Imbalanced functional link between executive control network and reward network explain the online-game seeking behaviors in Internet gaming disorder

Literatures have shown that Internet gaming disorder (IGD) subjects show impaired executive control and enhanced reward sensitivities than healthy controls. However, how these two networks jointly affect the valuation process and drive IGD subjects' online-game-seeking behaviors remains unknown. Thirty-five IGD and 36 healthy controls underwent a resting-states scan in the MRI scanner. Functional connectivity (FC) was examined within control and reward network seeds regions, respectively. Nucleus accumbens (NAcc) was selected as the node to find the interactions between these two networks. IGD subjects show decreased FC in the executive control network and increased FC in the reward network when comparing with the healthy controls. When examining the correlations between the NAcc and the executive control/reward networks, the link between the NAcc - executive control network is negatively related with the link between NAcc - reward network. The changes (decrease/increase) in IGD subjects' brain synchrony in control/reward networks suggest the inefficient/overly processing within neural circuitry underlying these processes. The inverse proportion between control network and reward network in IGD suggest that impairments in executive control lead to inefficient inhibition of enhanced cravings to excessive online game playing. This might shed light on the mechanistic understanding of IGD

An fMRI Study to Analyze Neural Correlates of Presence during Virtual Reality Experiences

[EN] In the field of virtual reality (VR), many efforts have been made to analyze presence, the sense of being in the virtual world. However, it is only recently that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to study presence during an automatic navigation through a virtual environment. In the present work, our aim was to use fMRI to study the sense of presence during a VR-free navigation task, in comparison with visualization of photographs and videos (automatic navigations through the same environment). The main goal was to analyze the usefulness of fMRI for this purpose, evaluating whether, in this context, the interaction between the subject and the environment is performed naturally, hiding the role of technology in the experience. We monitored 14 right-handed healthy females aged between 19 and 25 years. Frontal, parietal and occipital regions showed their involvement during free virtual navigation. Moreover, activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was also shown to be negatively correlated to sense of presence and the postcentral parietal cortex and insula showed a parametric increased activation according to the condition-related sense of presence, which suggests that stimulus attention and self-awareness processes related to the insula may be linked to the sense of presence.This study was funded by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Spain, Project Game Teen (TIN2010-20187) and partially by projects Consolider-C (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC), ‘CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, an initiative of ISCIII’, the Excellence Research Program PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana. Conselleria de Educación, 2008-157) and the Consolider INGENIO program (CSD2007-00012). 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Self-regulation of SMR power led to an enhancement of functional connectivity of somatomotor cortices in fibromyalgia patients

[eng] Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that altered activity in somatosensory and motor cortices play a key role in pain chronification. Neurofeedback training of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) is a tool which allow individuals to self-modulate their brain activity and to produce significant changes over somatomotor brain areas. Several studies have further shown that neurofeedback training may reduce pain and other pain-related symptoms in chronic pain patients. The goal of the present study was to analyze changes in SMR power and brain functional connectivity of the somatosensory and motor cortices elicited by neurofeedback task designed to both synchronize and desynchronize the SMR power over motor and somatosensory areas in fibromyalgia patients. Seventeen patients were randomly assigned to the SMR training (n = 9) or to a sham protocol (n = 8). All participants were trained during 6 sessions, and fMRI and EEG power elicited by synchronization and desynchronization trials were analyzed. In the SMR training group, four patients achieved the objective of SMR modulation in more than 70% of the trials from the second training session (good responders), while five patients performed the task at the chance level (bad responders). Good responders to the neurofeedback training significantly reduced pain and increased both SMR power modulation and functional connectivity of motor and somatosensory related areas during the last neurofeedback training session, whereas no changes in brain activity or pain were observed in bad responders or participants in the sham group. In addition, we observed that good responders were characterized by reduced impact of fibromyalgia and pain symptoms, as well as by increased levels of health-related quality of life during the pre-training sessions. In summary, the present study revealed that neurofeedback training of SMR elicited significant brain changes in somatomotor areas leading to a significant reduction of pain in fibromyalgia patients. In this sense, our research provide evidence that neurofeedback training is a promising tool for a better understanding of brain mechanisms involved in pain chronification

The Neural Substrate of Reward Anticipation in Health : A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Findings in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task

The monetary incentive delay task breaks down reward processing into discrete stages for fMRI analysis. Here we look at anticipation of monetary gain and loss contrasted with neutral anticipation. We meta-analysed data from 15 original whole-brain group maps (n = 346) and report extensive areas of relative activation and deactivation throughout the whole brain. For both anticipation of gain and loss we report robust activation of the striatum, activation of key nodes of the putative salience network, including anterior cingulate and anterior insula, and more complex patterns of activation and deactivation in the central executive and default networks. On between-group comparison, we found significantly greater relative deactivation in the left inferior frontal gyrus associated with incentive valence. This meta-analysis provides a robust whole-brain map of a reward anticipation network in the healthy human brain

The Neural Substrate of Reward Anticipation in Health: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Findings in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task

The monetary incentive delay task breaks down reward processing into discrete stages for fMRI analysis. Here we look at anticipation of monetary gain and loss contrasted with neutral anticipation. We meta-analysed data from 15 original whole-brain group maps (n = 346) and report extensive areas of relative activation and deactivation throughout the whole brain. For both anticipation of gain and loss we report robust activation of the striatum, activation of key nodes of the putative salience network, including anterior cingulate and anterior insula, and more complex patterns of activation and deactivation in the central executive and default networks. On between-group comparison, we found significantly greater relative deactivation in the left inferior frontal gyrus associated with incentive valence. This meta-analysis provides a robust whole-brain map of a reward anticipation network in the healthy human brain