The Modulation Of Negative Affect On Internet Addicts' Pre-attentional Bias And Its Neural Mechanisms

The attentional processing advantage of Internet-related addicts on network-related cues is a key predisposing factor for the maintenance of addiction behavior and relapse after withdrawal.Recently,there is a study found that Internet addicts have automated cognition processing bias for network cues in the pre-attentional stage,indicating that Internet addicts' attentional processing advantage to network-related clues is unconscious and automated.Another major factor that inducing and maintaining Internet addiction behaviors are negative affect.When in negative affect,addicts' motivation for addictive behaviors is significantly enhanced.Theoretical and empirical studies of substance addiction have shown that negative emotions affect addicts' processing of addiction-related cues.However,there is no study conducted to investigate the relationship between negative affects and cognitive bias of attention in Internet addicts until now.Study 1 used a large sample survey method selected out 30 Internet addicts using the Internet Addiction Scale,and used a match control method to match 30 control group subjects.In the experiment,deviant-standard reverse oddball paradigm was used in the event-related potential(ERP)experiment to induce mismatch negativity.Internet-related cues and non-Internet-related cues were used to induce participants' MMNs.Negative emotions were induced using a repeated priming paradigm to explore whether the pre-attentional bias to network-related clues is enhanced when Internet addicts in negative emotions.The results showed that in the temporal occipital region and the occipital region,the Internet addicts' MMN induced by negative emotions were significantly larger than that in neutral emotions,whereas the non-network addicts were not significantly different.On the basis of the study 1,Study 2 further explored whether the pre-attentional detection processing of network-related cue characteristics initiated by negative addicts was enhanced.The study used the same subject and research paradigm as study 1,the interval between experiments was more than one month.Weak-signaled Internet-related clues and strong-signaled Internet-related clues were used as standard deviation stimuli to induce participants' MMN.The results indicate that,under the priming of negative emotions,the Internet-related cues MMN of both strong and weak-signaled Internet addicts were significantly larger than those of neutral Internet addicts,while non-Internet addicts did not.Affective processing model of negative reinforcement hold that the addict's addiction behavior is to relieve negative emotions.Therefore,under negative emotions,the individual will enhance the automatic detection of addiction-related cues.Theory of dual-emotion system processing believes that under the negative affect state,the individual's self-control ability will be weakened,and the ability to delay and satisfy will decline.The theory can also explain the results of this study.The declines of self control ability induced by Negative affects make Internet addicts tend to seek instant gratification.They are eager to get rid of the influence of negative emotions,thereby enhancing their detection of addiction-related cues to meet their desire.Finally,according to the incentive sensitization model,abstinence from addictive behavior leads to negative emotions of addicts,since being particularly sensitive to addiction-related cues.To sum up,the conclusion of this study is that negative affects will significantly enhance the pre-attentional bias of Internet addicts for network-related clues.This effect may not only be reflected in the processing and detection advantages of network-related cues,but also in the processing the characters change of network-related cues.