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Structural Brain Imaging and Internet Addiction

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Internet Addiction

Abstract

In recent years, neuroimaging techniques have increasingly been used to study Internet addiction disorder (IAD), with the aim of identifying functional and structural changes in the brain, which may constitute the neurological/psychiatric causes of IAD. This chapter reviews current neuroimaging findings concerning brain structural changes associated with IAD. To aid readers in understanding these findings, the commonly used structural imaging methodologies—primarily, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—are also outlined. The literature review clearly demonstrates that IAD is associated with neuroanatomical changes involving prefrontal cortex, thalamus, and other brain regions. At least some of these changes appear to correlate with behavioral assessments of IAD. More importantly, these data suggest that the pattern of IAD-related structural differences in the brain resemble, to some extent, those changes observed in substance addiction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by grants from National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2011CB707802) and Natural Science Foundation of China (81171302 and 21221064).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, People’s Republic of China

    Fuchun Lin & Hao Lei

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  1. Fuchun Lin
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  2. Hao Lei
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Correspondence to Hao Lei .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Ulm, Molekulare Psychologie, Ulm, Germany

    Christian Montag

  2. Differentielle & Biologische Psychologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Martin Reuter

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Lin, F., Lei, H. (2015). Structural Brain Imaging and Internet Addiction. In: Montag, C., Reuter, M. (eds) Internet Addiction. Studies in Neuroscience, Psychology and Behavioral Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07242-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07242-5_2

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