Clinical trial NCT03352973: Regulation of Craving in Internet Gamers
Official title: Regulation of Craving in Internet Gamers: Neural Mechanisms and tDCS Intervention
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Internet Gaming Disorder
Lead sponsor: Beijing Normal University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-11-24
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 30
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: within-subject, sham-controlled design: all subjects will receive active and sham tDCS in a randomized order
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: This project aims to investigate (1) the behavioral and neural mechanisms of regulation of craving in Internet gamers; (2) effects of tDCS over the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) on craving and regulation of craving and aversive emotions in this population. (3) effects of tDCS over dlPFC on attentional bias towards gaming related cues.This project will be conducted in Beijing, China, based on a large sample of Internet gamers.

Detailed description: As with the experiment about tDCS effects on regulation of craving and aversive emotions, the experiment aims to test whether tDCS over dlPFC will enhance cognitive regulation of craving and aversive emotions. It is a within-subject, sham-controlled, double-blind design. Each participant receive both active and sham tDCS of dlPFC in a randomized order separated by one week. During both active and sham tDCS sessions, participants will perform regulation of craving (ROC) and emotion regulation (ER) tasks. In the ROC task, participants will be asked to downregulate and upregulate craving elicited by gaming pictures using cognitive reappraisal. In the ER task, participants will be asked to downregulate and upregulate aversive feelings elicited by negative pictures using cognitive reappraisal. During these tasks, self-report ratings and skin conductance responses (SCRs) will be recorded. The cognitive regulation ability is indexed by rating and SCRs differences between the up- and downregulation conditions.

As with the experiment about tDCS effects on attentional bias, the experiment aims to test whether tDCS over dlPFC will enhance inhibitory control of attentional bias towards gaming related cues. The inhibitory control of attentional bias will be measured by a cognitive task in which participants will perform a number classification task with gaming pictures and non-gaming pictures being distractors. The experiment is a within-subject, sham-controlled, double-blind design. Each participant will receive both active and sham tDCS of dlPFC in a randomized order separated by one week. After each tDCS session, participants will complete the cognitive task assessing inhibitory control of attentional bias. During the task, reaction times (RTs) wil be recorded. The attentional bias is indexed by RTs differences between trials with gaming pictures and trials with non-gaming pictures.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* engagement in a popular Internet game (Arena of Valor) for over 14 hours per week for a minimum of 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

* current or history of use of illegal substances and gambling;
* current or history of psychiatric or neurological illness;
* current use of psychotropic medications.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Craving in the regulation of craving (ROC) task after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 4 minutes after the initiation of active and sham tDCS for half of the participants
measure: Aversive feeling in the emotion regulation (ER) task after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 16-17 minutes after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
measure: Reaction times (RTs) in the cognitive task assessing inhibition of attentional bias after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 45-47 minutes after the initiation of of active and sham tDCS
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Skin conductance responses (SCRs) in the ROC task after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 4 minutes after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
measure: Skin conductance responses (SCRs) in the ER task after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 16-17 minutes after the initiation of active and sham tDCS ham tDCS
measure: Background craving before the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: Approximately 10 minutes before the initiation of active and sham tDCS
measure: Cue-induced craving before the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: Approximately 8 minutes before the initiation of active and sham tDCS
measure: Background craving after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 38-40 minutes after the the initiation of active and sham tDCS
measure: Cue-induced craving after the initiation of active and sham tDCS
timeFrame: 40-42 minutes after the the initiation of active and sham tDCS
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Beijing
country: China
facility: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University
state: Beijing
Study officials:
affiliation: Beijing Normal University
name: Jin-Tao Zhang, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Kober H, Mende-Siedlecki P, Kross EF, Weber J, Mischel W, Hart CL, Ochsner KN. Prefrontal-striatal pathway underlies cognitive regulation of craving. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 17;107(33):14811-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1007779107. Epub 2010 Aug 2.
citation: Wu LL, Potenza MN, Zhou N, Kober H, Shi XH, Yip SW, Xu JH, Zhu L, Wang R, Liu GQ, Zhang JT. Efficacy of single-session transcranial direct current stimulation on addiction-related inhibitory control and craving: a randomized trial in males with Internet gaming disorder. J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2021 Jan 4;46(1):E111-E118. doi: 10.1503/jpn.190137.