Is the Internet gaming-addicted brain close to be in a pathological state?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Network Science

Background:

• Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is a growing mental health issue with unclear pathological brain implications.
• Previous research has not definitively established if the IGA brain exhibits pathological characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate brain abnormalities in IGA using a network perspective.
• To determine if the IGA brain state is topologically similar to other pathological brain states.

Main Methods:

• Applied graph theory to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data.
• Analyzed topological properties, including global and local efficiency, of brain functional networks.
• Compared network measures between 19 adolescents with IGA and 20 healthy controls.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with IGA exhibited higher global efficiency and lower local efficiency in brain functional networks compared to controls.
• These topological shifts in IGA brains suggest a move towards a random network architecture, similar to other pathological states.
• Alterations were concentrated in frontal regions and correlated with impulsiveness, particularly along frontolimbic connections.

Conclusions:

• The IGA brain exhibits topological characteristics similar to pathological brain states.
• Network-based analysis reveals significant alterations in brain functional networks associated with IGA.
• Findings support the view that IGA induces pathological-like changes in brain network topology.