Interference Control Under the Stroop Task and Brain Oscillatory Activity among Internet Addicts Compared to Non-addicts

Introduction: It is common for individuals with internet addiction disorder (IAD) to demonstrate impairments in interference and inhibitory control. A primary objective of this study was to explore how interference control is related to event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) and whether participants with IAD experience changes in these spectral dynamics. Methods: Twenty-one IAD participants and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were administered a Stroop task while their brains’ electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. ERSPs were extracted from the EEG, and a cluster-based random permutation test was conducted to compare the power between the two groups at each time-frequency level. Results: In the IAD group, the Stroop effect was significantly less for theta than in the HC group in an earlier time window. According to these results, IADs could not successfully inhibit their brain activation for stimulus conflict detection. Furthermore, IAD participants displayed a significant ERSP Stroop effect at beta2 and gamma frequencies, with the main contribution coming from bilateral dorsal frontal and parietal cortex over the scalp compared to HC participants.  Conclusion: In our study, IADs displayed reduced conflict detection and response selection compared to HCs, as measured by theta band indices, as well as impaired conflict resolution, as revealed by altered interaction dynamics between beta2 and gamma bands. Among the first studies investigating oscillatory dynamics in conflict resolution for IAD groups, this study uses cluster-based random permutation tests.