Transdiagnostic study of dynamic brain activity and connectivity among people with gambling and internet gaming disorders

Abstract

Despite both internet gaming disorder (IGD) and gambling disorder (GD) being officially recognized as medical conditions by the World Health Organization, controversies persist. A transdiagnostic study may help inform classification and intervention approaches. IGD and GD may share or have distinct neural and behavioral features. To investigate, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and self-reported behavioral data were collected from 58 individuals with GD, 31 with IGD, and 83 healthy control (HC) participants. After controlling for demographics, both GD and IGD groups scored lower on measures of gambling-related positive play. Neural data revealed reduced brain connectivity in the right rectus/orbital frontal gyrus in GD and IGD groups compared to HC participants. IGD participants displayed increased dynamic brain activity in the left triangular inferior frontal gyrus compared with GD and HC participants. Relatively decreased modular flexibility was also observed in GD but not IGD participants, relative to HC participants. Multiclass classification results showed that the indicators of gambling-related positive play, as well as dynamic brain activity and connectivity patterns, were useful for classifying GD, IGD, and HC participants, outperforming the use of either neural signals or self-report indicators alone. The shared phenotypes of GD and IGD groups provide insight into common features of behavioral addictions, and the combination of self-report and neural measures may provide the most robust approach for classification of diagnostic groups.