Hypometabolism and altered metabolic connectivity in patients with internet gaming disorder and alcohol use disorder

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become the subject of growing concern as an addictive behavior and has been compared with substance/non-substance-related addiction. Although IGD show clinical impairments and social dysfunction, neurobiological alterations in IGD have not been clearly elucidated. We used ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET to investigate differences in glucose metabolism and metabolic connectivity in young men [thirty-six patients with IGD, twenty-six patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and thirty-nine healthy controls (HC)]. Compared with the HC, IGD showed hypometabolism in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), temporal, frontal, parietal and striatum and AUD exhibited hypometabolism in the occipital, temporal and parietal lobule. Furthermore, IGD showed negative correlations between the ACC and game duration and between the orbitofrontal cortex and impulsivity. Also, IGD had lower metabolic connectivity between temporal and limbic regions and between the motor area and occipital region. And AUD showed greater metabolic connectivity between the orbitofrontal and parietal regions, and between the somatosensory or parietal and temporal regions, but lower metabolic connectivity in the fronto-striatal or fronto-limbic regions. Our results provide evidences that hypometabolism and altered metabolic connectivity in IGD might be related to the abnormal sensory function by longtime gaming and dysfunction of impulsive/motivational states.