The FMRI Study On The Internet Gaming Addicts’ Decision-making Behavior And Regret Emotion In A Sequential Risk-taking Task

Since their appearance in the 1990 s,online games have developed rapidly.And at the same time,internet gaming disorder(IGD)has caused widespread attention.A large number of studies have explored the abnormalities in risk decision-making behavior and negative emotional experience of the IGD,but there are few studies on the sequential risk-taking task with continuous risk accumulation.Previous studies have found that the sequential risk-taking task can effectively induce the regret emotion,and regret can remind people not to repeat improper decisions and optimize the subsequent decision.Therefore,it is necessary to further explore the characteristics of decisionmaking behavior and regret of the IGD in the sequential risk-taking task,and whether they can learn from the events that induce regret and adjust their subsequent decisionmaking behavior.So,by adopting a sequential risk-taking task with continuous risk accumulation and combining the behavioral study,the task and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)technique,the current study aimed to explore the decision-making behavior,the regret emotion and its influence on subsequent decisionmaking in the sequential risk-taking task of the IGD,and to explore related brain activities.In the sequential risk-taking task,subjects got the outcome at the end of each trial.And they were asked to rate subjective emotion for the outcome of each trial on a 9-point scale.The whole task was carried out in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.And the resting state data of each subject was collected before the formal task.Results of this study:(1)The behavioral study showed that,in the sequential risk-taking task,IGD group preferred to take risks compared to the healthy group.When they miss opportunities,the IGD group was more likely to regret than the healthy group.On the conscientiousness dimension of the Five-Factory Inventory,the rating of the IGD group was lower than the healthy group.(2)As for the task fMRI results,in the loss situation,the healthy group showed decreasing activation of the striatum with increasing regret,while the brain activation in the IGD group didn’t show such change.And in the loss situation,the higher the activation of the OFC in the healthy group was,the more risk in subsequent decision-making they would take.However,the IGD group showed more activation of the OFC than healthy group,and the activation of the OFC of the IGD group did not affect the subsequent decision-making behavior.(3)Resting state fMRI study found that in the healthy group,when the functional connectivity between the striatum and the prefrontal lobe decreased,the rating of their conscientiousness increased,and their ability to adjust subsequent behavior based on regret increased as well.However,the functional connectivity between the striatum and the prefrontal lobe was stronger in the IGD group than in the healthy group.And the functional connectivity of the IGD group was not associated with their rating of conscientiousness or the ability to adjust subsequent behavior based on regret.In conclusion,this study combined behavior measurement,task fMRI and resting state fMRI to explore the decision-making behavior and regret of the IGD group and the healthy group in the sequential risk-taking task,and explore the impact of regret on the subsequent decision-making behavior.The results found that compared with healthy group,the IGD group take more risks in the sequential risk-taking task,and showed more regret when missed opportunities.The task and resting-state fMRI both found that the striatum and the OFC of the IGD group were abnormal,which would have an impact on the decision-making behavior,regret emotion and the ability to adjust subsequent decision-making based on regret of the IGD group.This study is helpful to further clarify the relationship among the brain activity,the decision-making behavior and regret emotion of the IGD in risk decision.And it can provide some enlightenment and reference for the intervention and withdrawal of the IGD in real life.