From attentional bias to neural dysfunction: Multimodal evidence for emotion processing deficits in individuals with...

Problematic social media use (PMSMU) shows strong mental health associations, yet its neurocognitive mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates emotion processing deficits in PMSMU, focusing on valence-specific attentional biases and neural dysfunction.

113 Chinese college students stratified into low-risk (n = 55) and high-risk PMSMU (n = 58) groups completed psychological assessments and an emotion recognition task using facial stimuli depicting the seven basic emotions selected from the Chinese Facial Affective Picture System (CFAPS) during simultaneous eye-tracking and fNIRS recording prefrontal-temporal activation.

High-risk PMSMU showed enhanced accuracy for joy emotion (82.58% vs. 74.31%, p = 0.013) but impaired negative emotion recognition (64.29% vs. 69.87%, p = 0.006). Eye-tracking revealed reduced nose-root fixation and increased mouth and the middle of nose attention. fNIRS identified negative-emotion-specific hyperactivation in right temporal (c1, p = 0.017) and left frontal lobes (c9, p = 0.021). Temporal activation correlated with slower sadness recognition (r = 0.345), while attention deficits linked to reduced fear accuracy (r = -0.261) and temporal hyperactivity (r = 0.377). High-risk subjects reported poorer psychosocial functioning (poorer interpersonal skills, attentional control, and higher levels of anxiety and depression, p < 0.001), with frontal activation moderating negative-emotion-impairment relationships.

PMSMU is characterized by valence-specific disruptions-including attentional bias toward positive cues, impaired fear processing, and prefrontal-temporal hyperactivation during negative emotion decoding-that collectively define it as a neurobehavioral condition leading to psychosocial impairment.