Enhanced Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in internet gaming disorder

Qin, Cheng and Feng, Shuang and Chen, Yuwen and Liao, Xiaoyuan and Cheng, Xiaotong and Tian, Mingyuan and Zhou, Xinyi and Deng, Juan and Peng, Yanjie and Gong, Ke and Liu, Kezhi and Chen, Jing and Lei, Wei (2023) Enhanced Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in internet gaming disorder. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 12 (2). pp. 471-479. ISSN 2062-5871

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Abstract

Background and aims: The Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) effect is a phenomenon that Pavlovian conditioned cues that could influence one’s instrumental behavior. In several substance and behavioral addictions, such as tobacco use disorder and gambling disorder, addiction-related cues could promote independently trained instrumental drug-seeking/drug-taking behaviors, indicating a specific PIT effect. However, it is unclear whether Internet gaming disorder (IGD) would show a similar change in PIT effects as other addictions. The study aimed to explore the specific PIT effects in IGD. Methods: We administrated a PIT task to individuals with IGD (n 5 40) and matched health controls (HCs, n 5 50), and compared the magnitude of specific PIT effects between the two groups. The severity of the IGD symptoms was assessed by the Chinese version 9-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (IGDS) and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Results: We found that: (1) related to the HCs group, the IGD group showed enhanced specific PIT game effects, where gaming-related cues lead to an increased choice rate of gaming-related responses; (2) in the IGD group, the magnitude of specific PIT game effects were positively correlated with IAT scores (rho 5 0.39, p 5 0.014). Discussion and Conclusions: Individuals with IGD showed enhanced specific PIT effects related to HCs, which were associated with the severity of addictive symptoms. Our results highlighted the incentive salience of gaming-related cues in IGD.

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