title: Neural substrates of risky decision making in individuals with Internet addiction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  With the wide and rapid expansion of computers and smartphones, Internet use has become an essential part of life and an important tool that serves various purposes. Despite the advantages of Internet use, psychological and behavioral problems, including Internet addiction, have been reported. In response to growing concern, researchers have focused on the characteristics of Internet addicts. However, relatively little is known about the behavioral and neural mechanisms that underlie Internet addiction, especially with respect to risky decision making, which is an important domain frequently reported in other types of addictions.
  
  
  METHODS
  To examine the neural characteristics of decision making in Internet addicts, Internet addicts and healthy controls were scanned while they performed a financial decision-making task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative to healthy controls, Internet addicts showed (1) more frequent risky decision making; (2) greater activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left caudate nucleus, which are brain regions involved in conflict monitoring and reward, respectively; and (3) less activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, an area associated with cognitive control/regulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that risky decision making may be an important behavioral characteristic of Internet addiction and that altered brain function in regions associated with conflict monitoring, reward and cognitive control/regulation might be critical biological risk factors for Internet addiction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Seok
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Kyung Hwa
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Welfare, Cheongju University, Cheongju, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sunju
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea jhsohn@cnu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jin-Hun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sohn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Internet addiction; cognitive control; conflict monitoring; reward; risky decision making