Previous research has found that individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) show different patterns of social function impairments in game-related and real-life social contexts. Impaired social reward processing may be the underlying mechanism according to the Social Motivation Theory. Thus, in this study, event-related potentials were recorded from 24 individuals with IGD and 24 healthy gamers during a social judgement task. We focused on reward positivity (RewP) elicited by game-related and real-life social rewards, and N170 elicited by game avatar faces and real faces. These indicators were used to explore the neurocognitive mechanism of impaired social reward processing in individuals with IGD and its relationship with early face perception. Results showed that (1) the RewP elicited by real-life social reward was considerably reduced in individuals with IGD relative to healthy gamers. (2) The N170 elicited by game avatar faces in individuals with IGD was larger than that elicited by real faces. However, the N170 was not associated with RewP in either group. (3) The score for IGD severity was correlated with the RewP elicited by real-life social reward and the N170 elicited by game avatar face. In conclusion, the present study suggests that the impaired social reward processing in individuals with IGD is mainly manifested in a decreased neural sensitivity to real-life social reward. Meanwhile, the reduced RewP elicited by real-life social reward and the enhanced N170 elicited by game avatar face might serve as potential biomarkers for IGD.

中文翻译：

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网络游戏障碍患者的社交奖励处理受损及其与早期面部感知的关系

先前的研究发现，患有网络游戏障碍（IGD）的个体在游戏相关和现实生活的社交环境中表现出不同模式的社交功能障碍。根据社会动机理论，社会奖励处理受损可能是潜在机制。因此，在这项研究中，记录了 24 名 IGD 患者和 24 名健康游戏玩家在社会判断任务中的事件相关电位。我们重点关注由游戏相关和现实生活中的社交奖励引起的奖励积极性 (RewP)，以及由游戏头像面孔和真实面孔引起的 N170。这些指标被用来探索 IGD 个体社会奖励处理受损的神经认知机制及其与早期面部感知的关系。结果表明 (1) 相对于健康玩家，IGD 个体由现实生活中的社交奖励引起的 RewP 显着降低。 (2)IGD个体中游戏头像面孔引起的N170大于真实面孔引起的N170。然而，N170 与两组中的 RewP 均无关。 (3)IGD严重程度的评分与现实生活中的社交奖励引起的RewP和游戏头像面部引起的N170相关。总之，本研究表明，IGD 个体的社会奖赏加工受损主要表现为对现实生活中社会奖赏的神经敏感性降低。同时，现实生活中的社交奖励引起的 RewP 降低和游戏头像面部引起的 N170 增强可能作为 IGD 的潜在生物标志物。