Editorial: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Internet Gaming Disorder

Abstract Background Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a type of behavioral addiction characterized by poorly controlled and interfering patterns of game playing. Studies have suggested that the IGD is usually accompanied by increased desire or craving for gaming, suggesting that secondary rewards related to gaming may become more salient than those for primary rewards like food. However, this hypothesis has not been formally tested and potential neural mechanisms remain unclear. Methods This is a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Twenty-one IGD subjects and 23 matched individuals with recreational game use (RGU) were scanned when exposed to gaming (secondary rewards), food (primary rewards) and neutral cues. Group-by-cue-type interaction analyses and subsequent within-group analyses for fMRI data were performed and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analyses explored further potential neural features. Results IGD subjects’ subjective craving responses to gaming cues were higher than to food cues, while the opposite was observed in RGU subjects. Group-by-cue interaction effects implicated the precuneus and precuneus-caudate FC. Simple effect analysis showed that for IGD subjects, gaming-related cues elicited higher FC in precuneus-caudate relationships than did food-related cues. In the RGU subjects, the opposite was observed. Significant correlations were found between brain features and craving scores. Conclusions These results support the hypothesis regarding imbalances in sensitivities to different types of reward in IGD, and suggest neural mechanisms by which craving for gaming may make secondary rewards more salient than primary ones, thus promoting participation in addictive patterns of gaming.

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Altered Reward Processing System in Internet Gaming Disorder

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2020.599141 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Syeda Raiha ◽

Guochun Yang ◽

Lingxiao Wang ◽

Weine Dai ◽

Haiyan Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Taking ◽

Internet Gaming Disorder ◽

Outcome Evaluation ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Gaming Addiction ◽

Gaming Disorder ◽

Internet Gaming ◽

Internet Gaming Addiction

Converging evidence indicates that addiction involves impairment in reward processing systems. However, the patterns of dysfunction in different stages of reward processing in internet gaming addiction remain unclear. In previous studies, individuals with internet gaming disorder were found to be impulsive and risk taking, but there is no general consensus on the relation between impulsivity and risk-taking tendencies in these individuals. The current study explored behavioral and electrophysiological responses associated with different stages of reward processing among individuals with internet gaming disorders (IGDs) with a delayed discounting task and simple gambling tasks. Compared to the healthy control (HC) group, the IGD group discounted delays more steeply and made more risky choices, irrespective of the outcome. As for the event-related potential (ERP) results, during the reward anticipation stage, IGDs had the same stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) for both large and small choices, whereas HCs exhibited a higher SPN in large vs. small choices. During the outcome evaluation stage, IGDs exhibited a blunted feedback-related negativity for losses vs. gains. The results indicate impairment across different stages of reward processing among IGDs. Moreover, we found negative correlation between impulsivity indexed by BIS-11 and reward sensitivity indexed by SPN amplitude during anticipation stage only, indicating different neural mechanisms at different stages of reward processing. The current study helps to elucidate the behavioral and neural mechanisms of reward processing in internet gaming addiction.

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Neural Mechanisms Underlying Internet Gaming Disorder

10.3389/978-2-88945-655-0 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Internet Gaming Disorder ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Gaming Disorder ◽

Internet Gaming

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Internet Gaming Disorder Scale--Short Form; Polish Version

PsycTESTS Dataset ◽

10.1037/t70447-000 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Bruno Schivinski ◽

Magdalena Brzozowska-Woś ◽

Erin M. Buchanan ◽

Mark D. Griffiths ◽

Halley M. Pontes

Keyword(s):

Short Form ◽

Internet Gaming Disorder ◽

Gaming Disorder ◽

Internet Gaming ◽

Polish Version

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Estimated Prevalence of Unreported IGD Cases in Routine Outpatient Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18136787 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (13) ◽

pp. 6787

Author(s):

Sonja Kewitz ◽

Eva Vonderlin ◽

Lutz Wartberg ◽

Katajun Lindenberg

Keyword(s):

Children And Adolescents ◽

Internet Gaming Disorder ◽

Self Report ◽

Clinical Population ◽

Gaming Disorder ◽

Parental Report ◽

Outpatient Psychotherapy ◽

Old Patients ◽

Internet Gaming ◽

Icd 10

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been included in the DSM-5 as a diagnosis for further study, and Gaming Disorder as a new diagnosis in the ICD-11. Nonetheless, little is known about the clinical prevalence of IGD in children and adolescents. Additionally, it is unclear if patients with IGD are already identified in routine psychotherapy, using the ICD-10 diagnosis F 63.8 (recommended classification of IGD in ICD-10). This study investigated N = 358 children and adolescents (self and parental rating) of an outpatient psychotherapy centre in Germany using the Video Game Dependency Scale. According to self-report 4.0% of the 11- to 17-year-old patients met criteria for a tentative IGD diagnosis and 14.0% according to the parental report. Of the 5- to 10-year-old patients, 4.1% were diagnosed with tentative IGD according to parental report. Patients meeting IGD criteria were most frequently diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorders, followed by anxiety disorders, F 63.8, conduct disorders, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders (descending order) as primary clinical diagnoses. Consequently, this study indicates that a significant amount of the clinical population presents IGD. Meaning, appropriate diagnostics should be included in routine psychological diagnostics in order to avoid “hidden” cases of IGD in the future.

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