Functional Dissociation of Inhibitory Control in Excessive Short-Form Video Users: Evidence of Neural Inefficiency from

Overview

Short-form video (SFV) platforms such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts have become ubiquitous among adolescents, yet little is known about how excessive use affects the neural mechanisms of self-control. Prior research has relied largely on self-report measures, leaving a gap in understanding the real-time brain dynamics underlying inhibitory deficits. This study examined whether excessive SFV use selectively impairs proactive versus reactive inhibitory control using EEG microstate analysis. Forty-two late-adolescent participants (21 excessive, 21 moderate users) completed two adaptive paradigms — a Go/No-Go task (proactive inhibition) and a Stop-Signal Task (reactive inhibition) — under continuous 14-channel EEG recording. Neural data were clustered into four canonical microstates (A–D) and compared on duration, occurrence, and coverage. A clear functional dissociation emerged: excessive users showed significantly impaired proactive inhibition (p = .002) but intact reactive inhibition (p = .312). Neurally, excessive users exhibited markedly elevated Microstate C occurrence — indicating overactivation of the salience network — despite worse behavioral outcomes, a pattern consistent with neural inefficiency. Reduced Microstate A duration and Microstate D occurrence further suggested erosion of visual processing and frontoparietal attention networks beyond the hypothesized inhibitory deficit. These findings demonstrate that excessive SFV use is associated with a selective failure in anticipatory cognitive control rather than a generalized motor suppression breakdown, and identify Microstate C as a potential neurocognitive biomarker for SFV-related inhibitory impairment.