Reward/punishment sensitivities among internet addicts: Implications for their addictive behaviors

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has raised widespread public health concerns. In this study, we used a gambling task to simulate extreme win/lose situations to find the reward/punishment sensitivities after continuous wins and losses. FMRI data were collected from 16 IAD subjects (21.4±3.1years) a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry 2013-10, Vol.46, p.139-145
Main Authors: Dong, Guangheng, Hu, Yanbo, Lin, Xiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Behavior, Addictive - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Executive function
fMRI
Humans
Internet
Internet addiction
Male
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Neuropharmacology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Punishment - psychology
Reward
Reward/punishment sensitivity
Video Games - psychology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has raised widespread public health concerns. In this study, we used a gambling task to simulate extreme win/lose situations to find the reward/punishment sensitivities after continuous wins and losses. FMRI data were collected from 16 IAD subjects (21.4±3.1years) and 15 healthy controls (HC, 22.1±3.6years). Group comparisons showed higher superior frontal gyrus activations after continuous wins for IAD subjects than for HC. The brain activities in IAD subjects were not disturbed by their losses. In addition, IAD participants showed decreased posterior cingulate activation compared to HC after continuous losses. These results indicated that IAD participants showed preference to win while neglecting their losses. Therefore they engaged less executive endeavor to control their frustration after continuous losses. Taken together, we concluded that IAD subjects showed enhanced sensitivity to win and decreased sensitivity to lose. This can help us understand why IAD subjects continue playing online even after noticing the severe negative consequences of their behaviors. •IAD subjects show higher SFG activations after continuous wins.•IAD subjects were not disturbed by their continuous losses.•IAD subjects show preference to win while they neglect their losses.
ISSN:0278-5846
1878-4216
DOI:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2013.07.007