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Controversial Study Claims 'Smartphone Addiction' Alters the Brain (inverse.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inverse: In the new paper, presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, a team of radiologists at Korea University report that smartphone addiction changes teenagers' brains. Using brain imaging, they argue that smartphone- and internet-addicted teenagers have imbalanced brain chemistry when compared to their peers who aren't addicted to smartphones or the internet. But scientists not involved with the study have some serious issues with their research. Perhaps the most important of these issues is the fact that "smartphone addiction" is not a scientifically established thing -- at least not yet.
In the study, the team led by Dr. Hyung Suk Seo used "standardized internet and smartphone addiction tests to measure the severity of internet addiction" in nine boys and 10 girls, according to a statement. Then, they used MRS, a brain imaging technique that can identify particular brain chemicals, to examine the participants' brains before and after taking nine weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy to help their "addiction." Compared to a control group, the "smartphone addicts" had skewed levels of neurotransmitters in their brains. In particular, they had a higher ratio of GABA to Glx (glutamateglutamine), which are respectively responsible for slowing down brain signals and exciting neurons. An elevated ratio of GABA to Glx, the researchers concluded, can be associated with the self-reported symptoms of the "smartphone addict" teens, including depression, anxiety, insomnia severity and impulsivity. After 12 of the teens participated in cognitive behavior therapy, the scientists report, their chemical imbalances appeared to even out to look more like the control group's.
In the study, the team led by Dr. Hyung Suk Seo used "standardized internet and smartphone addiction tests to measure the severity of internet addiction" in nine boys and 10 girls, according to a statement. Then, they used MRS, a brain imaging technique that can identify particular brain chemicals, to examine the participants' brains before and after taking nine weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy to help their "addiction." Compared to a control group, the "smartphone addicts" had skewed levels of neurotransmitters in their brains. In particular, they had a higher ratio of GABA to Glx (glutamateglutamine), which are respectively responsible for slowing down brain signals and exciting neurons. An elevated ratio of GABA to Glx, the researchers concluded, can be associated with the self-reported symptoms of the "smartphone addict" teens, including depression, anxiety, insomnia severity and impulsivity. After 12 of the teens participated in cognitive behavior therapy, the scientists report, their chemical imbalances appeared to even out to look more like the control group's.
The reward addiction craving is the affecting condition, there's nothing inherently different about cell phone addiction than gambling or cocaine as far as your dopamine reward.
sitting in front of the screen is hypnotic. Some play sit on their smartphone, some play facebook games... others (like myself) sit and code for days on end...
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"I Was A Teenage Smartphone Addict". They turned a generation into drooling smartphone junkies willing to do anything except work for their next fix.
"You don't say?"
People are acting like this isn't desirable in an economy that relies upon consumption of media for profit and control.
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Your brain is 'plastic' - it alters in response to use. It strengthens and prunes connections over time. Bits of it can atrophy.
So yes, if you habitually perform some task, it's going to show up as a change in sufficiently accurate before and after fMRIs. This isn't news, it's been studied before.
The addiction usually removes a lot of people from the gene pool via vehicular distraction or stepping off the curb without looking.
Even when "controversial" is not mentioned, most of these studies are controversial. What about reading, does reading addiction alter the brain? Yes, but not in the same way.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
First of all:
It has long been known that the human brain is altered by the simple act of learning anything.
If you repeat something over and over, like walking or flipping a light switch, your brain changes in subtle ways to optimize these processes.
If you sit in a lecture hall and listen to a boring professor, your brain changes in subtle ways.
If your significant other rewards you for something with a kiss, your brain changes some tiny amount.
It's not just formal "learning" but ALL forms of learning that cause a gooey slimy biological computer to re-wire bits of its neural network. It would be a revolutionary discovery if it was determined that using a smartphone FAILED to "alter your brain".
There's no news in that, now, as to the rest:
Like most junk science, if you line-up one observed thing (in this case smartphone use) with some observed negative behavior, you can extrapolate and deduce all sorts of faulty drivel. Instead of publishing papers based on causation-correlation assertions, it would be nice if the scientific community would start demanding actual science by requiring papers to show that the authors discovered all the underlying mechanisms so well that they could use that understanding to accurately predict outcomes to be obtained from all other inputs. If the authors of this study truly understand the mechanisms (as opposed to merely reporting an observed correllation) then they ought to be able to accurately predict the exact responses of brains for people using any other devices. Does using a grand piano cause "addiction"? If not, why not? If so, why? If only for some, why them?
I have observed that everybody who eats cake has eather died or will die... I guess cake kills.
The statistical power of n=12 is questionable as is the fact that the study seems to be based on a number of assumptions. Does the paper end with "more research is needed"?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
I'm impressed that they managed to even FIND a statistically significant number of teenagers aren't addicted to smartphones or the internet. :/
Kim Jong Un is heroically helping his people avoid addiction by banning the use of mobile phones.
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Narcotics interfere with your brain's ability to use certain neurotransmitters. Stopping narcotics cold turkey, in general, is a bad idea, as your brain won't function properly without them. You need to be weened off, usually with a different, analog substance.
Gambling and the internet you can quit cold turkey. You'll be really, really upset, but you won't go through the same physical withdrawal symptoms as with narcotics.
So, no, a cocaine addiction isn't like a gambling addiction at all.
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