Increased regional homogeneity in internet addiction disorder: a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Background Internet addition disorder (lAD) is currently becoming a serious mental health problem among Chinese adolescents. The pathogenesis of IAD, however, remains unclear. The purpose of this study applied regional homogeneity (ReHo) method to analyze encephalic functional characteristic of IAD college students under resting state. Methods Functional magnetic resonanc image (fMRI) was performed in 19 IAD college students and 19 controls under resting state. ReHo method was used to analyze the differences between the average ReHo in two groups. Results The following increased ReHo brain regions were found in IAD group compared with control group: cerebellum,brainstem, right cingulate gyrus, bilateral parahippocampus, right frontal lobe (rectal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus), left superior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, right postcentral gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus. The decreased ReHo brain regions were not found in the IAD group compared with the control group. Conclusions There are abnormalities in regional homogeneity in IAD college students compared with the controls and enhancement of synchronization in most encephalic regions can be found. The results reflect the functional change of brain in IAD college students. The connections between the enhancement of synchronization among cerebellum, brainstem, limbic lobe, frontal lobe and apical lobe may be relative to reward pathways.