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Striatum morphometry is associated with cognitive control deficits and symptom severity in internet gaming disorder

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Abstract

Internet gaming disorder (IGD), identified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) Section III as a condition warranting more clinical research, may be associated with impaired cognitive control. Previous IGD-related studies had revealed structural abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex, an important part of prefrontal-striatal circuits, which play critical roles in cognitive control. However, little is known about the relationship between the striatal nuclei (caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens) volumes and cognitive control deficit in individuals with IGD. Twenty-seven adolescents with IGD and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls participated in this study. The volume differences of the striatum were assessed by measuring subcortical volume in FreeSurfer. Meanwhile, the Stroop task was used to detect cognitive control deficits. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between striatal volumes and performance in the Stroop task as well as severity in IGD. Relative to controls, the IGD committed more incongruent condition response errors during the Stroop task and showed increased volumes of dorsal striatum (caudate) and ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens). In addition, caudate volume was correlated with Stroop task performance and nucleus accumbens (NAc) volume was associated with the internet addiction test (IAT) score in the IGD group. The increased volumes of the right caudate and NAc and their association with behavioral characteristics (i.e., cognitive control and severity) in IGD were detected in the present study. Our findings suggest that the striatum may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of IGD.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is supported by the Project for the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (973) under Grant nos. 2014CB543203, 2011CB707700, 2012CB518501, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 81401478, 81401488, 81227901, 81271644, 81271546, 81101036, 81101108, 31200837, 81301281, the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China under Grant no. 2014JQ4118, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under the Grant nos. 8002–72125760, 8002–72135767, 8002–72145760, the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia under Grant no. 2012MS0908. General Financial Grant the China Post- doctoral Science Foundation under Grant no. 2014 M552416.

Competing Interests

Chenxi Cai, Kai Yuan, Junsen Yin, Dan Feng, Yanzhi Bi, Yangding Li, Dahua Yu, Chenwang Jin, Wei Qin and Jie Tian declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710071, People’s Republic of China

    Chenxi Cai, Kai Yuan, Junsen Yin, Dan Feng, Yanzhi Bi, Yangding Li, Wei Qin & Jie Tian

  2. Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of Education, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

    Chenxi Cai, Kai Yuan, Junsen Yin, Dan Feng, Yanzhi Bi, Yangding Li, Wei Qin & Jie Tian

  3. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Image Processing, School of Information Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, 014010, People’s Republic of China

    Dahua Yu

  4. Department of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710061, People’s Republic of China

    Chenwang Jin

  5. Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Tian

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  1. Chenxi Cai
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  2. Kai Yuan
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Cai, C., Yuan, K., Yin, J. et al. Striatum morphometry is associated with cognitive control deficits and symptom severity in internet gaming disorder. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 12–20 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9358-8

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