognitive control deficit in individuals with IGD. Twenty-seven adolescents with IGD and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls participated in this study. The volume differences of the striatum were assessed by measuring subcortical volume in FreeSurfer. Meanwhile, the Stroop task was used to detect cognitive control deficits. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between striatal volumes and performance in the Stroop task as well as severity in IGD. Relative to controls, the IGD committed more incongruent condition response errors during the Stroop task and showed increased volumes of dorsal striatum (caudate) and ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens). In addition, caudate volume was correlated with Stroop task performance and nucleus accumbens (NAc) volume was associated with the internet addiction test (IAT) score in the IGD group. The increased volumes of the right caudate and NAc and their association with behavioral characteristics (i.e., cognitive control and severity) in IGD were detected in the present study. Our findings suggest that the striatum may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of IGD.

Internet Game Overuse Is Associated With an Alteration of Fronto-Striatal Functional Connectivity During Reward Feedback Processing

“…It is one of the brain regions where IGD-associated abnormalities have been widely reported in molecular (46), structural (47, 48), and functional studies (17). For example, young adults with internet addiction exhibit reduced dopamine D2 receptor availability in the bilateral dorsal caudate, and the severity of internet addiction measured by IAT scales is negatively associated with dopamine D2 receptor availability in the left caudate (46).…”

Structural alterations in the prefrontal cortex mediate the relationship between Internet gaming disorder and depressed mood

“…Nevertheless, the neuroanatomical profile of the striatum in IGD is relatively less clear despite the important role of the striatum in addiction, with the exception of two studies that showed increased volume of the right NAcc in IGD subjects compared with that of healthy controls 19, 20 . These conflicting results may be derived from the different sample characteristics.…”

“…Structurally, gray matter (GM) volume and cortical thickness in prefrontal areas including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and striatum were correlated with addiction duration, gaming duration, cognitive deficits and severity of IGD 17–19 . Functionally, the abnormal involvement of the fronto-striatal network has been associated with impairments in inhibition 20–22 , impulse control 23 , the severity of Internet addiction 24 , and affective and cognitive processing 25 .…”

“…Despite its essential role in addiction, the neuroanatomical characteristics of the striatum are relatively less investigated in IGD research except for two studies conducted by a team of researchers 19, 20 . These studies reported increased volume of the caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which were associated with cognitive control and the severity of the addiction, respectively.…”

Reduced resting‐state functional connectivity and sleep impairment in abstinent male alcohol‐dependent patients

“…The intracranial volume (ICV) and regional brain volumes were obtained by applying the FreeSurfer 5.0 (http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu) longitudinal processing pipeline on the T1‐weighted MPRAGE images as described in our previous studies (Cai et al, ; Li et al, ; Yuan et al, ). The processing procedure consisted of (a) skull stripping; (b) automated Talairach transformation; (c) segmentation of the subcortical white matter and deep gray matter volumetric structures; (d) intensity normalization; (e) tessellation of the gray matter/white matter boundary; (f) automated topology correction; (g) surface deformation; (h) registration of the subjects' brains to a common spherical atlas.…”