Trial reportEuropean neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020
A role for the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in enhancing regulation of both craving and negative emotions in internet gaming disorder: A randomized trial.
Trial report in European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of progressive aerobic training on neural synchrony and functional connectivity in internet gaming disorder: a randomized controlled fMRI study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Effects of bilateral tDCS over DLPFC on response inhibition, craving, and brain functional connectivity in Internet gaming disorder: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial with fMRI.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2024Trial
- Problematic Online Gaming and Gambling Among First-Year University Students: Identification of Profiles and Psychological Vulnerabilities.Journal of gambling studies · 2026Article
- Cross-Lagged Panel Network Analysis Between Internet Addiction and Depression: Gender and Mid-Late Adolescent Differences.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Neuropsychological Mechanisms Associated with the Effectiveness of AI-Delivered Health Promotion Programs: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Emerging Interventions in Behavioral Addictions: A Narrative Review of Psychedelics and Neuromodulation.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Sympathetic hyperactivity in situational delayed ejaculation (intravaginal anejaculation phenotype): a neurophysiological case-control study.Translational andrology and urology · 2025Article
- Functional connectivity-related changes underlying mindfulness meditation for internet gaming disorder: a randomized clinical trial.Npj mental health research · 2025Article
- Prefrontal cortex responses to game rewards and losses in individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder: Insights from fNIRS during mobile gameplay.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Article
- Understanding the relationships among adolescents' internet dependence, reward, cognitive control processing, and learning burnout: a network perspective in China.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Enhancing response inhibition behavior through tDCS intervention in college students with smartphone addiction.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Association between watching eating broadcasts like mukbang and cookbang and generalized anxiety disorder among Korean adolescents.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Ten years of research on the treatments of internet gaming disorder: A scoping review and directions for future research.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2024Article
- Neuromodulatory effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cue reactivity and craving in young adults with internet gaming disorder: an event-related potential study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Neural mechanisms linked to treatment outcomes and recovery in substance-related and addictive disorders.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2023Review
- Connectome-based prediction of craving in gambling disorder and cocaine use disorder.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2023Article
- Neuroimaging correlates of internet gaming disorder: Can we achieve the promise of translating understandings of brain functioning into clinical advances?The Canadian journal of addiction · 2023Article
- Effects of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation on Gambling and Gaming: A Systematic Review of Studies on Healthy Controls, Participants with Gambling/Gaming Disorder, and Substance Use Disorder.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Reward-seeking and relief from negative emotions are two central motivational drives underlying addictions. Impaired executive control over craving and negative emotions contributes to compulsive addictive behaviors. Neuroimaging evidence has implicated the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in regulating craving or emotions. This study aims at examining whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over a specific region of the PFC would enhance both regulation processes. Thirty-three men with internet gaming disorder received active (1.5 mA for 20 minutes) and sham tDCS over the right dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) one week apart in a randomized order. During each stimulation session, participants regulated craving for gaming during a regulation of craving (ROC) task and negative emotions during an emotion regulation (ER) task using cognitive reappraisal. Subjective ratings of craving and negative emotions and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. For both craving and negative emotions, tDCS of the right dlPFC facilitated downregulation and upregulation: active relative to sham tDCS decreased ratings (ROC: 95% CI of difference -1.38 to -0.56, p < 0.001; ER: -1.65 to -0.70, p < 0.001) and/or SCRs (ROC: -1.99 to -0.41 μs, p = 0.004) for downregulation, and increased ratings (ROC: 0.24 to 0.82, p = 0.001; ER: 0.26 to 0.72, p < 0.001) for upregulation. These findings provide the first experimental evidence confirming that tDCS of the right dlPFC enhances both craving- and negative-emotion-regulation. This suggests a promising approach for concurrently enhancing executive control over two central motivational drives underlying addictions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.