1 Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
2 Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2019 Jul;22(7):500-507. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2019.0059.
A growing literature suggests that problematic Internet use (PIU) is associated with defective inhibitory control. In this study, we sought to investigate the ability to inhibit prepotent motor responses in an emotional context in individuals with PIU, and to examine the relationship between inhibitory control and resting heart rate variability (HRV), which is regarded as a measure of self-regulation and adaptability. Problematic users (PU, = 20) and nonproblematic users (non-PU, = 20) completed an emotional Go/NoGo task, involving the presentation of unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures. The electrocardiogram was recorded at rest for a 3-minute period. PU showed lower resting HRV, relative to non-PU. Although reaction times (RTs) to Go task stimuli were not faster in PU, relative to non-PU, accuracy rates were significantly lower among PU, irrespective of pictures' emotional content. Only among PU did lower resting HRV predict lower response accuracy in pleasant and unpleasant Go trials and less efficient task performance (combining RTs to Go trials and accuracy to NoGo trials) upon presentation of unpleasant stimuli. Our findings suggest that reduced HRV is a potential indicator of defective inhibitory control in an emotional context in PIU.
越来越多的文献表明，问题性互联网使用（PIU）与抑制控制缺陷有关。在这项研究中，我们试图研究 PIU 个体在情绪背景下抑制优势运动反应的能力，并探讨抑制控制与静息心率变异性（HRV）之间的关系，HRV 被认为是自我调节和适应能力的衡量标准。问题性使用者（PU，n=20）和非问题性使用者（非-PU，n=20）完成了一项情绪 Go/NoGo 任务，涉及呈现不愉快、愉快和中性的图片。在 3 分钟的休息期间记录心电图。与非-PU 相比，PU 的静息 HRV 较低。尽管与非-PU 相比，PU 对 Go 任务刺激的反应时间（RT）没有更快，但无论图片的情绪内容如何，PU 的准确率都明显较低。只有在 PU 中，较低的静息 HRV 预测在愉快和不愉快的 Go 试验中反应准确性较低，以及在呈现不愉快刺激时任务表现效率较低（将 Go 试验的 RTs 和 NoGo 试验的准确性结合起来）。我们的研究结果表明，HRV 降低是 PIU 中情绪背景下抑制控制缺陷的一个潜在指标。
