EAGER: A Biocultural Study of the Functional Genomics of Intensive Internet Use

这个项目由科罗拉多州立大学的Jeffrey Snodgrass博士和犹他州立大学的Henri Dengah博士领导，将调查密集的网络活动对身心健康的影响。世界各地的人们花在网上的时间越来越多，有时是在不同的“虚拟世界”中，他们在那里学习共同的文化，分享信仰和习俗。对于参与者来说，在线社区可能变得如此重要，以至于使线下的社交活动黯然失色。研究人员希望调查这种“网瘾”的可能性，其特征是过度或控制不良的行为，对电脑使用和上网的关注和冲动，导致心理困扰或损害，这不仅在行为上，而且在基因组中都是可识别的。以往关于网络成瘾的科学研究主要集中在人类神经生物学上，很少关注社会文化和环境因素。相比之下，目前的研究将跨文化人类学方法与功能基因组学方法相结合，以检查文化学习和社会参与（在虚拟世界或其他地方）是否可以深入塑造基本的健康过程。这项研究的发现将补充神经生物学方法，并为关于成瘾行为的公开辩论提供重要信息，成瘾行为是一个紧迫的公共卫生和社会问题。研究人员将结合文化一致性、社会网络和功能基因组分析来研究网络环境如何体现在互联网用户的思想和身体中。他们将重点关注年轻人（18-32岁），这一群体是虚拟世界的活跃参与者，容易上瘾。在研究的第一阶段，研究人员将收集干血斑数据，以评估是否密集的互联网使用与功能基因组的改变有关，以及他们的基因表达谱是否反映了其他心理社会困扰人群的基因表达谱。血斑将通过白细胞中RNA上/下转录调控的微阵列进行分析。这将提供对互联网相关压力和成瘾过程的生物学现实的洞察，这些过程以前通过民族志方法和信息者自我报告在文化和心理上记录。在第二阶段，研究人员将把这项调查的背景扩展到巴西和印度，以探索特定文化的离线规范和实践是否会以影响个人用户心理和身体健康的方式塑造问题的互联网使用模式。总之，这两个阶段将结合在一起，产生一种完全跨学科的、创新的、潜在的变革方法，以理解在线虚拟世界的吸引力和影响、有问题的互联网使用和健康差异。这项研究将使人们更深入地了解社会文化和生物过程如何在这些技术背景下结合起来，塑造人类健康和福祉。这个探索性项目也将为未来社会科学家和分子生物学家之间的合作研究奠定基础，以回答有关文化媒介世界如何成为字面体现的基本问题。

This project, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Snodgrass of Colorado State University and Dr. Henri Dengah of Utah State University, will investigate effects of intensive internet activity on mental and physical health. People around the globe spend increasing amounts of time online, sometimes in alternative "virtual worlds" where they learn a common culture and come to share beliefs and practices. Online communities may become so important to participants that they eclipse offline social commitments. The researchers wish to investigate the possibility that such "internet addiction," characterized by excessive or poorly controlled behaviors, preoccupations, and urges regarding computer use and internet access, leads to psychological distress or impairment and that this is discernible not only in behavior but also in the genome. Previous scientific research on internet addiction has focused on human neurobiology, giving little attention to sociocultural and environmental factors. In contrast, the present research will combine cross-cultural anthropological methods with methods from functional genomics to examine whether cultural learning and social involvement (in virtual worlds or elsewhere) can reach deep down to shape fundamental health processes. Findings from this research will complement neurobiological approaches and contribute critical information to public debates about addictive behaviors, a pressing public health and social problem.The researchers will combine cultural consonance, social network, and functional genomic analyses to examine how online environments become embodied in the minds and bodies of internet users. They will focus on young adults (18-32 years of age), a group known to be active virtual world participants and susceptible to addictive behaviors. In the first phase of the study, researchers will collect dried blood spot data to assess whether intensive internet use, as measured by responses to an earlier online survey, is associated with altered functional genomes, and if their gene expression profiles mirror profiles of other psycho-socially distressed populations. The blood spots will be analyzed via microarrays of RNA up/down transcription regulation in leukocytes. This will provide insight into the biological reality of internet-related stress and addiction processes previously documented culturally and psychologically via ethnographic methods and informant self-reports. In the second phase, the researchers will expand the context of this investigation to Brazil and India to explore whether culture-specific offline norms and practices might shape problem internet use patterns in ways that impact individual users' mental and physical health. Together, these two phases will combine to produce a radically interdisciplinary, innovative, and potentially transformative approach to understanding the appeal and effects of online virtual worlds, problematic internet use, and health differences. The research will produce a deeper understanding of how sociocultural and biological processes combine in these technological contexts to shape human health and well-being. This exploratory project will also set the stage for future collaborative research between social scientists and molecular biologists to answer basic questions about how culturally mediated worlds become literally embodied.