A DTI Study On Correlation Between Impulsivity And White Matter Integrityin Adolescents With Internet Gaming Disorder

ObjectiveTo investigate the neural mechanism of higher impulsivity in adolescents with internet gaming disorder?IGD?through analysis of the correlation between impulsivity and white matter integrity in IGDs by using diffusion tensor imaging?DTI?technique of MRI.Materials and MethodsSubjects in the study were divided into two groups,33 subjects in internet gaming disorder group?IGD?and 32 subjects in normal control group?NC?.All the subjects are male.The diagnostic criteria of internet gaming disorder:1)Meeting the criteria of diagnostic standard of internet gaming disorder in DSM-V;2)Nohistory of physical disease,brain trauma or nervous system disease;No history of drug abuse,alcohol dependence or any disease affecting the structure and function of brain;3)Nohistory of psychotic disease or genetic disease;4)Years of education is at least 8 years or more;5)The nationality is Han;6)Right handedness;7)The subjects'vision or corrected vision is normal;8)No MRI contraindications.MRI scanning were conducted on all of the subjects with a whole-body MRI system of SIEMENS MAGNETOM Verio3.0T scanner with a8-channel head orthogonal coil.All the subjects were conducted with axial TSE-T₂WI scan,sagittal three dimensional magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo T₁WI scan and axial ep2d-diff-mddw scan.The subjects'impulsivity were measured by using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11?BIS-11?.Data preprocessing,statistical analysis and results demonstration were performed using statistics parameter mapping?SPM8?package and REST package.Preprocessing of the DTI data include time rectification,motion correction,registration with anatomic imaging,spatial standardization and data smoothing,linear drift removing and filtering.Analysis within group:independent-sample t-test in basic mode of SPM8 were used to get brain area where FA value correlates with BIS-11 score in the control and addiction group respectively.Analysis between the groups:Two sample t-test was applied to get brain area where correlation between FA value and BIS-11 score is different in the two groups.The two groups'demographic measurements were analyzed with two sample t-test in SPSS22.0.And the correlation analysis between FA value of interested areas and BIS-11 score were conducted using age as the covariate in SPSS22.0.Results1.The brain areas where FA value correlate negatively with the BIS-11 score in NC:bilateral prefrontal lobe;the genu and Splenium of corpus callosum;right cingulum;bilateral posterior limb of internal capsule;left temporal lobe;right cerebral peduncle;left occipital lobe.2.The brain areas where FA value correlate negatively with the BIS-11 score in IGD:left parietal lobe.3.The brain areas where the negative correlation between FA value and BIS-11 score in IGD reduced when compared with the NC:left temporal lobe;right cerebral peduncle;right posterior limb of internal capsule.Conclusion1.Internet gaming disorder may negatively affect the correlation between integrity of white matter and impulsivity,impairing the brain networks included in behavioral inhibition,attention and emotion regulation,leading to higher impulsivity in IGD subjects.2.A positive correlation between white matter FA value and BIS-II score was found in IGD subjects,indicating possible promotion on functions of motor and visual pathways.Thus supporting the opinion that internet gaming may act as a double-edged sword on internet game players.3.The impairment of white matter integrity in IGD subjects is much less serious than that in substances abusers.