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Decreased functional connectivity of insula-based network in young adults with internet gaming disorder

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Abstract

The insula is a region that integrates interoception and drug urges, but little is known about its role in behavioral addiction such as internet addiction. We investigated insula-based functional connectivity in participants with internet gaming disorder (IGD) and healthy controls (HC) using resting-state functional MRI. The right and left insula subregions (posterior, ventroanterior, and dorsoanterior) were used as seed regions in a connectivity analysis. Compared with the HC group, the IGD group showed decreased functional connectivity between left posterior insula and bilateral supplementary motor area and middle cingulated cortex, between right posterior insula and right superior frontal gyrus, and decreased functional integration between insular subregions. The finding of reduced functional connectivity between the interoception and the motor/executive control regions is interpreted to reflect reduced ability to inhibit motor responses to internet gaming or diminished executive control over craving for internet gaming in IGD. The results support the hypothesis that IGD is associated with altered insula-based network, similar to substance addiction such as smoking.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation for Youths of MOE (Ministry of Education) of China (Grant No. 10YJCXLX062).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Yanzhen Zhang & Wei Zhang

  2. Higher Medical Education Center, Medical College of Shantou University, Shantou, 515041, China

    Yanzhen Zhang

  3. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of the Medical College of Shantou University, Shantou, 515041, China

    Wei Mei & Qiulin Wu

  4. Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    John X. Zhang

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  1. Yanzhen Zhang
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  2. Wei Mei
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Correspondence to Yanzhen Zhang or Wei Zhang.

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Zhang, Y., Mei, W., Zhang, J.X. et al. Decreased functional connectivity of insula-based network in young adults with internet gaming disorder. Exp Brain Res 234, 2553–2560 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4659-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4659-8

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