Using longitudinal exposure to causally link smartphone usage to changes in behavior, cognition and right prefrontal neural activity
Section snippets
Backgroud and aims
Current studies of the behavioural and cognitive changes associated with smartphone usage provide little behavioural data and no reference to brain activity changes. The primary objective of the present study was to establish whether smartphone usage may cause measurable changes in cognitive capacities, behavioral tendencies and relevant prefrontal neural activity.
Method
Participants lacking any previous experience with Smartphone (nonusers, n=38) were compared to a matched group of extensive Smartphone users (heavy users, n=17) on timed arithmetic, response inhibition and monetary delay discounting tasks as well as several behavioral questionnaires. EEG-TMS was used to record long intracortical inhibition (LICI) from the right DLPFC at rest. In the second experimental stage a longitudinal intervention was implemented. Half of the nonusers were randomly
Results
Questionnaire data revealed higher tendency to ADHD like behavior in heavy smartphone users particularly on subscales of impulsivity and hyperactivity (p<0.01).Heavy users also obtained significantly lower accuracy rates than nonusers in the information processing arithmetic task. Critically nonusers who received smartphones showed a significant decrease in information processing capacity as compared with their baseline performance no such effect was observed in the control group. Similarly,
Conclusion
Heavy smartphone usage is associated with increased impulsivity and decreased information processing capacity as measured in simple arithmetic tasks. Furthermore, standard usage over a three month period may be casually linked to information processing impairments and an increased tendency towards impulsive decision making in the presence of monetary reward.