Cue-induced Behavioral and Neural Changes among Excessive Internet Gamers and Possible Application of Cue Exposure Therapy to Internet Gaming Disorder

Abstract

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) may lead to many negative consequences in everyday life, yet there is currently no effective treatment for IGD. Cue-reactivity paradigm is commonly used to evaluate craving for substance, food, and gambling; cue exposure therapy (CET) is applied to treating substance use disorders (SUDs) and some other psychological disorders such as pathological gambling (PG). However, no study has explored CET’s application to the treatment of IGD except two articles having implied that cues’ exposure may have therapeutic effect on IGD. This paper reviews studies on cue-induced behavioral and neural changes in excessive Internet gamers, indicating that behavioral and neural mechanisms of IGD mostly overlap with those of SUD. The CET’s effects in the treatment of SUDs and PG are also reviewed. We finally propose an optimized CET paradigm, which future studies should consider and investigate as a probable treatment of IGD.

Craving Behavior Intervention in Ameliorating College Students' Internet Game Disorder: A Longitudinal Study

“…In the current study, significant decrease of craving and severity of IGD right after intervention were observed in the CBI+ group compared to CBI− group, which is consistent with previous studies on IGD, using pharmacological craving intervention (Han et al, 2010), and behavioral approach (Han et al, 2012; Zhang et al, 2016). This result is consistent with interventional studies in gambling disorder, that craving as a core component as well as a sensitive index could be reduced by the opioid antagonists (Grant et al, 2003; Brewer et al, 2008), while also by multiple behavioral therapies as a symptom of GD (Yip and Potenza, 2014).…”

The Potential Interaction Between Time Perception and Gaming: A Narrative Review

“…The impact of gaming on emotion has been investigated via neuropsychological studies. These studies demonstrate stronger brain reactivity for disordered gamers compared with control participants when confronted with gaming cues, meaning that disordered gamers are more aroused by gaming stimuli (Ahn et al 2015;Ko et al 2013;Zhang et al 2016). Although stronger reactivity has mainly been observed within the prefrontal cortex (i.e., both ventrolateral and dorsolateral; Ahn et al 2015;Ko et al 2013), other areas of the brain have shown similar results (e.g., precuneus, posterior cingulate, striatum; Ko et al 2013;.…”

Increased Insular Cortical Thickness Associated With Symptom Severity in Male Youths With Internet Gaming Disorder: A Surface-Based Morphometric Study

“…Future SBM studies are encouraged to employ an atlas with fine subregional structures of insula. In addition, previous studies have demonstrated that behavioral and neural mechanisms of IGD mostly overlap with those of substance use disorders ( 18 ). Thus, more cognitive measurements such as rewards, cravings, and memory-related tasks are needed to explain the findings of the present study.…”

“…For example, Han et al ( 16 ) reported increased gray matter volume of the left thalamus in individuals with IGD, and Zhou et al reported decreased gray matter density of the left cingulate cortex and left insula in individuals with IGD ( 17 ). With regard to those structural alterations, there was an influential explanation that the neural mechanisms underlying IGD resemble those of substance addiction ( 14 , 18 ). Although such behavioral addictions do not involve a chemical intoxicant or substance, study evidence revealed that many aspects of behavioral addiction are similar to those of substance addiction ( 19 , 20 ).…”