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

该项目由科罗拉多州立大学的杰弗里·斯诺德格拉斯博士和犹他州立大学的亨利·登加博士指导，将调查密集的互联网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，有时是在另类的“虚拟世界”中，在那里他们学习共同的文化，分享信仰和实践。在线社区对参与者来说可能变得如此重要，以至于超过了线下的社会承诺。研究人员希望调查这种“网瘾”的可能性，这种“网瘾”的特征是对电脑使用和上网的过度或失控的行为、关注和冲动，导致心理困扰或损害的可能性，这不仅在行为上，而且在基因组中也是明显的。之前关于网瘾的科学研究主要集中在人类神经生物学上，对社会文化和环境因素的关注很少。相比之下，目前的研究将结合跨文化人类学方法和功能基因组学方法，研究文化学习和社会参与(在虚拟世界或其他地方)是否能够深入到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，并为公众关于成瘾行为的辩论贡献关键信息，成瘾行为是一个紧迫的公共健康和社会问题。研究人员将结合文化共鸣、社会网络和功能基因组分析，研究在线环境如何体现在互联网用户的头脑和身体中。他们将专注于年轻人(18-32岁)，这一群体被认为是活跃的虚拟世界参与者，容易出现上瘾行为。在研究的第一阶段，研究人员将收集干燥的血迹数据，以评估密集的互联网使用是否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痛苦人群的谱。血斑将通过白细胞中RNA上调/下调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，以前通过民族志方法和告密者自我报告从文化和心理上记录了这一过程。在第二阶段，研究人员将把这项调查的背景扩大到巴西和印度，以探索特定于文化的线下规范和做法是否会以影响个人用户身心健康的方式塑造问题互联网使用模式。这两个阶段结合在一起，将产生一种根本性的跨学科、创新和潜在的变革性方法，以理解在线虚拟世界、有问题的互联网使用和健康差异的吸引力和影响。这项研究将产生对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的更深层次的理解。这一探索性项目还将为社会科学家和分子生物学家未来的合作研究奠定基础，以回答有关文化中介世界如何真正体现的基本问题。

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.