Search

Over the past decade, addiction research has been marked by increasing interest in examining the potentially harmful effects of excessive involvement in new forms of online activities (e.g. video gaming, cybersexual activities, social networking and streaming of TV series). There have been growing calls to conduct qualitative research to better understand maladaptive involvement in online behaviours [5-9]. Qualitative research is indeed needed to avoid perpetuating a ‘confirmatory approach’ that consists in focusing merely on the similarities between online addictive disorders and substance use disorders. Such research is about exploring the unique characteristics pertaining to these emerging and possible disorders, thereby ensuring an appropriate understanding of their genuine phenomenological nature.

Social networks facilitate social interaction, but their use can also lead to mental health problems. While it is recognized that preventive efforts are needed to mitigate these potential adverse effects, the conceptualization, measurement, determinants, and consequences of problematic internet use (PUI) remain unclear. This thesis presents a series of studies using a range of methods including systematic review and meta-analysis, qualitative inquiry, psychometric analysis, and structural equation modeling to improve the understanding of PUI and, particularly, Instagram use, to inform prevention. It is noted that research and interventions are often based on the addiction framework, which does not do justice to the specificity of PUI. The identification of distinctive motives and patterns of Instagram formed a basis for the development and validation of two self-report measures (the IMQ and the IUPQ). Using these instruments, it was shown that social comparison orientation and fear of missing out have direct and indirect effects on motives and patterns of Instagram use, and these patterns are related to depression, anxiety, and stress through loneliness. The implications of these findings and suggestions for better prevention are provided., Les réseaux sociaux facilitent l'interaction sociale, mais leur utilisation peut également entraîner des problèmes de santé mentale. Bien que la nécessité d’atténuer ces effets négatifs potentiels soit reconnue, la conceptualisation et mesure, et les déterminants et conséquences de l'utilisation problématique d'Internet (UPI) restent flous. Cette thèse présente une série d'études utilisant un éventail de méthodes, dont l'examen systématique et la méta-analyse, l'enquête qualitative, l'analyse psychométrique et la modélisation d'équations structurelles, afin d'améliorer la compréhension d’UPI, et d’Instagram en particulier, pour informer la prévention. Il a été noté que la recherche et les interventions sont souvent basées sur le cadre théorique de la dépendance, ce qui ne rend pas justice à la spécificité de l’UPI. L'identification de motifs et de modèles distincts d’utilisation d'Instagram servi de base au développement et à la validation de deux mesures d'auto-évaluation (l'IMQ et l'IUPQ). Grâce à ces instruments, il a été démontré que l'orientation vers la comparaison sociale et l’anxiété de ratage ont des effets directs et indirects sur les motifs et les modèles d'utilisation d'Instagram, et que ces modèles sont liés à la dépression, à l'anxiété et au stress par la solitude. Les implications de ces résultats et des suggestions pour une meilleure prévention sont fournies., (PSYE - Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation) -- UCL, 2022

The preservation of our environment requires sustainable ways of thinking and living. Here, we aimed to explore the core network of brain regions involved in the prospective thinking about (un)sustainable behaviours. Using a neuroimaging cue-exposure paradigm, we requested participants (n = 86) to report behaviours that were the most feasible for them to implement (sustainable behaviour) or diminish (unsustainable behaviour) in the future. We find that increasing sustainable behaviours was perceived to be more feasible than reducing unsustainable ones. Consistent with the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in providing access to new representations of past behaviours, we observed stronger activation of these regions when picturing an increase in sustainable behaviours. Critically, simulating the reduction of unsustainable behaviours triggered activation within the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a key region for inhibitory-control processes), which was negatively associated with hippocampal activation (a key region for memory). These findings suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex downregulates brain regions that support memory retrieval of unsustainable behaviours. This mechanism could inhibit the access to episodic details associated with unsustainable behaviours and in turn allow for prospective thinking of sustainable behaviours. These findings provide an initial step towards a better understanding of the brain networks that are involved in the adoption of sustainable habits.

There is substantial clinical and public health evidence that video gaming, particularly online gaming, can become excessive and lead to psychological distress and functional impairment. This has led to the inclusion of gaming disorder as an official mental condition in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Edition (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2019). Psychological models recognize the importance of cognitive factors to explain the initiation, development, and maintenance of problematic gaming behaviors. This chapter will summarize some of the known cognitive factors associated with problem gaming and gaming disorder. These cognitions will be divided into two broad categories: (1) cognitive deficits (e.g., impaired executive functioning, hazardous decision-making, or deliberative processes) and (2) cognitive biases (e.g., attentional biases, cognitive distortions, dysfunctional cognitions). This chapter will review and synthesize available research findings and highlight their clinical implications for gaming disorder. The limitations of the research base are considered and some potential avenues for future research are proposed.

