Inhibitory control and problematic Internet-pornography use – The important balancing role of the insula

Abstract

Background and aims Diminished control over a specific behavior is a core characteristic in addictive behaviors such as problematic Internet-pornography (IP) use. First studies suggest that a hyperactivity of the impulsive system is one reason for impulsive behaviors in the context of problematic IP use. The tripartite-process theory of addiction explains neurocognitive mechanisms beyond common dual-process theories in addictive behaviors. However, the role of the reflective and interoceptive system is still unresolved. Methods The study comprised a stop-signal task (SST) including neutral and pornographic images during fMRI and questionnaires to investigate associations between symptoms of problematic IP use, craving, and neural activity of the impulsive, reflective, and interoceptive system. We examined 28 heterosexual males with varying symptom severity of problematic IP use. Results Data indicates that individuals with more symptoms of problematic IP use showed better performance in the SST which was linked to decreased insula and inferior frontal gyrus activity during pornographic image processing. An increase in craving was associated with lower activity of the ventral striatum during pornographic image processing. The interoceptive system showed varying effects. Increased insula activity during inhibitory control and decreased activity during pornographic image processing were associated with higher inhibitory control performance. Discussion and Conclusion Effects of tolerance and motivational aspects may explain the better inhibitory control performance in individuals with higher symptom severity which was associated with differential activity of the interoceptive and reflective system. Diminished control over IP use presumably results from the interaction between the impulsive, reflective, and interoceptive systems.

A preregistered, systematic review considering mindfulness-based interventions and neurofeedback for targeting affective and cognitive processes in behavioral addictions.

“…However, studies of self-regulatory capacities found in this review rather assessed general self-rated self-control. Given the relative importance of response inhibition for several addictive behaviors, such as pornography viewing (e.g., Antons & Brand, 2020), gaming (e.g., Argyriou et al, 2017), gambling (e.g., Lawrence et al, 2009), or buying-shopping (e.g., Trotzke et al, 2020), future research is needed to investigate the potential impact that mindfulness techniques may have on stimulus-specific inhibitory control in the context of nonsubstance addictive behaviors.…”

Event-related potentials in a two-choice oddball task of impaired behavioral inhibitory control among males with tendencies towards cybersex addiction

“…Antons and Brand (2018) found that higher symptom severity of cybersex addiction was related to higher trait impulsivity interaction with more impulsive actions. However, another study found that individuals with more symptoms of cybersex addiction exhibited better BIC performance (Antons & Matthias, 2020).…”

Identifying Internet Addiction and Evaluating the Efficacy of Treatment Based on Functional Connectivity Density: A Machine Learning Study

“…The ability to suppress inappropriate behavior is a main function of the reflecting system, the impairment of which was proposed as a key determinant for uncontrolled internet and drug use (Volkow et al, 2010;Brand et al, 2019). The reflecting system in IA and substance addiction was consistently found to be dysfunctional when performing inhibition control tasks (Darnai et al, 2019;Antons and Matthias, 2020;Suarez-Suarez et al, 2020); therefore, it was regarded as a therapeutic target for addiction. After noninvasive treatment targeted to the system, the addiction symptoms were significantly relieved (Newman-Norlund et al, 2020;Su et al, 2020), indicating the critical role of the reflective system in addiction.…”