For many people, a large part of their lives now takes place online - whether it's gaming, shopping, watching porn or browsing social media. For some people though, putting their mobile phone aside or switching off their laptop is a real feat of strength.

Since 2021, the DFG has been funding the transregional research group "Affective and cognitive mechanisms of specific Internet-use disorders (ACSID)" led by ELH Director Prof. Dr Matthias Brand, in which the researchers are investigating how online addictive behaviour develops and can be changed. The DFG has now approved a second funding period of three years totalling almost 5 million euros. Other applicants are Dr Stephanie Antons and Dr Silke M. Müller.

Matthias Brand and his team are particularly interested in how users are triggered and under what circumstances they can suppress impulses. Some of their insights gained during their research has already opened up new approaches in possible therapy. In the second funding period, the scientists want to investigate the psychological and neurological mechanisms behind online addictive behaviour in even greater detail.

In order to understand which parts of the brain are specifically triggered and activated during addictive behaviour, the scientists from the ACSID group also repeatedly carry out fMRI studies at the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for MRI.

University of Duisburg-Essen Press Release