The Behavioral and Brain Mechanism of IGD

The Behavioral and Brain Mechanism of Internet Gaming Disorder

This project aims to investigate whether anodal tDCS of dlPFC enhances cognitive regulation over craving an emotions.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Internet Gaming Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Craving behavioral intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 204
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Beijing
    • Beijing, Beijing, China, 100875
      • State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Inclusion criteria for IGDs were:

  1. a score of 67 or higher on the CIAS;
  2. engagement in Internet gaming for over 14 hours per week for a minimum of one year; and
  3. reporting of Internet gaming as their primary online activity;

• Inclusion criteria for HCs were:

  1. a score < 60 on the CIAS;
  2. never having spent more than 2 hours per week engaged in Internet gaming

Exclusion Criteria:

• for all participants:

  1. current or history of use of illegal substances and gambling;
  2. current or history of psychiatric or neurological illness; and
  3. current use of psychotropic medications

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Craving behavioral intervention; The craving behavioral intervention (CBI) was developed based on the framework of craving, combining with behavior intervention (Dong and Potenza, 2014), and conducted among individuals with IGD.	Behavioral: Craving behavioral intervention; The CBI was given once a week for 6 weeks, conducted by four therapists. A pair of therapists was randomly assigned to a CBI+ group. Each session included 5 parts in 2.5-3 hours: warming-up exercise, discussion about the homework from the last session, main structured activity, brief summary, and the homework assignment. There were 6 sessions with each focused on a topic: recognize craving and its relationship with IGD; reduce craving through ameliorating the salience of cues and irrational beliefs, withdrawal symptoms and other negative affects; enhance self-monitoring and control for craving through time management training; relieve fulfillment of psychological needs through Internet use and attenuate the relation between craving and gaming behaviors through coping skill training; Other Names: CBI
No Intervention: Control; The control group were individuals with Internet gaming disorder who did not receive any intervention but were scanned twice with the similar interval period as experimental group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain resting state functional connectivity as measured by fMRI	voxel-wise, ROI-wise, and ICA analyses	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
Brain activation during a cue-induced craving task as measured by fMRI	A paradigm using addictive pictures to induce craving	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain activation during the Cups task as measured by fMRI	Cups task measuring risky decision-making related to potential gains and losses separately	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
Brain activation during the mixed gambling task tasks as measured by fMRI	The mix gambling task measuring decision-making related to loss aversion	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
Brain structure as measured by structural MRI	comparing gray matter and white matter differences between individuals with IGD and healthy controls.	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
IGD severity measured by Chen Internet addiction scale	a 26-item 4-point Likert scale	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
Craving as measured by brief questionnaire of Internet (gaming) craving	a 8-item 7-point Likert scale	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
Impulsivity as measured by Barratt impulsive scale (BIS-II)	a 30-item 4-point Likert scale	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)
weekly online (gaming) time	self-report,in hours	Detecting changes between two different time points (baseline and 6 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Beijing Normal University
• Investigators: Study Chair: XiaoYi Fang, PhD, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University; Study Chair: JinTao Zhang, PhD, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning; Principal Investigator: CuiCui Xia, MEd, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University; Principal Investigator: LinYuan Deng, PhD, Faculty of Education Beijing Normal University; Principal Investigator: Lu Liu, BS, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University; Principal Investigator: Ben Liu, BSM, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning; Principal Investigator: ShanShan Ma, BS, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning; Principal Investigator: YuanWei Yao, BS, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning; Principal Investigator: Qinxue Liu, PhD, School of Psychology Central China Normal University; Principal Investigator: Nan Zhou, MEd, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University; Principal Investigator: ShuMeng Hou, MEd, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Dong G, Potenza MN. A cognitive-behavioral model of Internet gaming disorder: theoretical underpinnings and clinical implications. J Psychiatr Res. 2014 Nov;58:7-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.07.005. Epub 2014 Jul 17.
• Liu L, Yao YW, Li CR, Zhang JT, Xia CC, Lan J, Ma SS, Zhou N, Fang XY. The Comorbidity Between Internet Gaming Disorder and Depression: Interrelationship and Neural Mechanisms. Front Psychiatry. 2018 Apr 23;9:154. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00154. eCollection 2018.
• Deng LY, Liu L, Xia CC, Lan J, Zhang JT, Fang XY. Craving Behavior Intervention in Ameliorating College Students' Internet Game Disorder: A Longitudinal Study. Front Psychol. 2017 Apr 10;8:526. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00526. eCollection 2017.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 10, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): September 15, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 13, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2018
• Last Verified: December 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Compulsive Behavior; Impulsive Behavior; Behavior, Addictive; Internet Addiction Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: BeijingNormalU