[HTML][HTML] Impaired disengagement of attention from computer-related stimuli in Internet Gaming Disorder: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

A Heuer, M Mennig, A Schub�…�- Journal of behavioral�…, 2021 - akjournals.com
A Heuer, M Mennig, A Schub�, A Barke
Journal of behavioral addictions, 2021akjournals.com
Background and aims: Attentional biases contribute to the maintenance of addictive
behaviors. For the problematic use of online gaming–recognized as Internet Gaming
Disorder (IGD)–first evidence points to a bias towards in-game stimuli. This study aimed to
provide behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for a generalized bias towards
computer-related stimuli, and to identify the specific attentional processes contributing to this
bias: facilitated attention deployment, impaired disengagement or failed suppression�…
Abstract
Background and aims: Attentional biases contribute to the maintenance of addictive behaviors. For the problematic use of online gaming – recognized as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) – first evidence points to a bias towards in-game stimuli. This study aimed to provide behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for a generalized bias towards computer-related stimuli, and to identify the specific attentional processes contributing to this bias: facilitated attention deployment, impaired disengagement or failed suppression. Method: Twenty participants with IGD and 23 casual gamers performed a visual search task with photographs of real-world objects. Either the target or a to-be-ignored distractor was addiction-relevant (computer-related), whereas all other items were addiction-irrelevant (related to cars or sport). Event-related potential components associated with facilitated attentional deployment to the target (NT), its post-selection processing (SPCN), and suppression of irrelevant information (PD) were analyzed. Results: Unlike casual gamers, gamers with IGD exhibited prolonged reaction times and increased SPCN amplitudes for computer-related stimuli, reflecting their continued attentional processing. At the individual level, larger SPCN amplitudes were associated with longer delays in reaction time. Discussion and Conclusions: This pattern of results indicates that the disengagement of attention from computer-related stimuli is impaired in IGD. More generally, our findings demonstrate that conditioning processes occur in IGD, and thus open up new avenues for treatment.
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