The attenuated inhibitory control of smokers is a stumbling block for treating nicotine dependence. Unfortunately, smokers are often exposed to cigarette-related salient cues, which may violate homeostasis, override self-control, and lead to relapse. To understand the mechanisms underlying these associations, we investigate the cognitive and neural processes of inhibitory control (including proactive and reactive inhibition) of smoking cues in abstinent smokers. Twenty-six smokers completed cue-reactivity and stop signal tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, on two separate sessions, 2-3 weeks apart: one involved a neutral cue reactivity task, and the other a smoking cue reactivity task. Findings pointed to no significant subjective craving changes, or behavioral influences of smoking cues on proactive and reactive inhibition. However, abstinent smokers exhibited hyperactive brain reactivity in response to smoking versus neutral stimuli, in regions including the insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and putamen. They also had hypoactive bilateral rostral ACC (rACC) and hyperactive right pre-supplementary motor area during reactive inhibition in smoking versus neutral conditions. Support vector regression analysis showed that activation of these regions predicted and correlated with reactive inhibition index (i.e., SSRT), alluding to the possibility of their involvement in the reactive inhibition. Subjective craving scores were predicted by and correlated with activation of bilateral dorsal and rostral ACC, supporting the ideas of their possible involvement in subjective craving. These findings suggest that smoking cues evoke hyperactive brain reactivity; this may interfere with normal performance monitoring and rapid reactive inhibition. These findings have important implication for treating smoking dependence.

Problem gambling has been linked to impairments in decision-making under uncertainty. Problem gamblers are more likely to favor high-risk, high-reward, and short-term gains over more advantageous choice alternatives, and this preference has been linked to impaired learning about decision outcomes. In this paper we link specific learning processes in decision-making to specific harms related to problem gambling. We asked a group of 140 casual gamblers to 1) perform a canonical decision-making task (the Iowa Gambling Task) online, and 2) to complete a self-report survey (the GamTest) designed to measure self-perceived harm caused by their gambling. We used a reinforcement learning model to explain individual differences in the decision task, and related individuals' model parameters to the specific problem areas reported using the questionnaire. We found that people who learned more from gains than from losses on the task were more likely to report overall gambling problems, and problems specifically related to money. We also found that people whose learning was more driven by the frequency of rewards were more likely to report problems related to the amount of time spent gambling, as well as social problems. We discuss possible psychological and neural processes mediating learning and gambling related harms, and we discuss the relevance of our approach to the diagnosis of problem gambling and its consequences.

The last decade has witnessed the rise of electronic sports (esports), yet little is known about how involvement in intensive esports relates to self-regulatory processes, such as executive functioning (EF). In this paper, we review the evidence on EF in problematic and non-problematic video-game use. We also consider research on EF in traditional sports athletes, as well as in 'exercise addiction'. The focus of the review is on two core components of EF, namely response inhibition and cognitive flexibility. The available evidence suggests that EF is a reliable marker for indexing specific types of sport and video-gaming expertise, but does not appear to consistently delineate maladaptive from adaptive video-game involvement. Future research avenues on EF that characterize esport players are suggested to advance this area.

There is substantial clinical and public health evidence that video gaming, particularly online gaming, can become excessive and lead to psychological distress and functional impairment. This has led to the inclusion of gaming disorder as an official mental condition in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Edition (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2019). Psychological models recognize the importance of cognitive factors to explain the initiation, development, and maintenance of problematic gaming behaviors. This chapter will summarize some of the known cognitive factors associated with problem gaming and gaming disorder. These cognitions will be divided into two broad categories: (1) cognitive deficits (e.g. impaired executive functioning, hazardous decision-making, or deliberative processes) and (2) cognitive biases (e.g. attentional biases, cognitive distortions, dysfunctional cognitions). This chapter will review and synthesize available research findings and highlight their clinical implications for gaming disorder. The limitations of the research base are considered and some potential avenues for future research are proposed., SCOPUS: ch.b, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Proactive motor response inhibition is used to strategically restrain actions in preparation for stopping. In this study, we first examined the event related potential (ERP) elicited by low and high level of proactive response inhibition, as assessed by the stop-signal task. Corroborating previous studies, we found an increased amplitude of the contingent negative variation (CNV) in the high level of proactive inhibition. As the main goal of the present study, swLORETA was used to determine the neural generators characterising CNV differences between low and high levels of proactive inhibition. Results showed that the higher level of proactive inhibition involved numerous generators, including within the middle and medial frontal gyrus. Importantly, we observed that the lower level of proactive inhibition also involved a specific neural generator, within the frontopolar cortex. Altogether, present findings identified the specific brain sources of ERP signals involved in the later phase of motor preparation under low or high levels of proactive motor response inhibition., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Many people present excessive patterns of social networking site (SNS) use and try to self-regulate it. However, little is known regarding the strategies employed by young adult SNS users and their role in preventing the emergence of addiction-like symptoms in relation to SNS use. METHODS: In Study 1, we employed a naturalistic-qualitative approach for finding commonly employed self-control strategies in relation to SNS use. In Study 2, we examined differences between the frequency and difficulty of the strategies identified in Study 1 and tested the process through which trait self-control exerts influence on reducing SNS addiction symptomology. RESULTS: Study 1 revealed six families of self-control strategies, some reactive and some proactive. Study 2 pinpointed the most commonly used and most difficult to enact ones. It also showed that the difficulty to enact self-control strategies in relation to SNS use partially mediates the effect of trait self-control via SNS use habit on SNS addiction symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the present findings revealed that strategies for self-controlling SNS use are common and complex. Their theoretical and clinical significance stems from their ability to prevent the translation of poor trait self-control and strong SNS use habit to the emergence of excessive use as manifested in SNS addiction-like symptoms.

