Associations between video gaming behaviors and cortical morphology in adolescents

Video gaming is highly prevalent in adolescence, yet its relationship with cortical morphology in early adolescence remains unclear. Data from the large, diverse nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study cohort (N = 5686) were analyzed to investigate the association between video gaming behaviors and cortical morphology in adolescents. Adolescents (mean: 14.2 years old) reported time spent playing single and multi-player games each day and their frequency of playing mature-rated games. Measures of cortical volume, surface area, and thickness of regions defined by the Desikan-Killiany atlas were obtained from 3T MRI scanners. Generalized additive mixed effects models were used to evaluate the association between gaming behaviors and cortical morphology, adjusting for demographics, genetic ancestry, socioeconomic status, non-gaming screen time, pubertal stage, body mass index percentile, scanner characteristics, and familial relationships. In addition to regional analysis, vertexwise analysis was performed using the Fast and Efficient Mixed Effects Algorithm, which provides higher spatial resolution. Higher total gaming time was associated with lower cortical surface area and thickness across multiple regions. Single-player but not multi-player gaming was associated with altered morphology in regions involved in language processing and social cognition, which may be due to the different processes engaged by each game type. Mature-rated gaming frequency was also associated with lower cortical thickness in several regions and lower surface area in the right parahippocampal gyrus. Our results demonstrate that different gaming behaviors are associated with distinct patterns of cortical morphology. Decreases in cortical surface area and thickness are a normative feature of adolescent development, and future research on long-term outcomes is required to determine whether these differences reflect variation outside of normative developmental trajectories and the directionality of this association.