Predictors of Gaming Disorder or Protective from It, in a French Sample: A Symptomatic Approach to Self-Regulation and Pursued Rewards, Providing Insights for Clinical Practice.

Gaming disorder (GD) is a new health condition still requiring a lot of evidence established around its underlying and related psychological mechanisms. In our study we focused on Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), a specific very popular and engaging game genre, to determine that benefit, motivation and control aspects could be predictive of a dysfunctional engagement in gaming. In total, 313 participants were recruited from private forums of gamers between May 2009 and March 2010. They filled out a questionnaire on their socio-demographic data and their weekly gaming time. They also completed different psychometric assessments such as the DSM IV-TR criteria for substance dependence adapted to gaming such as the Dependence Adapted Scale (DAS), the external rewards they expected from gaming (External Motives), the expected internal reward they expected from gaming (Internal Motives), the Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale (ZSSS), and the Barratt impulsiveness Scale (BIS-10). Results showed that some psychological factors related to online gaming represented risk factors for GD in participants (i.e., competition and advancement motives, reduced anxiety, solace, greater personal satisfaction, and sense of power), whereas some others were found to be protective factors from GD (i.e., recreation, enjoyment and experience seeking) in participants. Additionally, the study found that disinhibition, boredom susceptibility, thrill and adventure seeking, and high impulsivity were correlated to GD in participants. In conclusion, not only motives for gaming and impulsivity could be predictors for GD, but maladaptive coping strategies based on experienced relief in-game from negative feelings (anxiety and boredom) or experienced improvement in-game of self-perception (personal satisfaction, sense of power) could play as well a role of negative reinforcers for GD. Some benefits from gaming, typically entertainment and enjoyment, are shown to be protective factors from GD, playing the role of positive reinforcing factors. They are worthy of being identified and promoted as functional gaming habits. These findings can feed the clinical and health promotion fields, with a more in-depth understanding of diverse psychological factors in gamers, identifying those at risk for GD and those protective from it. The current work can foster a more balanced approach towards gaming activities, taking their opportunities for mankind and controlling for their adverse effects in some individuals.

Evidence for a neural signature of musical preference during silence.

One of the most basic and person-specific affective responses to music is liking. The present investigation sought to determine whether liking was preserved during spontaneous auditory imagery. To this purpose, we inserted two-second silent intervals into liked and disliked songs, a method known to automatically recreate a mental image of these songs. Neural correlates of musical preference were measured by high-density electroencephalography in twenty subjects who had to listen to a set of five pre-selected unknown songs the same number of times for two weeks. Time frequency analysis of the two most liked and the two most disliked songs confirmed the presence of neural responses related to liking. At the beginning of silent intervals (400-900 ms and 1000-1300 ms), significant differences in theta activity were originating from the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus. These two brain structures are known to work together to process various aspects of music and are also activated when measuring liking while listening to music. At the end of silent intervals (1400-1900 ms), significant alpha activity differences originating from the insula were observed, whose exact role remains to be explored. Although exposure was controlled for liked and disliked songs, liked songs were rated as more familiar, underlying the strong relationship that exists between liking, exposure, and familiarity.

Don't forget the lyrics! Spatiotemporal dynamics of neural mechanisms spontaneously evoked by gaps of silence in familiar and newly learned songs.

The vast majority of people experience musical imagery, the sensation of reliving a song in absence of any external stimulation. Internal perception of a song can be deliberate and effortful, but also may occur involuntarily and spontaneously. Moreover, musical imagery is also involuntarily used for automatically completing missing parts of music or lyrics from a familiar song. The aim of our study was to explore the onset of musical imagery dynamics that leads to the automatic completion of missing lyrics. High-density electroencephalography was used to record the cerebral activity of twenty healthy volunteers while they were passively listening to unfamiliar songs, very familiar songs, and songs previously listened to for two weeks. Silent gaps inserted into these songs elicited a series of neural activations encompassing perceptual, attentional and cognitive mechanisms (range 100-500ms). Familiarity and learning effects emerged as early as 100ms and lasted 400ms after silence occurred. Although participants reported more easily mentally imagining lyrics in familiar rather than passively learnt songs, the onset of neural mechanisms and the power spectrum underlying musical imagery were similar for both types of songs. This study offers new insights into the musical imagery dynamics evoked by gaps of silence and on the role of familiarity and learning processes in the generation of these dynamics. The automatic and effortless method presented here is a potentially useful tool to understand failure in the familiarity and learning processes of pathological populations.