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Updated: Jul 31, 2026
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Online Gamers
Published on: November 9, 2019
Altered modular segregation of brain networks during the cue-craving task contributes to the disrupted executive
Wei-Ran Zhou1, Min Wang2, Hui Zheng3
1Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, PR China; Institutes of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, China; Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, PR China.
Background:
Previous studies have shown that gaming-related cues could induce gaming cravings and bring about changes in brain activities in subjects with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, little is known about the brain network organizations in IGD subjects during a cue-craving task and the relationship between this network organization and IGD severity.
Methods:
Sixty-one IGD subjects and 61 matched recreational game users (RGUs) were scanned while performing a cue-craving task. We calculated and compared the participation coefficient (PC) among brain network modules between IGD subjects and RGUs. Based on the results, further group comparison analyses were performed to explain the PC changes and to explore the relationship between PCs and IGD severity.
Results:
While performing a cue-craving task, compared with RGUs, IGD subjects showed significantly decreased PCs in the default-mode network (DMN) and the frontal-parietal network (FPN). Specifically, the number of connections between nodes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and other nodes in the DMN of IGD subjects was much larger than that in RGUs. Correlation results showed that the number of DMN intra-modular connections was positively correlated with addiction severity and craving degree.
Conclusions:
These results provide neural evidence that can explain why cognitive control, emotion, attention and other functions are impaired in IGD subjects in the face of gaming cues, which leads to compulsive behavior toward games. These findings extend our understanding of the neural mechanism of IGD and have important implications for developing effective interventions to treat IGD subjects.
