Internet gaming disorder appears to be associated with self-concept deficits and increased identification with one's avatar. For increased social network use, the few existing studies suggest striatal-related positive social feedback as an underlying factor. Furthermore, few study findings indicate that internet addicts generally have problems in emotional inhibitory control processing.

Pathological and addicted internet gamers as well as social network users were compared with healthy controls regarding psychometric and neurobiological measures of self-concept-related characteristics, avatar identification and emotional inhibitory control processing.

Psychometric results indicated that both subgroups showed higher self-concept deficits compared to healthy controls. Neurobiologically, different brain activation patterns were observed in the subgroups during self-knowledge retrieval and inhibition of emotional stimuli. Furthermore, addicted internet gamers showed a higher identification with the own avatar, mirrored in an increased left angular gyrus activation, a region functionally associated with identification processing and feelings of empathy.

These findings provide a starting point for the deduction of specific psychotherapeutic treatment approaches for addicted internet gamers and social network users.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.