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. 2015 Mar 4;10(3):e0118733.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118733. eCollection 2015.

Decreased prefrontal lobe interhemispheric functional connectivity in adolescents with internet gaming disorder: a primary study using resting-state FMRI

Yao Wang  1 , Yan Yin  1 , Ya-wen Sun  1 , Yan Zhou  1 , Xue Chen  1 , Wei-na Ding  1 , Wei Wang  2 , Wei Li  2 , Jian-rong Xu  1 , Ya-song Du  3
Affiliations

Decreased prefrontal lobe interhemispheric functional connectivity in adolescents with internet gaming disorder: a primary study using resting-state FMRI

Yao Wang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purposes: Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that people with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain areas and connections. However, little is known about the alterations of the interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in participants with IGD. In the present study, we used a newly developed voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method to investigate the interhemispheric rsFC of the whole brain in participants with IGD.

Methods: We compared interhemispheric rsFC between 17 participants with IGD and 24 healthy controls, group-matched on age, gender, and education status. All participants were provided written informed consent. Resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance images were acquired for all participants. The rsFC between bilateral homotopic voxels was calculated. Regions showing abnormal VMHC in IGD participants were adopted as regions of interest for correlation analyses.

Results: Compared to healthy controls, IGD participants showed decreased VMHC between the left and right superior frontal gyrus (orbital part), inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. Further analyses showed Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS)-related VMHC in superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and CIAS (r = -0.55, p = 0.02, uncorrected).

Conclusions: Our findings implicate the important role of altered interhemispheric rsFC in the bilateral prefrontal lobe in the neuropathological mechanism of IGD, and provide further supportive evidence for the reclassification of IGD as a behavioral addiction.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Statistical maps showing VMHC differences between participants with IGD and healthy participants.
Blue denotes lower VMHC and the color bars indicate the T value from the t test between groups. In the upper part of the picture, colors represent areas of the brain: red, represents the left and right superior frontal gyrus (orbital part); orange, inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part); yellow, middle frontal gyrus; green, superior frontal gyrus. VMHC, voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity; IGD, Internet gaming disorder. Note: The left part of the figure (L) represents the participant’s left side, (R) represents the participant’s right side.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Correlation between VMHC in superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and CIAS in participants with IGD.
Solid and dashed lines represent the best-fit line of the Pearson’s and Shepherd’s correlations, respectively. Outliers are indicated by open circles. VMHC, voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity; IGD, Internet gaming disorder; CIAS, Chen Internet Addiction Scale.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81171325), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81371622), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81371532), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81401393). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.