Differences in Reward Sensitivity between High and Low Problematic Smartphone Use Adolescents: An ERP Study

Xinmei Deng, Qiufeng Gao, Lijun Hu, Lin Zhang, Yanzhen Li and Xiangyu Bu
Additional contact information
Xinmei Deng: School of Psychology, Normal College, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Qiufeng Gao: Department of Sociology, Law School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Lijun Hu: School of Psychology, Normal College, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Lin Zhang: School of Psychology, Normal College, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Yanzhen Li: Department of Sociology, Law School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Xiangyu Bu: Department of Sociology, Law School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-17

Abstract: Background: Problematic smartphone use is highly prevalent in adolescent populations compared to other age groups (e.g., adults and young children). Previous studies suggested that higher levels of reward sensitivity were associated with problematic smartphone use. Therefore, the current study investigated the neural processing of monetary and social reward and punishment feedbacks between high and low problematic smartphone use adolescents. Methods: 46 adolescents participated in the current study and they were categorized into two groups based on their level of problematic smartphone use: those who obtained low scores on the measure of problematic smartphone use were categorized as Low Problematic Smartphone Use (LPSU), and those who obtained high scores on the measure of problematic smartphone use were categorized as High Problematic Smartphone Use (HPSU). Electrocortical activities were recorded during the processing of monetary and social reward and punishment feedback. Results: (1) LPSUs evoked larger P3 in the social punishment condition than in the monetary punishment condition. HPSUs evoked larger P3 in the social reward condition than in the monetary condition. (2) The feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes in the reward condition were significantly larger than those in the punishment condition. (3) HPSUs induced larger reward positivity in social feedback conditions than in monetary feedback conditions, while there were no significant differences between the two types of conditions in the LPSUs. Discussion: The results provide neural underpinning evidence that high sensitivity to social rewards may be related to problematic smartphone use in adolescence.

Keywords: problematic smartphone use; reward sensitivity; adolescents; event-related brain potentials (ERPs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9603/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9603/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9603-:d:634037

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().