Researchers at National Health Insurance Corporation Report New Data on Behavioral Addictions (Lateral orbitofrontal gray matter abnormalities in subjects with problematic smartphone use)

Mental Health News Daily

2019 OCT 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Mental Health News Daily -- Data detailed on Addiction Research - Behavioral Addictions have been presented. According to news reporting originating in Goyang, South Korea, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Smartphone use is becoming commonplace and exerting adequate control over smartphone use has become an important mental health issue. Little is known about the neurobiology underlying problematic smartphone use.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from National Health Insurance Corporation, “We hypothesized that structural abnormalities in the fronto-cingulate brain region could be implicated in problematic smartphone use, similar to that has been reported for Internet gaming disorder and Internet addiction. This study investigated fronto-cingulate gray matter abnormalities in problematic smartphone users, particularly those who spend time on social networking platforms. The study included 39 problematic smartphone users with excessive use of social networking platforms via smartphone and 49 normal control male and female smartphone users. We conducted voxel-based morphometric analysis with diffeomorphic anatomical registration using an exponentiated Lie algebra algorithm. Region of interest analysis was performed on the fronto-cingulate region to identify whether gray matter volume (GMV) differed between the two groups. Problematic smartphone users had significantly smaller GMV in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) than healthy controls, and there were significant negative correlations between GMV in the right lateral OFC and the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS) score, including the SAPS tolerance subscale. These results suggest that lateral orbitofrontal gray matter abnormalities are implicated in problematic smartphone use, especially in social networking platform overuse. Small GMV in the lateral OFC was correlated with an increasing tendency to be immersed in smartphone use.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Our results suggest that orbitofrontal gray matter abnormalities affect regulatory control over previously reinforced behaviors and may underlie problematic smartphone use.”

For more information on this research see: Lateral orbitofrontal gray matter abnormalities in subjects with problematic smartphone use. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2019;():1-8.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting D. Lee, Dept. of Psychiatry, Ilsan Hospital, National Health Insurance Corporation, Goyang, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include K. Namkoong, J. Lee, B.O. Lee and Y.C Jung.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.50. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.