Smartphones shaping brains

There no free lunches. Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. Karma states that the law of “cause and effect” controls the destiny of all living creatures. In common lore, scientific insight, and religious wisdom this premise is repeated time and again; nothing happens in isolation and nothing happens without affecting other things. So what are the effects of the proliferation, and passion for, smartphones? The effects are wide, unseen and creeping, like a flatus at an art gallery opening. Yet thanks to a new study we know one thing for sure; smartphones are affecting how your brain works.

To study how smartphone use may be affecting the brain the researchers compared right-handed smartphone users to right-handers still using older types of mobile phones. They compared brain activity using electroencephalograms (EEGs).

The results showed that people who use smartphones have greater activity in the sensorimotor part of the cortex. Additionally, the more the subjects had used their phone in the ten days leading up to the study, the greater the activity in the region of the brain linked to thumb movements. It also emerged that electrical activity in the brains of all smartphone users was enhanced when all fingertips were touched. Indeed, the amount of activity in the parts of the brain related to thumb and index fingers was directly related to the amount of phone use in the days preceding as recorded by built-in battery logs in the phones.

The findings are different to what has previously been found with violinists, as an example. Previous studies have shown that violinists have larger processing regions in the parts of the brain related to fingers. However, whereas the brain activity of violinists is dependent on when they started playing the instrument, the length of smartphone use was not found to be a contributing factor.

It seems that the repetitive movements of thumb and fingers on a smooth touchscreen shape brain activity as you go and that the effect lingers.

That phone will cost you more than the dollars you pay for it and the friends that you lose through inappropriate social media posts. It will alter the way your brain works. That may not be bad and it may be an acceptable cost…but it is the tip of the iceberg.