The Correlation between the Frontostriatal Network and Impulsivity in Internet Gaming Disorder

Abstract

As excessive use of internet gaming has become a serious public health concern, increasing studies have revealed that impulsivity is one of the important risk factors of internet gaming disorder (IGD). This study was designed to investigate the altered resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in IGD participants and to examine its relationship with impulsivity compared with the normal controls (NC). Seed-based analyses verified that participants with IGD displayed decreased FC between the OFC and frontal, striatal, temporal and occipital regions different from NC. Moreover, IGD participants showed weankened FC from the OFC with dorsal anterior cingulate cortex as well as with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal striatum as the results of group difference. These results could suggest that the decreased frontostriatal connectivity was associated with excessive internet gaming. Also, the increased FC in frontostriatal regions was correlated with impulse control in the NC but not the IGD participants. Further insight into the brain circuitry on frontostriatal could provide the target for developing treatment approaches of impulse control in IGD.

Figure 1

Participants with internet gaming disorder (IGD) showed (a) decreased functional connectivity (FC) from the bilateral seed region compared to the normal controls (NC) (p_FDR < 0.05, k > 100). FC from the left seed region (b) and right seed region (c) to each region of interest (ROI) was significantly low in IGD participants compared to the NC (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.001).

Figure 2

Correlation between the functional connectivity strength from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to each regions of interest (ROIs) and dysfunctional impulsivity. There was a negative correlation with impulsivity and FC from the bilateral OFC to each ROIs such as right DLPFC (a-1,a-2), right dACC (b-1,b-2) and left dorsal striatum (c-1,c-2) in the NC (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.001).