The goal of this review is to provide new insights as to how and why functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research on gambling cue reactivity can contribute to significant progress towards the understanding of gambling disorder. After having offered a detailed description of experimental paradigms and a comprehensive summary of findings related to gambling cue reactivity, the present review suggests methodological avenues for future research. The fMRI literature on problem gambling has identified the main neural pathways associated with reactivity to gambling cues. Yet, the current knowledge on the key factors underlying cue reactivity in gambling is still very incomplete. Here, we suggest that the recent expansion of online sports betting calls for a new line of research offering a fine-grained and up-to-date approach of neural cue reactivity in gambling disorder. Experimental designs that investigate individual-specific and study-specific factors related to sports betting have the potential to foster progress towards efficient treatment and prevention of gambling disorder.

Many people present excessive patterns of social networking site (SNS) use and try to self-regulate it. However, little is known regarding the strategies employed by young adult SNS users and their role in preventing the emergence of addiction-like symptoms in relation to SNS use. In Study 1, we employed a naturalistic-qualitative approach for finding commonly employed self-control strategies in relation to SNS use. In Study 2, we examined differences between the frequency and difficulty of the strategies identified in Study 1 and tested the process through which trait self-control exerts influence on reducing SNS addiction symptomology. Study 1 revealed six families of self-control strategies, some reactive and some proactive. Study 2 pinpointed the most commonly used and most difficult to enact ones. It also showed that the difficulty to enact self-control strategies in relation to SNS use partially mediates the effect of trait self-control via SNS use habit on SNS addiction symptom severity. Taken together, the present findings revealed that strategies for self-controlling SNS use are common and complex. Their theoretical and clinical significance stems from their ability to prevent the translation of poor trait self-control and strong SNS use habit to the emergence of excessive use as manifested in SNS addiction-like symptoms.

There is a growing concern over the addictiveness of Social Media use. Additional representative indicators of impaired control are needed in order to distinguish presumed social media addiction from normal use. (1) To examine the existence of time distortion during non-social media use tasks that involve social media cues among those who may be considered at-risk for social media addiction. (2) To examine the usefulness of this distortion for at-risk vs. low/no-risk classification. We used a task that prevented Facebook use and invoked Facebook reflections (survey on self-control strategies) and subsequently measured estimated vs. actual task completion time. We captured the level of addiction using the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale in the survey, and we used a common cutoff criterion to classify people as at-risk vs. low/no-risk of Facebook addiction. The at-risk group presented significant upward time estimate bias and the low/no-risk group presented significant downward time estimate bias. The bias was positively correlated with Facebook addiction scores. It was efficacious, especially when combined with self-reported estimates of extent of Facebook use, in classifying people to the two categories. Our study points to a novel, easy to obtain, and useful marker of at-risk for social media addiction, which may be considered for inclusion in diagnosis tools and procedures.

Social lives have shifted, at least in part, for large portions of the population to social networking sites. How such lifestyle changes may be associated with brain structures is still largely unknown. In this manuscript, we describe two preliminary studies aimed at exploring this issue. The first study (n = 276) showed that Facebook users reported on increased social-semantic and mentalizing demands, and that such increases were positively associated with people's level of Facebook use. The second study (n = 33) theorized on and examined likely anatomical correlates of such changes in demands on the brain. Findings indicated that the grey matter volumes of the posterior parts of the bilateral middle and superior temporal, and left fusiform gyri were positively associated with the level of Facebook use. These results provided preliminary evidence that grey matter volumes of brain structures involved in social-semantic and mentalizing tasks may be linked to the extent of social networking sites use.

