To protect and maintain the positivity of self-concept, normal people usually show a self-serving bias (internal attribution of positive events and external attribution of negative events) by the motives of self-enhancement and self-protection. Additionally, self-serving assessments predominantly activate the subcortical-cortical midline structures (CMS) in healthy individuals. However, little is known about self-serving bias and its underlying neural correlates among individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). Twenty-four participants with IGD and 25 recreational Internet gaming users (RGUs) were scanned while attributing the causes of positive/negative self- and other-related events that could occur in both the game-world and real-world contexts. Region-of-interest (within CMS regions) and parametric analysis were performed to investigate the neural correlates of self-serving bias in IGD. Behaviorally, the IGD participants attributed more negative and fewer positive events to themselves than RGU participants in both contexts. Neurally, during the attributions of negative events, the IGD participants exhibited increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation in both contexts compared with RGU participants. Higher vmPFC activation was associated with weaker self-protective motivation in the IGD group. Meanwhile, during the attributions of positive events, the IGD participants exhibited decreased precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex activation in the real world compared with RGU participants. Parametric analysis showed a reduced positive correlation between precuneus activation and self-attribution ratings of positive events in the real world in the IGD group relative to the RGU group. These results suggest that individuals with IGD show an attenuated self-serving bias and altered brain activity within CMS regions involved in self-attribution, providing evidence for the negative self-concept and weakened abilities in both self-enhancement and self-protection in IGD.

中文翻译：

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互联网游戏障碍者的自我服务偏见减弱与皮层下皮质中线结构的神经活动改变有关

为了保护和维持自我概念的积极性，正常人通常会通过自我增强和自我保护的动机表现出一种自我服务的偏见（积极事件的内部归因和消极事件的外部归因）。此外，自我服务评估主要激活了健康个体的皮层下皮质中线结构（CMS）。但是，关于自我服务偏见及其与互联网游戏障碍（IGD）的个体之间潜在的神经相关性知之甚少。对二十四位具有IGD的参与者和25个娱乐性互联网游戏用户（RGU）进行了扫描，同时归因于在游戏世界和现实世界中可能发生的积极/消极的自我和其他相关事件的原因。进行了感兴趣区域（在CMS区域内）和参数分析，以研究IGD中自我服务偏差的神经相关性。在行为上，在两种情况下，IGD参与者都比RGU参与者归因于自己更多的消极事件和积极事件。总的来说，在负性事件的归因中，与RGU参与者相比，IGD参与者在两种情况下均表现出增加的腹侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）激活。IGD组中较高的vmPFC激活与较弱的自我保护动机有关。同时，在积极事件的归因中，与RGU参与者相比，IGD参与者在现实世界中表现出减少的前突/后扣带回皮层激活。参数分析显示，与RGU组相比，IGD组在现实世界中，先兆激活与积极事件的自我归因等级之间的正相关性降低。这些结果表明，患有IGD的个体在参与自我归因的CMS区域内表现出减弱的自我服务偏见和大脑活动的改变，为IGD的负自我概念和自我增强和自我保护能力减弱提供了证据。