The Correlation Study Between Cognitive Function And Brain Structure In Internet Gaming Disorder

ObjectiveTo explore the characteristics of cognitive function and white matter microstructure of brain and the correlation between them in adolescent Internet Gaming Disorder(IGD),in order to explore the nerve pathological mechanism of the impaired cognitive of the adolescent online gaming addicts further more and provide some theoretical supports in clinical diagnosis and comprehensive treatment for IGD.MethodsThe subjects from May 2020 to January 2021 who matched for diagnostic criteria of IGD were recruited from outpatient and inpatient in Guangdong 999 Brain Hospital.By using Diffusion Tensor Imaging in subjects’ brain,the brain white matter microstructure of subjects can be analyzed.Besides,the level of cognitive function of subjects can be evaluated by the repeatable battery for the assessment of neuropsychological status(RBANS).Statistical methods were used to analyze the correlation between addicts’ cognitive function and the imaging features,such as fractional anisotropy(FA).Results(1)The results of cognitive function assessment36 addicts of internet gaming disorder was included into this study,and 31 subjects was included into the control group.By using the independent sample t-test,the results showed that the difference of total scores between gaming addicts and healthy subjects is statistically significant;Besides the picture naming test,attention and coding test,other dimensions are statistically significant between gaming addicts and healthy subjects,which is suggesting the cognitive functions of internet gaming addicts is damaged;The study found that female scored higher than male in semantic fluency test,with statistically significant.The scores of 15-19 years’ group was significantly higher than20-24 years’ group on the dimensions of attension and digit span test,which are statistically significant.On the dimension of delayed memory,the differences between different level of education is statistically significant.And compared in further,found that the difference between high school and college is statistically significant,showed that high school group scored significantly lower than college.On the semantic fluency test,the scores of subjects addicting games less than three years higher than addicting games longer than four years.(2)The results of diffusion tensor imaging analysisThe study included 15 subjects of internet gaming disorder was analyzed FA value of the brain regions.Results show that compared with healthy group,the FA value of internet gaming addicts are significantly different in regions of body of corpus callosum,inferior cerebellar peduncle L,cingulum L&R,hippocampus L&R,stria terminalis L.Correlation analysis results show that the damaged visual scope levels of IGD associated with bilateral hippocampal damaged.Cingulum L of IGD damaged associated with individuals’ delay memory function and attention function.The injuryed cognitive function associated with the damaged cingulum L.Conclusion(1)The cognitive functions in many aspects of IGD were damaging.The subjects of IGD who addicted into internet game more years having more serious damage in terms of semantic fluency.(2)The brain white fiber of IGD were damaging in the region of body of corpus callosum,inferior cerebellar peduncle L,cingulum L&R,hippocampus L&R,stria terminalis L.(3)The injuryed cognitive functions of IGD were associating with white matter fiber damage in multiple regions.