This is your brain on smartphones: MRI study reveals altered network strength in brains of smartphone 'addicts'
It’s a good thing that phones these days are so smart, because a new study suggests that excessive phone use could decrease functional network strength in the brains of those who are most addicted to their devices.
That’s according to recent research that used functional MRI exams to uncover links between excessive smartphone use and altered neural activity.
The study, which was published in Brain and Behavior, found that individuals who used their smartphone excessively displayed different strengths in the prefrontal and parietal neural network—something that experts involved in the study suggested could be a unique signature in smartphone addiction (SPA).
“Because of its similarities to internet gaming disorder (IGD), there is an ongoing debate on if excessive smartphone use (ESU) is a facet of IGD or a distinct form of addictive behavior,” corresponding author Robert Christian Wolf, of Heidelberg University in Germany and co-authors explained.
The study was small, comprised of just 44 participants divided into two groups based on psychological assessments and reported smartphone use—24 controls and 20 participants deemed to have SPA. Anyone with internet gaming disorder was excluded for the purpose of differentiating between SPA and IGD.
In addition to addiction assessments and questionnaires, each participant underwent a resting-state functional MRI exam. On imaging, the SPA group exhibited lower functional network strength of the medial/dorsolateral prefrontal system, while the opposite pattern—increased activation—was observed in the parietal cortical/cerebellar system. These findings were found to have a significant correlation with duration of use and sleep difficulties in the SPA group.
Although the authors acknowledged the size of their study as a limitation, they maintained that the data “suggest contributions of aberrant prefrontal and parietal neural network strength as a possible signature of deficient executive control in SPA,” and should be studied in a more robust manner.
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.