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Teens who spend too much time on social media say they feel they are unable to pay attention to more important things, like homework or spending time with loved ones.
A new study may have put that in perspective, finding that teens diagnosed with internet addiction have disrupted signal transmission between brain regions that are important for regulating things like attention and working memory.
Investigation result It’s from a reviewThe research, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Mental Health, is the result of 12 neuroimaging studies conducted between 2013 and 2022 on hundreds of young people between the ages of 10 and 19.
“Behavioral addictions caused by excessive Internet use have generated growing concern over the past decade,” the authors wrote in their study.
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Experts say excessive internet use can distract teens from both their responsibilities and other activities they enjoy.
The clinical diagnostic criteria for internet addiction in the studies included “a persistent preoccupation with the internet, withdrawal symptoms when away from the internet, and sacrifice of relationships due to time spent online over an extended period of time (e.g., 12 months),” Max Chang, lead author of the study and outreach case manager at Peninsula Family Services, a nonprofit in San Francisco, said in an email. “The pattern of behavior causes significant impairment or distress in the individual’s life.”
Given the altered state of the adolescent brain compared to adults, the authors felt it was important to understand the impact of internet addiction on the teenage participants’ brains.
“When subjects with clinically diagnosed internet addiction engaged in activities controlled by the brain’s executive function network – behaviors that require attention, planning, decision-making, and impulse control – those brain regions showed significant impairments in their collaborative abilities compared to their non-internet addicted peers. The authors suggest that such altered signaling may suggest that these behaviors will become more challenging, with potential implications for development and health.”
“This paper presents a straightforward systematic review that suggests there is a link between functional brain connectivity and internet ‘addiction’, but there are some fundamental limitations that are important to acknowledge in any interpretation,” Dr David Ellis, behavioral scientist at the University of Bath’s Digital Security and Behavior Institute, said in a news release.
“You can’t draw causal inferences from these studies,” says Ellis, who was not involved in the study. “Second, focusing on functional connectivity sacrifices critiques of an important measure of interest: Internet ‘addiction,’ a term first coined as a joke by psychiatrist Ivan K. Goldberg in 1995.”
“Currently, the conceptualization and measurement of internet ‘addiction’ is not universally accepted, and it is certainly not possible to diagnose it using the survey instruments used in the studies included as part of the review,” Ellis added. “Similarly, the sheer number of activities that the internet instantly enables makes this definition somewhat redundant.”
In the United States, Internet addiction is not included in the DSM-V. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersIt is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States. However, Internet gaming disorderAll of the studies reviewed by the authors were conducted in Asia, and most participants were men. It was the first country Declaring internet addiction a “public health crisis.”
“Despite being widely criticized, these definitions tend to shift the focus away from real online harms and lean toward conclusions that suggest removing technology from people’s lives would be beneficial,” Ellis said. “We don’t yet have solid evidence that removing the internet provides any tangible benefits.”
Plus, all the studies were conducted at a single point in time, said Dr. Eva Telzer, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study.
“Given the lack of longitudinal data, it is very likely that adolescents with fundamental differences in their brain connectivity patterns are at higher risk of developing internet addiction,” Telzer said.
If internet addiction was to blame for the disruptions to brain signaling in the subjects, the reason could have to do with neural pathways linked to addiction, said Dr. Sumita Das, an addiction psychiatrist and clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who was not involved in the study.
The subjects’ functional brain connectivity patterns did indeed match those seen in people with drug addiction, said Caglar Yildirim, an associate professor of computer science at Northeastern University’s Cooley School of Computer Science in Boston, who was not involved in the study.
“Overall, the mechanisms underlying Internet addiction are more of an emerging pattern than a finished picture,” says Chan. “Many of the causal relationships between what happens in the brain and what manifests in behavior remain to be elucidated. For now, observations using biomarkers such as functional connectivity are helping to fill in the gaps.”
Chan says if you’re worried your teen is struggling with internet addiction, signs include behaviors such as withdrawing from relationships.
“Like drug and gambling disorders, internet addiction rewires the brain, making it harder to resist internet-related stimuli,” he added. “But unlike gambling or drug use, the internet is an important part of our lives. Balancing the benefits and dangers of the internet is a critical area of future adolescent development.”
Find out why your teen doesn’t want to use the internet and help them get more online, Yıldırım suggested.
Das also suggested talking to your child’s doctor about whether behavioral therapy might be effective. Cognitive behavioral therapyMindfulness and motivational interviewing can help, the latter of which comes from the field of addiction treatment. It is a method of counseling The aim is to increase the patient’s motivation and commitment to behaviour change by eliciting and exploring the patient’s own reasons for wanting to change.
In severe cases, psychiatrists may also recommend medication to treat specific types of technology addiction, she added.
read more: How to know if you’re addicted to your smartphone and 12 ways to deal with it
“In addition to treating internet addiction, attention may also need to be paid to other underlying mental illnesses,” Das said. “Finally, the preventative measures we recommend include limiting screen time, taking breaks, and avoiding mindless scrolling.”
Technology addiction is so prevalent that the American Psychiatric Association is including it as a topic for its 2023-2024 presidential election, said Das, a former chair of the APA’s Committee on Addiction.
“We know families are desperate for help and confused about the science, so we’ve developed several resources, many of which are It is listed on the APA website. ”
