Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Cognitive Control Network, Default Mode Network, and Visual Attention Network in Internet Addiction: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Internet addiction is linked to altered communication patterns across the whole brain. Individuals with internet addiction showed increased functional connectivity density in regions involved in cognitive control and the default mode network, including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left parahippocampal gyrus, cerebellum, bilateral middle cingulate cortex, and superior temporal pole. Decreased connectivity density appeared in the right inferior parietal lobe and bilateral calcarine and lingual gyrus, areas tied to visual attention. Scores on the Internet Addiction Test correlated with connectivity changes in the left parahippocampal gyrus and bilateral superior temporal pole. These patterns resemble those seen in substance addiction and share neurobiological features with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Internet addiction (IA) has become a global mental and social problem, which may lead to a series of psychiatric symptoms including uncontrolled use of internet, and lack of concentration. However, the exact pathophysiology of IA remains unclear. Most of functional connectivity studies were based on pre-selected regions of interest (ROI), which could not provide a comprehensive picture of the communication abnormalities in IA, and might lead to limited or bias observations. Using local functional connectivity density (lFCD), this study aimed to explore the whole-brain abnormalities of functional connectivity in IA. We evaluated the whole-brain lFCD resulting from resting-state fMRI data in 28 IA individuals and 30 demographically matched healthy control subjects (HCs). The correlations between clinical characteristics and aberrant lFCD were also assessed. Compared with HCs, subjects with IA exhibited heightened lFCD values in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), and cerebellum, and the bilateral middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and superior temporal pole (STP), as well as decreased lFCD values in the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL), and bilateral calcarine and lingual gyrus. Voxel-based correlation analysis revealed the significant correlations between the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) score and altered lFCD values in the left PHG and bilateral STP. These findings revealed the hyper-connectivity in cognitive control network and default mode network as well as the hypo-connectivity in visual attention network, verifying the common mechanism in IA and substance addiction, and the underlying association between IA, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in terms of neurobiology.