Comparative fMRI Brain Scans of IA Patients
"...impairs users' abilities to cease or limit online behaviors in the same way a drug addict has difficulty making choices regarding drug usage cessation."
On a biological level, IA has been compared and measured against substance-based addictions. In a study out of the Department of Psychology of the Zhejiang Normal University, researchers compared fMRI scans of IA patients to drug abuse patients. Dong and his colleagues hypothesized that "poor judgment and maladaptive decision-making are key features of several addictions such as cocaine addiction, nicotine addiction, alcohol overuse, and especially gambling addiction which is another type of behavioral addiction" (Dong et al. 282). They surmised that these responses would also be present in IA patients. The study consisted of a series of win-loss tasks that challenged IA patients to make decisions about their online habits. They compared the fMRI scans of IA patients as they made these decisions to a healthy control group that did not display signs of IA. The study concluded that IA patients employed more parts of the brain in the decision-making process; they also demonstrated more motivation to make decisions that produced a "win" outcome. However, their ability to understand the whole situation, weigh pros and cons, and evaluate the consequences of their decisions is impaired based on the lack of brain activity in the ventral and dorsal striatum (287). The study concluded that the lack of brain activity in these areas impairs users' abilities to cease or limit online behaviors in the same way a drug addict has difficulty making choices regarding drug usage cessation. Undoubtedly, this study, and many others, prompted the World Health Organization to recognize IA as a problematic behavior.