Impaired inhibitory control in internet addiction disorder: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study (2012)

Wikipedia: In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color (e.g., “blue,” “green,” or “red”) is printed in a color not denoted by the name (e.g., the word “red” printed in blue ink instead of red ink), naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color.

This test is considered to measure selective attention, cognitive flexibility and processing speed, and it is used as a tool in the evaluation of executive functions.


Psychiatry Res. 2012 Aug 11.

Dong G, Devito EE, Du X, Cui Z.

Source

Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, PR China.

Abstract

‘Internet addiction disorder’ (IAD) is rapidly becoming a prevalent mental health concern in many countries around the world. The neurobiological underpinnings of internet addiction should be studied to unravel the potential heterogeneity in the disorder. The present study examines the neural correlates of response inhibition in males with and without IAD using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Stroop task. The IAD group demonstrated significantly greater ‘Stroop effect’-related activity in the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices compared with their healthy peers. These results may suggest diminished efficiency of response-inhibition processes in the IAD group relative to healthy controls.