Normative modeling reveals functional connectivity heterogeneity in internet gaming disorder.

Overview

1. Centre for Cognition and Brain disorders / Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University,Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province China
2. Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University,Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province China
3. Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments,Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province China
4. Shenzhen No.3 Vocational School of Technology, Shenzhen, 518038 Guangdong China
5. Dept of Psychology, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital,Xi’an, 710068 China
6. Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University,NO. 2318, Yuhangtang Road, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, 311121 Zhejiang Province China
7. Department of Psychology, Yunnan Normal University,Kunming, Yunnan Province China

Abstract

Background: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is associated with abnormal functional connectivity (FC) in brain networks. However, findings from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies are highly inconsistent, likely due to individual heterogeneity in IGD-related neural alterations—a feature commonly observed in other psychiatric disorders but understudied in IGD.

Methods: We applied normative modeling to nucleus accumbens (NAcc) seed-to-voxel resting-state FC to derive individualized deviation (Z) maps for 173 IGD participants relative to age- and sex-adjusted normative ranges from 232 healthy controls. We then performed exploratory unsupervised clustering of network-level deviation features across three sample data, three atlas templates, and two clustering algorithms, selecting the optimal number of clusters using the silhouette criterion.

Results: IGD showed marked heterogeneity in FC deviations: voxel-level deviations were largely idiosyncratic in both spatial distribution and direction. When deviations were summarized at the network level, clustering consistently selected a two-cluster solution across data, atlases, and algorithms, separating a majority “low-deviation” stratum from a smaller “high-deviation” stratum.

Conclusions: IGD is characterized by pronounced individual variability in FC deviations. Network-level deviations yield a robust higher- vs. lower-deviation stratification, although the present findings do not support interpreting this pattern as evidence for discrete subtypes. The present study highlights the utility of individualized deviation mapping beyond conventional case–control analyses for characterizing heterogeneity in IGD.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12991-026-00664-3.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

• figshare:32768122, at figshare; found in DataCite

Data availability

The data generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to restrictions related to participant privacy and institutional ethical regulations, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 5 keywords, 3 funders, 53 references.

Cite

This paper

Wang, Z., Xie, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, L., & Dong, G.-H. (2026). Normative modeling reveals functional connectivity heterogeneity in internet gaming disorder. Annals of general psychiatry, 25(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-026-00664-3

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1269 [code]

From early to contemporary normative modeling: Mapping individual differences in neurophysiological signals.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: computational, 8 references

[2] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1307

Accelerated maturation of brain circuits and executive function in adolescents who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: 6 references

[3] doi:10.1038/s41398-026-03902-0 [code]

Mapping heterogeneous brain structural subtypes in alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment using normative models.

Journal: Translational psychiatry

In common: 6 references

[4] doi:10.1073/pnas.2521055123 [code]

Empirical validation of race-neutral normative brain morphometry models across ethnoracially diverse populations.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

In common: computational, 5 references

[5] doi:10.64898/2026.03.31.26349848 [code]

Mapping Individual Neuroanatomical Alterations to Schizophrenia Psychopathology with Normative Modeling

Journal: medRxiv (preprint)

In common: computational, 4 references

[6] doi:10.1038/s44220-026-00656-y [code]

Multiscale heterogeneity of atypical functional connectivity in autism.

Journal: Nature. Mental health

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[7] doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-9326213/v1 [code]

Multi-task fMRI outperforms resting-state fMRI for revealing task-invariant organization of the human brain

Journal: Research Square (preprint)

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[8] doi:10.64898/2026.03.09.710558 [code]

Multi-task fMRI outperforms resting-state fMRI for revealing task-invariant organization of the human brain

Journal: bioRxiv (preprint)

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[9] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1337 [code]

Data quality biases normative models derived from fetal brain MRI.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: 3 references

[10] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003927 [code]

Brain structural and functional connectivity converge prenatally but diverge after birth.

Journal: PLoS biology

In common: fMRI, 3 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.