Motivated attention to stimuli related to social networking sites: A cue-reactivity study / Tania Moretta, Giulia Buodo, Buodo, Giulia
Bibliogr.: p. 324.326. - Abstr. eng. - DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2021.00040
In: Journal of Behavioral Addictions. - ISSN 2062-5871, eISSN 2063-5303. - 2021. 10. évf. 2. sz., p. 314-326. : ill.
Background and aims: It has been argued that similar to addictive behaviors, problematic Social Network sites use (PSNSU) is characterized by sensitized reward processing and cue-reactivity. However, no study to our knowledge has yet investigated cue-reactivity in PSNSU. The present study aims at investigating cue-reactivity to Social Network sites (i.e., Facebook)-related visual cues in individuals identified as problematic vs. non-problematic Facebook users by the Problematic Facebook Use Scale. Methods: The Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the passive viewing of Facebookrelated, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures in 27 problematic and 26 non-problematic users. Moreover, craving for Facebook usage was collected using a Likert scale. Results: Despite problematic users were more likely to endorse higher craving than non-problematic ones, Facebook-related cues elicited larger ERP positivity (400-600 ms) than neutral, and comparable to unpleasant stimuli, in all Facebook users. Only in problematic users we found larger positivity (600-800 ms) to pleasant than unpleasant cues and higher craving to be related with lower later positivity (800-1,000 ms) to pleasant and unpleasant cues. Discussion: Regardless of whether Facebook usage is problematic or non-problematic, Facebook-related cues seem to be motivationally relevant stimuli that capture attentional resources in the earlier stages of ?motivated" attentional allocation. Moreover, our results support the view that in higher-craving problematic users, reduced abilities to experience emotions would be the result of defective emotion regulation processes that allow craving states to capture more motivational/attentional resources at the expense of other emotional states. Kulcsszavak: ue-reactivity, addictive behaviors, internet, event-related potentials, Facebook, craving