Male Internet addicts show impaired executive control ability: Evidence from a color-word Stroop task

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.047

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 499, Issue 2, 20 July 2011, Pages 114-118

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.047 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study investigated the executive control ability of male students with Internet addiction disorder (IAD) by recording event-related brain potentials (ERP) during a color-word Stroop task. Seventeen IAD and 17 male normal university students participated. Behavior results showed that IAD students were associated with longer reaction time and more response errors in incongruent conditions than the control group. ERP results revealed that participants with IAD showed reduced medial frontal negativity (MFN) deflection in incongruent conditions than the control group. Both of the behavioral performance and ERP results indicate that people with IAD show impaired executive control ability than the normal group.

Highlights

► Executive control ability is impaired in people with Internet addiction disorder. ► The Internet addicts required longer reaction time and committed more errors. ► The impaired executive control in IAD can also be indexed by higher MFN amplitude.

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Science Foundation of China (30900405). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Male Internet addicts show impaired executive control ability: Evidence from a color-word Stroop task

Abstract

Highlights

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

European Psychiatry

Neuroscience Letters

Computers in Human Behavior

Biological Psychology

Clinical Neurophysiology

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging

Psychiatry Research

International Journal of Psychophysiology

NeuroImage

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology

Neuropsychologia

Cognitive Brain Research

International Journal of Psychophysiology

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology