| With the Internet gaming disorder being listed as the type of addictive mental disorder by ICD-11,the clinical research on Internet gaming disorder is particularly important.Compared with researches on other types of addiction,the research on abstinence of Internet gaming disorder appears to be very insufficient.Previous studies have shown that online game addicts show pre-attentional bias to game-related pictures,and negative emotions will enhance the pre-attentional bias.While negative emotions are also one of the important withdrawal symptoms.So,will online game abstinence affect the pre-attentional bias of online game addicts?What is the neurological mechanism of this effect?In this paper,two studies were designed to explore the effects of different abstinence duration on the pre-attentional bias of online game addicts,and further explore the differences and connections between them.Study 1 selected 30 college students who were addicted to online games and divided them into abstinence group and non-abstinence group randomly.The common equipment pictures in games with high familiarity were selected as experimental materials.The deviation-reversal Oddball paradigm was used as experimental process.Mismatch Negativity(MMN)was used as physiological index,and negative emotions were recorded with negative emotional scale.The purpose of this study was to explore whether short-term abstinence(3 days)could enhance the negative emotions of addicts and enhance their pre-attentional bias.The results showed that the negative emotions,MMN and attention bias were significantly increased after three days of abstinence compared with those before abstinence,and the change of negative emotions was negatively correlated with the change of MMN amplitude,while there was no significant difference between the pre-and post-test indicators in the non-abstinence group.According to the theory of negative reinforcement of addiction,subjects show withdrawal symptoms of negative mood enhancement after short-term abstinence.In order to alleviate this negative affect,their thirst for addictive behavior of "game" which brings happiness is enhanced,thus enhancing the pre-attentional bias of game-related clues.In study 2,the same subjects were followed up longitudinally to explore whether long-term abstinence(7 days)could reduce the negative emotions of addicts and attenuate their pre-attentional bias.The results showed that the MMN decreased significantly and the pre-attentional bias weakened after seven days of abstinence compared with before abstinence.While the negative emotions decreased,but there was no significant difference with the baseline,and there was no significant correlation between the negative emotions and the change of MMN amplitude.According to the incentive sensitization model of addiction,the pre-attentional bias of addicts decreased after long-term abstinence,suggesting that the prominence of online games clues to addicts decreased,which may be a reverse proof of "incentive sensitization",that is,"de-incentive sensitization".In the process of long-term abstinence,the sensitivity of brain nerves to addiction cues decreases,which leads to the decrease of the degree of craving for addictive behavior.This also indicates that the changes of brain nerves caused by Internet games addiction may be reversible.These two studies suggest that short-and long-term abstinence may have different intrinsic psychological and neurological mechanisms during the withdrawal process of online game addiction.The design of this paper is of great value to the theoretical research and clinical intervention of Internet game addiction abstinence.On the one hand,it helps to further explore the intrinsic mechanism of the pre-attentional bias of Internet game addicts.On the other hand,it confirms the changes of brain nerve mechanism and withdrawal symptoms in different periods during the process of Internet game abstinence. |