Nowadays, sports betting has become increasingly available and easy to engage in. Here we examined the neural responses to stimuli that represent sporting events available for betting as compared to sporting events without a gambling opportunity. We used a cue exposure task in which football (soccer) fans (N = 42) viewed cues depicting scheduled football games that would occur shortly after the scanning session. In the "betting" condition, participants were instructed to choose, at the end of each block, the game (and the team) they wanted to bet on. In the "watching" condition, participants chose the game they would prefer to watch. After the scanning session, participants completed posttask rating questionnaires assessing, for each cue, their level of confidence about the team they believed would win and how much they would enjoy watching the game. We found that stimuli representing sport events available for betting elicited higher fronto-striatal activation, as well as higher insular cortex activity and functional connectivity, than sport events without a gambling opportunity. Moreover, games rated with more confidence towards the winning team resulted in greater brain activations within regions involved in affective decision-making (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), cognitive inhibitory control (medial and superior frontal gyri) and reward processing (ventral and dorsal striatum). Altogether, these novel findings offer a sensible simulation of how the high availability of sports betting in today's environment impacts on the reward and cognitive control systems. Future studies are needed to extend the present findings to a sample of football fans that includes a samilar proportion of female and male participants.

The "process-model" of self-control proposes that the ego-depletion effect is better explained by a switch between interest in "have-to" labor and cognitive "want-to" leisure, rather than being mainly due to a decrease in cognitive resources, as advanced by the "strength-model" of self-control. However, it is currently difficult to disentangle the "process-model" from the "strength-model" of self-control. Here, we employed a stepwise approach, featuring three studies, for testing the process model of self-control. In Study 1, we created a list of 30 self-control events for characterizing "have-to" conducts in the daily life. In Study 2, mental visualization of effortful self-control events ("have-to") and monetary risk-taking ("want-to") were employed for testing the strength-model of self-control. In Study 3, to test the process-model of self-control, participants were simply required to read self-control (or neutral) sentences. Study 1 provided evidence regarding external validly for the list of self-control events. Study 2 showed that mental visualization of effortful self-control events increases subsequent monetary risk-taking. Study 3 highlighted that the brief apparition of a self-control-related sentence was sufficient for increasing risk-taking. These patterns were evidenced in the trial with the less advantageous gain/loss ratio. Altogether these findings support the process-model of self-control in showing that triggering the semantic content of a "have-to" conduct, without its actual execution, is sufficient for modulating subsequent "want-to" activity. These findings could contribute to advancing current knowledge on how the high availability of ready-to-consume rewards in modern environments is redefining humans' self-control ability.

We examined proactive (early restraint in preparation for stopping) and reactive (late correction to stop ongoing action) motor response inhibition in two groups of participants: professional athletes ( n = 28) and nonathletes ( n = 25). We recruited the elite athletes from Belgian national taekwondo and fencing teams. We estimated proactive and reactive inhibition with a modified version of the stop-signal task (SST) in which participants inhibited categorizing left/right arrows. The probability of the stop signal was manipulated across blocks of trials by providing probability cues from the background computer screen color (green = 0%, yellow =17%, orange = 25%, red = 33%). Participants performed two sessions of the SST, where proactive inhibition was operationalized with increased go-signal reaction time as a function of increased stop-signal probability and reactive inhibition was indicated by stop-signal reaction time latency. Athletes exhibited higher reactive inhibition performance than nonathletes. In addition, athletes exhibited higher proactive inhibition than nonathletes in Session 1 (but not Session 2) of the SST. As top-level athletes exhibited heightened reactive inhibition and were faster to reach and maintain consistent proactive motor response inhibition, these results confirm an evaluative process that can discriminate elite athleticism through a fine-grained analysis of inhibitory control.

Addiction-like symptoms in relation to excessive and compulsive social media use are common in the general population. Because they can lead to various adverse effects, there is a growing need to understand the brain systems and processes that are involved in potential social media addiction. We focus on the morphology of the posterior subdivision of the insular cortex (i.e., the insula), because it has been shown to be instrumental to supporting the maintenance of substance addictions and problematic behaviors. Assuming that social media addiction shares neural similarities with more established ones and consistent with evidence from the neuroeconomics domain, we further examine one possible reason for this association-namely that insular morphology influences one's delay discounting and that this delay discounting contributes to exaggerated preference for immediate social media rewards and consequent addiction-like symptoms. Based on voxel-based morphometry techniques applied to MRI scans of 32 social media users, we show that the gray matter volumes of the bilateral posterior insula are negatively associated with social media addiction symptoms. We further show that this association is mediated by delay discounting. This provides initial evidence that insular morphology can be associated with potential social media addiction, in part, through its contribution to poor foresight and impulsivity as captured by delay discounting.