Citation
Nisha, Syed Nasser
(2019)
Correlation between smartphone addiction and psychosocial factors among students and assessment of fMRI brain activation in response to reward.
Masters thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Abstract
Smartphone-based Instagram addiction is an emerging digital addiction and is
of mental, physical and social concern among the young university students.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging
technique that utilises Blood Oxygen Level Dependent imaging to determine the
hemodynamic response function during brain activation in response to a task.
This study aimed to identify the socio-demographic distribution of smartphone
addiction (SPA) among undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia
(UPM). With the increase in the number of Instagram users in Malaysia, it is
important to study the neurobiological mechanism underlying pathological
Instagram use (PIGU). This study will provide the first worldwide empirical data
regarding the assessment of cue-induced brain activation in ‘Response to
Reward’ condition among smartphone-addicted PIGU individuals using validated
emotional cues in a task-based fMRI study. In Phase1 study, a cross-sectional
study was conducted among 1060 undergraduate students in UPM using
validated smartphone addiction scale-Malay version, and Depression, Anxiety,
Stress scale to determine the socio-demographic distribution and mental wellbeing.
In Phase 2 study, a case-control study using fMRI as a non-invasive
biomarker was conducted to identify the regional brain activation in the mesocorticolimbic
system during a cue-induced reactivity task among the randomly
selected cohort of subjects (addicted n=15, control n=15). This study detected
problematic smartphone usage among 60.7% of young undergraduate students
in UPM and PIGU was significantly correlated with psychosocial problems
(p<0.05). Left Precuneus was significantly activated in the addicted group
(pFWE<0.05) and the percentage signal change in right medial prefrontal cortex
and right anterior cingulate cortex were significantly correlated with addiction
(p<0.05). fMRI is able to non-invasively identify the regions of brain activation in
response to the addictive stimulus in the reward system and this study is able to
achieve a milestone by providing evidence to support the theories of development of ‘tolerance’ among the SPA individuals.
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