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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1494313

Neuromodulatory effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cue reactivity and craving in young adults with internet gaming disorder: an event-related potential study

Provisionally accepted
Sung Nyun Kim Sung Nyun Kim 1Jung-Seok Choi Jung-Seok Choi 2*Minkyung Park Minkyung Park 2So Young Yoo So Young Yoo 3Areum Choi Areum Choi 2Ja Wook Koo Ja Wook Koo 4Ung Gu Kang Ung Gu Kang 5
  • 1 Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Department of Psychiatry, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 3 Seoul Metropolitan Government - Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 4 Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
  • 5 College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study assessed the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cue reactivity and craving for game-related cues using event-related potentials (ERPs) in internet gaming disorder (IGD) patients. Methods: At baseline, a series of game-related and neutral pictures were shown to both IGD and healthy controls (HCs) while ERPs were recorded. Late positive potentials (LPP) were used to investigate cue reactivity. During intervention, IGD patients received 10 sessions (two sessions/day for 5 consecutive days, 2 mA for 20 min/session) of tDCS to the left (anode stimulation) and right (cathode) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Subjectively assessed craving and LPP component was analyzed before stimulation and at the 1-month follow-up after tDCS in IGD. Results: At baseline, patients with IGD showed higher LPP amplitudes for game-related cues in the centro-parietal and parietal regions than HCs. After 10 sessions of tDCS, increased LPP amplitudes decreased significantly at 1-month follow-up., as well as subjective craving for gaming. Conclusions: These findings suggest that neurophysiological arousal in response to game-related cues in the IGD group could be modulated by the effects of tDCS. LPP was a significant neurophysiological marker of the neuroplastic response of cue reactivity underlying the therapeutic effect of tDCS on IGD. Based on the present findings, tDCS could be expanded to the treatment of other addictive disorders, including substance use disorder and behavioral addictions.

    Keywords: tDCS, ERP, cue reactivity, craving, Internet gaming disorder

    Received: 20 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kim, Choi, Park, Yoo, Choi, Koo and Kang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jung-Seok Choi, Department of Psychiatry, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.