Addiction to digital platforms has a bad impact on the adolescent brain.
- Cyber addiction (or Internet addiction) can be defined as a recurring and persistent use of multiple Internet applications, the use of which becomes a behavior that is difficult to control.
- This condition can have a negative impact on the adolescent brain.
- In adolescents addicted to the Internet, increased connectivity was observed in regions related to the reward system such as the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus.
Internet addiction linked to impaired brain connectivity in adolescents, study finds a new investigation.
“The main takeaway I hope people take from this study is that teens who are addicted to the Internet have changes in their brains that can profoundly affect their development and behavior,” said study author Max LY Chang. “Despite these findings, it is important to understand that the Internet is not an entirely good or entirely bad entity,” he adds.
“When it comes to Internet addiction, many of the underlying mechanisms are still largely misunderstood,” he continues.
Internet Addiction and the Brain: What is the Point of Meta-Analysis?
To reach these conclusions, his team conducted a meta-analysis. This statistical technique combines the results of several scientific studies in order to obtain a more complete understanding of a particular problem. This approach is particularly useful in areas where trials are small, as it helps to mitigate this limitation and produce a more reliable synthesis.
For this meta-analysis, the scientists searched databases such as PubMed and PsycINFO for studies involving young people aged 10 to 19 who had been officially diagnosed as having an Internet addiction. After an initial search yielding 238 articles, they applied their inclusion and exclusion criteria and reduced the number of studies eligible for their analysis to 12.
The results indicate that Internet addiction was associated with an alteration of the posterior cingulate cortex, which presented in addicted adolescents altered connectivity patterns. In addition, increased connectivity was observed in the same individuals in regions related to the reward system such as the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus.
Internet Addiction and the Brain: What is Cyber Addiction?
“Internet addiction (or Internet addiction) can be defined as a recurrent and persistent use of multiple Internet applications whose use becomes a behavior that is difficult to control and results in clinically significant suffering,” indicates the Nantes University Hospital.
At present, only addiction related to the use of video games is recognized in the diagnostic manual (DSM-5 appendix) and ICD-11 of the World Health Organization (WHO).
