ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (8): 1333-1348.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.1333

• Reports of Empirical Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dual-system perspectives: A meta-analytic comparison of striatal and prefrontal cortex activation patterns in substance addiction versus behavioral addiction

HE Quanxing1, LI Zhaolan1, YANG Haibo1,2,3()   

  1. 1Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
    2Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
    3Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387, China
  • Published:2025-08-25 Online:2025-05-22
  • Contact: YANG Haibo E-mail:yanghaibo@tjnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Despite the abnormal activation patterns in the reflective and impulsive systems observed in both substance addiction and behavioral addiction patients, it remains unclear whether these abnormal activation patterns share similarities or differences. To address this issue, the present study employed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to quantitatively analyze the neural activation data of substance addiction patients and behavioral addiction patients during inhibitory control and reward-related tasks. After conducting a literature search and screening, a total of 102 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were included in this research. The meta-analysis results revealed: (1) In the inhibitory control tasks, substance addiction patients exhibited reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, while behavioral addiction patients showed enhanced activation in the corresponding brain regions. (2) In reward processing-related tasks, the striatal activation was enhanced in both groups of patients. These results suggest that both substance addiction patients and behavioral addiction patients exhibit common activation characteristics in the impulsive system, whereas the reflective system is functionally impaired in substance addiction patients, while behavioral addiction patients may display compensatory activation. In conclusion, this study reveals that both substance addiction patients and behavioral addiction patients share common abnormal activation characteristics in the impulsive and reflective systems, while also demonstrating unique neural activation patterns.

Key words: meta-analysis, substance addiction, behavioral addiction, reward processing, inhibitory control