title: Cue reactivity and its inhibition in pathological computer game players.
abstract: Despite a rising social relevance of pathological computer game playing, it remains unclear whether the neurobiological basis of this addiction-like behavioral disorder and substance-related addiction are comparable. In substance-related addiction, attentional bias and cue reactivity are often observed. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance study using a dot probe paradigm with short-presentation (attentional bias) and long-presentation (cue reactivity) trials in eight male pathological computer game players (PCGPs) and nine healthy controls (HCs). Computer game-related and neutral computer-generated pictures, as well as pictures from the International Affective Picture System with positive and neutral valence, served as stimuli. PCGPs showed an attentional bias toward both game-related and affective stimuli with positive valence. In contrast, HCs showed no attentional bias effect at all. PCGPs showed stronger brain responses in short-presentation trials compared with HCs in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus and in long-presentation trials in lingual gyrus. In an exploratory post hoc functional connectivity analyses, for long-presentation trials, connectivity strength was higher between right inferior frontal gyrus, which was associated with inhibition processing in previous studies, and cue reactivity-related regions (left orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum) in PCGPs. We observed behavioral and neural effects in PCGPs, which are comparable with those found in substance-related addiction. However, cue-related brain responses were depending on duration of cue presentation. Together with the connectivity result, these findings suggest that top-down inhibitory processes might suppress the cue reactivity-related neural activity in long-presentation trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. robert.lorenz@charite.de
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.forename: Jenny-Kathinka
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Björn H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Schott
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wüstenberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D020407:Internet; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult