Brain activation associated with video gaming stimuli in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) among Malaysian adolescents

Abstract

Abstract The rapid development of Internet gaming technology in Malaysia has come with a cost of greater vulnerability in becoming addicted to video games especially for an adolescent whose mental abilities were not matured yet. This study aimed to investigate the differences in human neural activation using fMRI that being triggered by gaming video among Malaysian young adult. The 16 participants with Internet addiction were recruited. They undergo approximate 10 minutes of task-based fMRI scanning that will be presenting an ordered games-related and control short video simultaneously. Data were analyzed using MATLAB 9.3 (R2017b) and Statistical Parametric Mapping 12 (SPM 12) to evaluate brain activation. Based on the result, these the regions activated are known to be linked in visuospatial, somatosensory, semantic memory processing, emotional response, reward, integrating information process, memory retrieval, spatial navigation, and orientation. These findings may yield more in-depth in this study and provide a deeper understanding in developing appropriate guidelines and interventions to treat Internet gaming addicts community, especially in the Malaysian population.