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. 2013 Dec 5;8(34):3225-32.
doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.34.006.

Decreased frontal lobe function in people with Internet addiction disorder

Jun Liu  1 , Fatema Esmail  2 , Lingjiang Li  3 , Zhifeng Kou  2 , Weihui Li  3 , Xueping Gao  3 , Zhiyuan Wang  4 , Changlian Tan  5 , Yan Zhang  3 , Shunke Zhou  5
Affiliations

Decreased frontal lobe function in people with Internet addiction disorder

Jun Liu et al. Neural Regen Res. .

Abstract

In our previous studies, we showed that frontal lobe and brainstem functions were abnormal in on-line game addicts. In this study, 14 students with Internet addiction disorder and 14 matched healthy controls underwent proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure cerebral function. Results demonstrated that the ratio of N-acetylaspartate to creatine decreased, but the ratio of cho-line-containing compounds to creatine increased in the bilateral frontal lobe white matter in people with Internet addiction disorder. However, these ratios were mostly unaltered in the brainstem, suggesting that frontal lobe function decreases in people with Internet addiction disorder.

Keywords: Internet addiction disorder; N-acetylaspartate; choline-containing compounds; creatine; grants-supported paper; internet gaming addiction; magnetic resonance imaging; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; neural regeneration; neuroregeneration.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Images of brain spectroscopy positioning. (A) Bilateral frontal; (B) brainstem. Large box represents the detection range, and the internal small boxes represent the smallest unit which can be detected in brain tissue. R: Right.
Figure 2
Figure 2
1H-MRS spectrogram of the frontal lobe and brainstem in the control (upper panel) and Internet addiction disorder (lower panel) groups. (A, B) 1H-MRS spectrogram of the left and right frontal lobes in the control group (upper panel): from left to right, Cho, Cr, and NAA appear in a rising pattern, with NAA the peak point; and in the Internet addiction disorder group (lower panel) with ascended Cho peak and descended NAA peak. (C, D) 1H-MRS spectrogram of the left and right brainstem in the control (upper panel) and Internet addiction disorder (lower panel) groups. White line: The actual image out of the curve; the red line: the fitting out of the spectral curve. Each index of MRS was measured three times and averaged before being compared. 1H-MRS: Proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy; NAA: N-acetylaspartate; Cho: choline; Cr: creatine.
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