Measurement Of Problematic Mobile Video Game Usage And Its Relationship With Inhibitory Control

With the rapid development of mobile technology,mobile video games have gradually become the current mainstream trend and become an indispensable part of people's real life.Although the emergence of mobile video games provides people with a more convenient way of entertainment and leisure,excessive use of mobile video games will also bring some negative effects to people.Excessive mobile video gaming has gradually become the focus of social attention.As a new media form emerging in recent years,mobile video games are relatively scarce in the current research on its problematic use,and previous studies of internet gaming disorder(IGD)have mainly focused on traditional online gaming addiction based on desktop computers.In addition,although problematic mobile video gaming shares some similarities with traditional desktop computer online gaming addiction,there are still significant differences.Compared with traditional online games,mobile video games have a series of features such as portability,immediacy and accessibility,which may make it easier for users to overindulge in them,resulting in problematic usage.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct research on the use of problematic mobile video games.The development of effective measurement tools for problematic mobile video game use is the prerequisite for the study of problematic mobile video game use.In view of this,based on the existing research and combining the characteristics of mobile video games,Study 1 developed the problematic mobile video game use scale and tested the reliability and validity of the scale to make it meet the standards of psychometrics.In addition,based on previous studies on substance and behavior addiction,impaired inhibitory control is closely related to substance use addiction,gambling addiction,Internet addiction and online game addiction.The results of related cognitive neural studies also showed that,compared with the subjects in the healthy control group,Internet addicts,online game addicts and smartphone addicts showed abnormal activation and structure in a series of brain regions that are related to individual's inhibitory control function.At present,no research have investigated the relationship between problematic mobile video use and inhibitory control ability.Considering that compared to the use of PC-based online games,the characteristics of mobile video games may make it more difficult for users to control their gaming behaviors.Whether problematic mobile video game users have similar cognitive impairment to substance use addiction,gambling addiction,Internet addiction,online game addiction and smartphone addiction in terms of inhibitory control is unclear,and it is a question worth exploring.Therefore,in the Study 2 and Study 3,based on the analysis of brain function and brain structure,the relationship between the problematic mobile video games use and the individual's inhibition control function is analyzed and evaluated from a multi-modal perspective,in order to test whether problematic mobile video game use is related to an individual's impaired inhibitory control ability.In Study 1,the preliminary development of a 35-item problematic mobile video game use scale was completed.Through item analysis and exploratory factor analysis,a problematic mobile video game use scale consisting of withdrawal symptoms,mood modification and conflict with 11 items was finally formed.Furthermore,validity test including content validity,construct validity,criterion related validity,convergent validity,discriminant validity and reliability test including internal consistency reliability,split-half reliability were performed on the problematic mobile video game use scale with 11 items.The results showed that the developed problematic mobile video game use scale has good reliability and validity,and is an effective and reliable tool for assessing problematic mobile video gaming.In Study 2,we investigated the differences in behavioral performance and brain activation in the Stroop task of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging between the subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group and the subjects in the healthy control group,in order to test whether problematic mobile video game use is related to individuals' impaired inhibitory control ability.A total of 1501 undergraduates were tested,32 subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group were selected based on the score of the problematic mobile video game use scale and the game usage time,and 31 participants who were matched in age and gender and never played mobile video games were selected in the healthy control group.A mixed experimental design with 2 subjects(problematic mobile video game use group,health control group)× 2 stimulus conditions(color word consistency,color word consistency)was used.The behavioral results showed that there were significant differences in the accuracy and response time between the two stimulus conditions,the accuracy under inconsistent conditions was significantly lower than that under consistent conditions,and the response time under inconsistent conditions was significantly longer than that under consistent conditions.However,there was no significant difference in the accuracy,response time and Stroop effect between subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group and the healthy control group.It was found in the brain imaging results that compared with the color word consistency conditions,all subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group and the healthy control group showed higher levels of activation in brain regions including bilateral middle frontal gyrus,bilateral superior lobule,left inferior temporal gyrus and right lateral cerebellum.However,during the Stroop effect,no significant differentially activated brain regions were found between the problematic mobile video game use group and the health control group.The above results show that the analysis results of brain imaging data in this study are consistent with those of behavioral data.Firstly,under the condition that the color words are inconsistent,the semantic meaning of words would interfere with the task of identifying the color of the words,leading to the decrease of accuracy,the increase of reaction time and the significant higher level activation of serial brain regions.Secondly,there was no significant difference in the accuracy,response time and Stroop effect between subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group and the healthy control group.In addition,during the Stroop effect,no significantly differently activated brain regions were found between the two groups of subjects.This indicates that from the perspective of behavior and brain function,there is no difference in inhibitory control ability between the two groups of subjects,that is,the individuals in the problematic mobile video game use group have no impairment in inhibitory control function.In Study 3,the voxel-based morphological analysis was used to compare the gray matter volume of the brain between the individuals in the problematic mobile video game group and the health control group.The results showed that there was no significant difference in gray matter volume between the problematic mobile video game use group and the health control group.From the perspective of brain structure,this study found that compared with the healthy control group,the subjects in the problematic mobile video game use group did not have brain structure defects in the inhibitory control-related brain regions,that is,there was no damage in the inhibitory control function,which is consistent with the findings of Study 2.In summary,in this study,Study 1 compiled the problematic mobile video game use scale,and conducted a detailed study on the reliability and validity of the scale,providing a measurement tool in line with the requirements of psychological statistics for further research in this field.Study 2 and Study 3 from the perspective of behavioral performance,brain function,and brain structure proved that compared with the healthy control group,the problematic mobile video game use group had no impairment in inhibitory control function,that is,no correlation was found between problematic mobile video game use and impaired inhibitory control function.