Dysfunction of the frontolimbic region during swear word processing in young adolescents with Internet gaming disorder

Abstract

Although the Internet is an important tool in our daily life, the control of Internet use is necessary to address difficult problems. This study set out with the aim of assessing the cognitive control of affective events in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and has examined the influence of IGD on neural activities with regard to swear words in young adolescents. We demonstrated the differences between adolescents with IGD and healthy control adolescents (HC) with respect to swear, negative and neutral word conditions. Swear words induced more activation in regions related to social interaction and emotional processing such as the superior temporal sulcus, right temporoparietal junction and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) when compared with negative words. In this study, adolescents with IGD exhibited reduced activation in the right OFC related to cognitive control and in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) related to social rejection during the swear word condition. In addition, adolescents with IGD were negatively correlated with activity in the right amygdala toward swear words, indicating the important role of the amygdala in the control of aggression in adolescents with IGD. These findings enhance our understanding of social–emotional perception in adolescents with IGD.