False accusation of online games: Internet gaming can enhance the cognitive flexibility of adolescents

Adolescents commonly exhibit high stress and emotional reactivity, and are prone to addictive behaviors including online gaming. Despite the negative impact, online gaming has recently been reported to improve cognitive function. This study examines differences in event-related potentials (ERP) during task switching according to the level of gaming addiction. High-risk, potential-risk, and general groups were recruited according to their Internet Addiction Scale results and total forty-five middle school boys aged 13–15 years participated in the study. The participants were asked to perform switching tasks consisting of size, value, and shape stimuli. The ERP analysis revealed greater N200 amplitudes in the high-risk and potential-risk groups compared with the general user group, suggesting that the participants with a greater involvement in Internet gaming have higher cognitive flexibility in resolving response-related cognitive interference during task-switching. In the analyses of P300, the potential-risk group exhibited higher amplitudes compared with the high-risk and general user groups at F3 region, and during the shape task, separately, which reflects enhanced cognitive flexibility of the potential-risk group to process the stimulus-related interference. The findings of this study suggest that moderate use of online games can enhance response inhibition and stimulus processing. The practical use of online games as an auxiliary means to support cognitive flexibility of adolescents struggling with stress and emotion processing should be explored in future research.