Effects Of Excessive Internet Use On Brain

People's work and lives are changing deeply because of Internet development. The Internet plays an important role in helping people connect each other easily and bringing people tremendous convenience. But in recent years, people are becoming more and more dependent on Internet along with the prevalence of Internet and the functional improvements of Internet and its derivatives. Many people, especially young people, using Internet excessively has been a serious problem. And more and more scholars have paid attention to it since this problem was put forward.At present, the research of excessive Internet use adopts traditional psychological methods mainly. However, the essence of any addiction problem is some kind of cerebral disease. Thus, electroencephalogram (EEG) method was employed to study this problem. The purpose is to provide some objective measure for diagnosing Internet addiction and find some neurological evidence for its mechanism.The main work of the dissertation includes the following four parts.(1) EEG relative powers of the excessive Internet users were compared with those of the ordinary persons. The result showed that the fast wave (βwave,γwave) components of excessive Internet users were less than those of the ordinary persons in ordinary state. But after they used Internet, theirα,β,γwave components of EEG increased significantly. And there were no significant difference in EEG relative powers between excessive Internet users and ordinary persons.(2) EEG complexity of the excessive Internet users was compared with that of the ordinary persons. The result showed that the magnitudes of sample entropy of excessive Internet users were less than those of the ordinary persons in ordinary state. That was to say the complexity of EEG was low. But after they used Internet, their EEG complexity increased significantly. And there were no significant difference in EEG complexity between excessive Internet users and ordinary persons.(3) Peak latencies and amplitudes of P300 of auditory event-related potential (ERP) of the excessive Internet users were compared with those of the ordinary persons. The results showed that the peak latencies of excessive Internet users were longer than those of the ordinary persons in ordinary state. But after they used Internet, their peak latencies shortened significantly. And the amplitudes of excessive Internet users were lower than those of the ordinary persons in ordinary state. After they used Internet, their amplitudes increased. And there were no significant differences in Peak latencies and amplitudes of P300 between excessive Internet users and ordinary persons.(4) Peak latencies and amplitudes of P300 of visual ERP of the excessive Internet users were compared with those of the ordinary persons. The results showed that the peak latencies evoked by the pictures concerning Internet of excessive Internet users are significantly shorter than those of the ordinary persons. However, there are no significant differences in the visual ERP evoked by the pictures which is not concering Internet between the excessive Internet users and the ordinary persons.