Cerebral responses to in-game failure and resting-state connectivity are associated with IGD-20 symptom severity

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) symptom severity may be associated with both context-dependent neural responses during gameplay and resting-state functional connectivity, but evidence integrating these measures remains limited. We conducted a secondary analysis of EEG data from 23 non-clinical young participants during naturalistic multiplayer online battle arena gameplay and eyes-open and eyes-closed rest. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and alpha- and beta-band power were quantified following slay and defeat events, while resting-state functional connectivity was assessed using the whole-brain mean weighted phase-lag index across five frequency bands.

Age- and sex-adjusted partial correlations were evaluated with false-discovery-rate correction and bootstrap confidence intervals. After correction, lower defeat-related ERP amplitude was associated with greater relapse symptoms, whereas greater defeat-related beta-band power was associated with greater conflict symptoms. No slay-related association survived correction, and defeat-related alpha-band associations were nominal but did not remain significant after correction.

During eyes-closed rest, delta-band connectivity was associated with mood modification, tolerance, relapse, and IGD-20 total scores, although the tolerance association was not supported by the Spearman sensitivity analysis. Exploratory, results-informed composites showed limited observed overlap, but their construction and evaluation within the same dataset precluded conclusions about complementary or independent neural domains. Given the small, non-clinical sample and cross-sectional design, these findings represent preliminary EEG correlates rather than causal mechanisms or validated biomarkers and require replication in larger independent cohorts.

We thank Hong-Zhi Li, Jia-Jia Yang, Zhen Lv, Li-Yang Wan, Wo Wang, Da-Qi Li, Dong-Dong Zhou, and Li Kuang for the data support. The authors received no specific funding for this work. Lower Canada College, Montreal, QC, H4A2L1, Canada Department of Neuroscience and Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St.

Louis, MO, 63110, USA The authors declare no competing interests. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

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