scholarly journals Comparison of Behavioral Changes and Brain Activity between Adolescents with Internet Gaming Disorder and Student Pro-Gamers

Author(s):  
Ki Hyeon Kwak ◽  
Hyun Chan Hwang ◽  
Sun Mi Kim ◽  
Doug Hyun Han

While pro-gamers play according to defined living habits and planned schedules, adolescents with internet gaming disorder (IGD) exhibit irregular lifestyles and unregulated impulsive gaming behavior. Fourteen IGD adolescents and 12 pro-gaming students participated in this study. At baseline and after one year, demographic data, the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL), depressed mood, anxiety, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were assessed. Over the year, IGD adolescents played games as per their usual schedule, while pro-gamer students played according to their school’s team schedule. After one year, the pro-gamers’ scores had decreased in the CBCL-total (total problematic behaviors), CBCL-externalizing (under-controlled behavior, like impulsivity and aggression), and CBCL-internalizing (over-controlled behavior like depression and anxiety) compared to those of the IGD adolescents. Both groups displayed increased brain activity in the parietal lobe (a component of the attention network) over the years. Compared to pro-gamers, IGD adolescents showed higher brain activity within the left orbitofrontal cortex. Brain activity within the orbitofrontal cortex was associated with CBCL-externalizing scores. These results suggest that gaming had increased the attention network’s brain activity, but a well-organized support system could lead to different results, in terms of improved behaviors and suppressing brain activity within the orbitofrontal cortex.

2019 ◽  
pp. 108705471988302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Hyun Han ◽  
Sujin Bae ◽  
Jisun Hong ◽  
Sun Mi Kim ◽  
Yong Don Son ◽  
...  

Objective: We aimed to understand whether Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) share similar brain functional connectivity (FC) between the frontal and subcortices. Method: We compared changes in clinical symptoms and brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 26 patients with ADHD but without IGD, 29 patients with ADHD and IGD, and 20 patients with IGD but without ADHD. Results: The functional connectivity (FC) from the cortex to subcortex in both groups was decreased relative to that in age-matched healthy participants. One-year treatment for ADHD and IGD symptoms increased the FC between the cortex and subcortex in all ADHD participants and all IGD participants with good prognoses compared with those in all ADHD participants and all IGD participants with poor prognoses. Conclusion: Patients with ADHD and IGD shared similar brain FC at baseline and FC changes in response to treatment.


Author(s):  
Della L. Dang ◽  
Meng Xuan Zhang ◽  
Karlas Kin-hei Leong ◽  
Anise M. S. Wu

This one-year longitudinal study examined trait emotional intelligence as a predictor of Internet gaming disorder (IGD). To date, only cross-sectional research has been conducted to test the protective effects of emotional intelligence against IGD tendency. Based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, this study aimed to address the research gap by examining not only the direct effects of trait emotional intelligence, but also its indirect effects (via depressive symptoms and coping flexibility) on IGD, with both a cross-sectional and longitudinal design. The participants were 282 Chinese university students (mean age = 20.47; 39.4% males) who voluntarily completed an anonymous questionnaire at both baseline (W1) and one-year follow-up (W2). Path analysis results revealed that trait emotional intelligence had a protective but indirect effect on IGD tendency in both our cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Depression was found to have a significant, full mediating effect on the relationship between: (i) trait emotional intelligence and IGD tendency (W2) and (ii) coping flexibility and IGD tendency (W2), after adjusting for IGD tendency at the baseline (W1). Gender invariance of the path coefficient was also observed in the prospective model. This study provided longitudinal evidence to support the I-PACE model. Interventions should address both IGD and depressive symptoms, and school-based workshops to increase emotional intelligence and coping flexibility are also recommended.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianxin Qiu ◽  
Xu Han ◽  
Yao Wang ◽  
Weina Ding ◽  
Yawen Sun ◽  
...  

Converging lines of evidence indicates that smoking and internet gaming disorder (IGD) affect spontaneous brain activity, respectively. However, little is known about whether these two factors work together on the human brain. In this study, we investigated the interaction between smoking and IGD on local spontaneous brain activity using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) based on resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI). Forty-six cigarette smokers, 38 IGD individuals, 34 participants with both IGD and cigarette smoking (IGD-Smoking), and 60 healthy individuals involved in the study. Voxel-wise analysis of covariance of ALFF revealed that there were significant interactions between IGD by smoking in the right medial pre-frontal cortex (MPFC)/ventral striatum, bilateral cerebellar, and visual-related regions as well as the left temporal gyrus. In the right MPFC/ventral striatum and left temporal gyrus, ALFF in smoking group was significantly higher than healthy group while there were no significant ALFF differences between IGD-Smoking group and IGD group. While in the bilateral cerebellar and visual-related regions, ALFF in the smoking group was significantly lower than healthy group while ALFF in IGD-Smoking group did not show significant difference with IGD group. In addition, in the smoking group, ALFF of the right MPFC/ventral striatum was associated positively with anxiety and depression scores while the ALFF value in the smoking group had a trend toward negative correlation with SDS scores in the bilateral cerebellar and visual-related regions. The ALFF value in the smoking group was associated positively with anxiety score in the left temporal gyrus. These findings indicate that smoking and IGD interacted with each other in the human brain. Our results, in terms of spontaneous brain activity, may imply the fact that IGD people are more tended to get smoking. Moreover, it is possible to predict that smokers may be more easily to get internet addiction than healthy people.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifen Zhang ◽  
Xiao Lin ◽  
Hongli Zhou ◽  
Jiaojing Xu ◽  
Xiaoxia Du ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunsuk Jeong ◽  
Hyeon Woo Yim ◽  
Seung-Yup Lee ◽  
Hae Koo Lee ◽  
Marc N Potenza ◽  
...  

Abstract Background This study evaluated whether parent-child attachment and self-esteem may mediate the relationship between parental marital conflict and increases in features of internet gaming disorder (IGD) in children at one year. Methods The baseline and one-year follow-up data for 268 pre-teens aged between 9 and 10 from the Internet User Cohort for Unbiased Recognition of Gaming Disorder in Early Adolescence (iCURE) study were collected. The students were children at low risk for IGD in the initial self-reported assessment, anyone living with both parents, current game user at baseline, and those who completed a 12-month follow-up assessment. The Internet Game Use-Elicited Symptom Screen (IGUESS) was used to identify increases in IGD features at 12 months. To examine a potential mediation effect, structural equation modeling was performed. Results The direct effect was statistically significant, and parental marital conflict at baseline significantly predicted the increases in IGD features in children at the 12-month follow-up after adjusting for gender, sex, socioeconomic status, and baseline IGUESS score (ß=0.206, P=0.003). The indirect effect showed that attachment to fathers through self-esteem was a significant mediating effect (ß=0.078, P=0.045). Parental marital conflicts were associated with increases in IGD features in children through poor father-child attachment, and in turn, the lower levels of self-esteem in the children. Conclusions Parents, especially fathers, should make an effort to bond with their children to reduce the risk of their children’s developing the IGD features.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunsuk Jeong ◽  
Hyeon Woo Yim ◽  
Seung-Yup Lee ◽  
Hae Koo Lee ◽  
Marc N Potenza ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives This study evaluated whether parent-child attachment and self-esteem may mediate a relationship between parental marital conflict and increases in features of internet gaming disorder (IGD) in children at one year. Method Baseline and one-year follow-up data for 268 children from the iCURE study were collected. The students were “non-cases of high risk of IGD” in the initial self-reported assessment, anyone living with both parents, current game users at baseline, and those who completed a 12-month follow-up assessment. The Internet Game Use-Elicited Symptom Screen (IGUESS) was used to identify increases in IGD features at 12 months. To examine a potential mediation effect, structural equation modeling was performed. Results The direct effect was statistically significant, and parental marital conflict at baseline significantly predicted increases in IGD features in children at the 12-month follow-up after adjusting for gender, sex, socioeconomic status, and baseline IGUESS score (ß=0.206, P=0.003). The indirect effect showed that attachment to fathers through self-esteem was a significant mediating effect (ß=0.078, P=0.045). However, attachment to mothers through self-esteem was not a statistically significant mediating effect. The effect of parental conflict on increases in IGD features in children was partially mediated by father-child attachment through self-esteem. Conclusion Parental marital conflicts is associated with increases in IGD features in children through poor father-child attachment, and in turn, lower levels of self-esteem in the children. Parents, especially fathers, should make an effort to bond with their children to reduce the risk their children will develop IGD features. Keywords: Internet gaming disorder; children; mediation; self-esteem; attachment


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