MRI Study On Frequency-dependent Association Between The Resting Brain Activity And Internet Addiction Tendency In Young Online Game Players

Background/Objective:With the development of Internet,there is an increasing number of internet gaming users.Adolescents with immature intelligence are more likely to indulge in the online games,which is adverse for their physical and mental health.Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rsfMRI)has been intensively used to assess the abnormal spontaneous neural activity in adolescents with internet gaming disorder(IGD).However,frequency-dependent association between the resting brain activity and internet addiction tendency in young online game players is largely unknown.Thus,in this study,we set to investigate the spontaneous neural activities in young online game players by measuring the frequency-dependent standardized amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(mALFF).Methods:Ninety-five right-handed young online game players(range 13-31 years,average 17.48 years)were recruited in this study.All subjects spent more than 80% online time on playing online games.A series of clinical and neuropsychological assessment were tested among all subjects.The Young’s Internet Addiction Test(IAT)was used to test the tendency to internet gaming disorder(IGD).Imaging data was conducted with a Siemens 3T scanner.The frequency-dependent standardized amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(mALFF)was calculated in five frequency bands: slow-6(0-0.01 Hz),slow-5(0.01-0.027 Hz),slow-4(0.027-0.073 Hz),slow-3(0.073-0.198 Hz),and slow-2(0.198-0.25 Hz).Then,the voxel-based correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between the mALFF and the IAT score.The brain regions with significant correlation between mALFF and IAT scores were extracted as regions of interest(ROIs)and average mALFF within the ROIs were extracted.According to the IAT scores,the subjects were divided into the high IAT score subgroup(IAT score > 50)and the low IAT score subgroup(IAT score ≤ 50).Then the mALFF differences between the two subgroups were compared with the ROI-wise correlation analysis.Results:(1)The voxel-wise correlation analysis revealed that the IAT scores were positively correlated with the mALFF of the left cuneus in slow-4,negatively correlated with the mALFF of the right putamen in slow-4,and positively correlated with the mALFF of the right middle frontal gyrus(MFG)in slow-3(P < 0.05,Alphasim corrected).There wasn’t significant correlation between the mALFF and the IAT scores in other frequency bands.(2)The left cuneus and the right MFG showed increased mALFF values,the right putamen showed decreased mALFF values in the high IAT score subgroup(n = 42)compared with the low IAT score subgroup(n = 53)(P < 0.05).Conclusions:Our results suggested that the association between the resting brain activity and IGD tendency is frequency-dependent in young online game players.The mALFF of brain regions involved in visual processing、eye movement control、dopamine modulation and cognitive process are associated to the IGD tendency.These findings may contribute to the understanding of neural mechanism of IGD.