A selective involvement of putamen functional connectivity in youth with internet gaming disorder

Brain cortico-striatal circuits have consistently been implicated in the pathology of addiction related disorders. We applied a reliable seed-based analysis of the resting-state brain activity to comprehensively delineate the subdivisions of striatal functional connectivity implicated in intemet gaming disorder. Among twelve right-handed male adolescents with intemet gaming disorder and 11 right-handed and gender-matched healthy controls, we examined group differences in the functional connectivity of dorsal and ventral subdivisions of the caudate nucleus and putamen, as well as the association of these connectivity indices with behavioral measures of intemet use. Adolescents with intemet gaming disorder showed significantly reduced dorsal putamen functional connectivity with the posterior insula-parietal operculum. More time spent playing online games predicted significantly greater functional connectivity between the dorsal putamen and bilateral primary somatosensory cortices in adolescents with intemet gaming disorder, and significantly lower functional connectivity between the dorsal putamen and bilateral sensorimotor cortices in healthy controls. The dorsal putamen functional connectivity was significantly and specifically different in adolescents with intemet gaming disorder. The findings suggest a possible biomarker of intemet gaming disorder. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.