To Explore The Relevant Rewarding System In Internet Gaming Addicts' Brain With FMRI

Objective To explore the functional location of brain regions related to internet game addiction using clue-reaction model with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Methods Twenty participants with internet game addiction and 20 control subjects without addiction were tested with the 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging and video stimulation systems. They were presented with different internet game videos and the paired common life videos while undergoing fMRI scanning. The acquisition of blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signals in brain could present the activation data produced by the stimulations. With the principle of subtraction, the correlation analysis was performed to generate the corresponding regions of interest (ROIs). Then, the activated brain areas produced by the internet game videos could be determined. All of the subjects needed to do a questionnaire before and after watching videos to understand the state of their mind. Results Compared with the control group, the results of psychological assessments, which were produced by stimulation of internet game videos, such as emotional states, the degree of keening, and the degree of liking and wishing to re-watch, were significantly different in the addiction group. A small region of bilateral lateral occipital lobe and the bilateral temporal lobe was activated in the control group, while significantly higher activation in the addiction group, and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, bilateral insular cortex, right nucleus accumbens, right caudate nucleus, as well as the right hippocampus were also quite active in the addiction group with significant difference, and the activation of some brain areas also have laterality (right activation were more significant). Conclusions (1) The stimulation of internet game videos could induced stable feelings, such as emotional states, the degree of keening, and the degree of liking and wishing to re-watch, which are right similar to be playing internet games.(2) fMRI could identified the regions of brain activation of the internet game addiction, involved with bilateral parietal, bilateral temporal and occipital visual cortex, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, bilateral insular cortex, right nucleus accumbens, right caudate nucleus, as well as the right hippocampus.(3) There is a positive correlation between the intensity of specific activation induced by internet game video cues and psychological evaluation after watching the videos, that is the higher score of emotional states, the degree of keening, and the degree of liking and wishing to re-watch ,the greater intensity of brain activation. It implied that the network of activated brain regions may be involved in the generation and maintenance of game addiction, they may be the neural basis of internet game addiction, and this neural basis is similar to the neural circuit or the"reward system"associated with drug Substance addiction which was reported by other scholars at home and abroad. So these activated brain areas can be seen as the reward system of internet game addiction.