Studies Smartphones change our brain

Finger skills on the smartphone change our brain

29/12/2014

If you watch it, you will not be astonished: wiping, tapping, swiping - all at breakneck speed. Smartphone users sometimes have nimble fingers. But the technique not only trains the finger skills of the users, it also changes the brain. This has recently been revealed by a study by researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Friborg. „The cortex quickly adapts to these repetitive finger movements, proving once again how plastic our brains are“, Arko Gosh from the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University and the ETH Zurich.

Brain areas are flexible
In the somatosensory cortex, the emotional center of our brain, all parts of the body, from toe to finger, have processing areas. These can change, however. For example, it is known by violinists that the area of ​​the instrument-carrying fingers increases in comparison to other people.

Arko Gosh now wanted to know how the use of smartphones affects this cortex. He has found that the daily plasticity of our brain can be examined through our use of the smartphone. „Smartphones give us a chance to understand how normal life shapes the brains of ordinary people“, said Arko Ghosh on the results of the study. This had examined the activation in the sensorimotor cortex, which were triggered by the finger activities. In the study, 37 right-handers were examined by EEG for their cortical brain activity. 26 smartphone users and 11 users of older cell phones were included in the study. It turned out that the cortical representation of the two test groups is different.

Cortical activity increases through daily use of the smartphone
In addition, the study showed that the frequency of use of the smartphone also has an influence on the cortical activity. This relationship was most clearly demonstrated for the area of ​​the thumb. „At first glance, this finding seems to be comparable to what happens with violin players“, explains Ghosh.

However, there are two differences: On the one hand, it does not matter to smartphone users how long they own and use a device. Violin players, on the other hand, had brain activity dependent on the age at which they began to play. On the other hand, there is a linear relationship between activation in the brain and the last use of the smartphone. This could not be proven with violin players in earlier studies. „The digital technology that we use in everyday life forms the sensory processing in our brain, to an extent that has surprised us“, summarizes neuroscientist Arko Ghosh. (Jp)