Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
Addict Biol. 2013 Jan;18(1):134-46. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2012.00491.x. Epub 2012 Sep 12.
Despite a rising social relevance of pathological computer game playing, it remains unclear whether the neurobiological basis of this addiction-like behavioral disorder and substance-related addiction are comparable. In substance-related addiction, attentional bias and cue reactivity are often observed. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance study using a dot probe paradigm with short-presentation (attentional bias) and long-presentation (cue reactivity) trials in eight male pathological computer game players (PCGPs) and nine healthy controls (HCs). Computer game-related and neutral computer-generated pictures, as well as pictures from the International Affective Picture System with positive and neutral valence, served as stimuli. PCGPs showed an attentional bias toward both game-related and affective stimuli with positive valence. In contrast, HCs showed no attentional bias effect at all. PCGPs showed stronger brain responses in short-presentation trials compared with HCs in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus and in long-presentation trials in lingual gyrus. In an exploratory post hoc functional connectivity analyses, for long-presentation trials, connectivity strength was higher between right inferior frontal gyrus, which was associated with inhibition processing in previous studies, and cue reactivity-related regions (left orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum) in PCGPs. We observed behavioral and neural effects in PCGPs, which are comparable with those found in substance-related addiction. However, cue-related brain responses were depending on duration of cue presentation. Together with the connectivity result, these findings suggest that top-down inhibitory processes might suppress the cue reactivity-related neural activity in long-presentation trials.
尽管病理性电脑游戏成瘾的社会相关性不断上升，但目前尚不清楚这种类似成瘾的行为障碍和物质相关成瘾的神经生物学基础是否具有可比性。在物质相关成瘾中，经常观察到注意力偏向和线索反应性。我们使用点探测范式进行了一项功能磁共振研究，该范式包括短呈现（注意力偏向）和长呈现（线索反应性）试验，共有 8 名男性病理性电脑游戏玩家（PCGPs）和 9 名健康对照者（HCs）参与。电脑游戏相关和中性电脑生成的图片，以及来自国际情感图片系统的正性和中性效价的图片作为刺激。PCGPs 对游戏相关和具有正性效价的情感刺激表现出注意力偏向。相比之下，HCs 根本没有表现出注意力偏向效应。与 HCs 相比，PCGPs 在中前额叶皮层（MPFC）和前扣带皮层以及在长呈现试验中在舌回中表现出更强的大脑反应。在探索性事后功能连接分析中，对于长呈现试验，与先前研究中与抑制处理相关的右侧额下回和与线索反应性相关的区域（左侧眶额皮质和腹侧纹状体）之间的连接强度在 PCGPs 中更高。我们观察到 PCGPs 中的行为和神经效应与物质相关成瘾中发现的效应相当。然而，线索相关的大脑反应取决于线索呈现的持续时间。结合连接结果，这些发现表明自上而下的抑制过程可能抑制长呈现试验中与线索反应性相关的神经活动。
