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Researchers: Smartphone Use Changing Our Brain and Thumb Interaction

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-mind-of-its-own dept.

Rambo Tribble writes Researchers from the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and University of Fribourg have found evidence that smartphone use changes the way your brain interacts with your thumbs. Using electroencephalography to study brain activity in smartphone users vs. feature-phone users, they found apparently persistent, increased activity in areas of the brain associated with the thumbs. Of course, this may well be true of other repetitive activities, like keyboard use. Reuters provide a bit more approachable coverage.

28 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Pthptpphtht!! by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I coulda told you that with my Atari 2600 joystick...

    1. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by thedonger · · Score: 1

      I coulda told you that with my Atari 2600 joystick...

      I coulda told you that with my abacus...

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    2. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by judoguy · · Score: 1

      How about pr0n and right hand motor control?

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    3. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm left handed you insensitive clod!

    4. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by the_skywise · · Score: 1

      (Except when using the Atari 2600 joystick because... well you couldn't use it left handed... :) )

    5. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      The only way a 2600 joystick changed my brain/thumb interaction was my thumb sending pain signals to my brain. We've come a long way since that terrible controller.

    6. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      I don't use my thumbs with my smartphone, you insensitive clods!

      Hold in left hand, poke and stroke with right index finger. No, no, the smartphone, still talking about the smartphone.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    7. Re:Pthptpphtht!! by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I'm left handed you insensitive clod!

      Then if you use your right hand it's like someone else is doing it for you. Apparently.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. It's not just the thumb; fingers too by twitnutttt · · Score: 1

    "...we measured the cortical potentials in response to mechanical touch on the thumb, index, and middle fingertips of touchscreen phone users and nonusers (owning only old-technology mobile phones). Although the thumb interacted predominantly with the screen, the potentials associated with the three fingertips were enhanced in touchscreen users compared to nonusers"

    I was wondering about this, since I tend to use my index finger as much or more than my thumb the way I hold my phone.

    1. Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too by pr0fessor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When I was learning to play piano I had a lot of difficulty training my fingers at first. I had to concentrate on what my fingers were doing but the more I practiced the more natural it became. Occasionally I would come across a part that had an unusual timing or chord change and I would have to practice it multiple times to get it down.

      I imagine that doing any complex repetitive task would eventually change the way it looks on an EEG as the person becomes more practiced.

    2. Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too by rnturn · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yep... You're developing muscle memory.

      In a similar vein, Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows -- What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" discusses something very similar from the standpoint of our using the Internet. It affects how we absorb and retain information and the changes in the brain are measurable. Essentially, the brain rewires itself to adapt to the technology that we use. That one's brain/thumb wiring is strengthened from messaging on smartphones is not a big surprise.

      --
      CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
    3. Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      As long as that's all you're using it for!

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. index finger by itzly · · Score: 2

    I operate my phone with my index finger, you insensitive clod.

    1. Re:index finger by socialoracle · · Score: 1

      I want to use a hammer.

    2. Re:index finger by magarity · · Score: 1

      I use the stylus like a little pen. But my handwriting is still awful.

  4. Not just the thumb by Meshach · · Score: 1

    Cell phone use causes the brain to disconnect from the whole body. When you spend your whole day staring at that tiny screen ignoring everything around you many things go wrong.

    --
    "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
    Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Not just the thumb by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Awwww, is somebody jealous that nobody wants to communicate with him?

  5. Not in my brain... by rnturn · · Score: 1

    I can't type worth a damn on a smartphone with my thumbs. Anything texts I tried creating using my thumbs would be autocorrected to the point where the recipients would think I was having a stroke.

    --
    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
    1. Re:Not in my brain... by rnturn · · Score: 1

      (Heh heh... "texts" was supposed to be in parentheses. And I'm not even posting via smartphone.)

      --
      CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  6. Re:Well, durr by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Why would it be a surprise

    It's not a "goes against what you'd expect" surprise, but if you had never thought about it before, it could well be a mild surprise.

    or a discovery to see

    That's what a discovery is - to see something for the first time.

    Just because this seems obvious in hindsight, that doesn't mean it's not interesting or useful that it has been shown scientifically to be true.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  7. It's called muscle memory by edibobb · · Score: 2

    You learn to do more automatically what you repeat, whether it's texting, playing the piano, typing, or tapdancing. It makes the brain-muscle interaction more efficient for that area. This is not news.

  8. Re:it's confirmed yet again by ralphsiegler · · Score: 1

    they're screwing humanities majors?

  9. News flash! by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

    Scientists discover this thing called neuroplasticity.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  10. Reuters is singular by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

    From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...:

    Reuters /rtrz/ is an international news agency

    1. Re:Reuters is singular by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      A collective entity is sometimes treated like a plural in sentences, as explained in The Economist style guide. I agree that Reuters should be singular, for several reasons, but it's understandable that people sometimes overshoot with the pluralization.

      I guess "Reuters" looks explicitly plural, but it was founded by a chap called Reuter, and once called Reuter's Telegram Company, so the current name is probably just a typographical contraction. IMHO, it's obvious that a business entity should be singular, even if it represents a collective effort, that's pretty much the idea behind corporations.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:Reuters is singular by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      In the UK we often refer to businesses/corporations in the plural. E.g. "Sainsbury's are having an Easter egg sale."

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  11. There is a downside by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    The downside is: having a thumb that is good for texting goes completely against the grain of what you want for the use of fine dexterity for other applications.
    In most activities that require good dexterity, the thumb provides a steady rest, with only small but strong movements, using control.

    Don't believe me?

    Grab and apple and peel it.
    Grab a pencil and write.
    Hold a ratchet, a scalpel, a tweezers, scissors, a soldering iron....

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  12. Re:Not just Thumbelina by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

    Cell phone use causes the brain to disconnect from the whole body. When you spend your whole day staring at that tiny screen ignoring everything around you many things go wrong.

    [Cue music] It would not have been possible otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Cell phones are that distraction -- and the Internet is the enabler -- an unspeakable scourge -- The Real Public Enemy Number One !

    Its first effect is sudden violent, uncontrollable laughter, then come dangerous hallucinations -- space expands -- time slows down, almost stands still.... fixed ideas come next, conjuring up monstrous extravagances --- followed by emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions leading finally to acts of shocking violence ... ending often in incurable insanity.

    In picturing its soul-destroying effects no attempt was made to equivocate. The scenes and incidents, while fictionized for the purposes of this story, are based upon actual research into the results of cellphone and Internet addiction. If their stark reality will make you think, will make you aware that something must be done to wipe out this ghastly menace, then the picture will not have failed in its purpose.

    Because the dread technology may be reaching forth next for your son or daughter ...or yours ... or YOURS!

    ~~Cellphone Madness

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>