The neural basis underlying impaired attentional control in problematic smartphone users

Summary & key facts

Scientists scanned 33 people who struggled with problematic smartphone use and 33 people who did not while they did an attention task that included distracting words. The people with problematic smartphone use did worse when distractions appeared, and their brains showed higher activity in attention-control areas but poorer communication between specific attention regions. The pattern suggests these users are more easily pulled toward irrelevant things on the screen because a brain network that reacts to attention-grabbing cues is overactive but less well coordinated, though the study does not prove phone use caused these brain differences.

Key facts:

• The study tested 33 people with problematic smartphone use and 33 control people while they did a task with distracting words inside a brain scanner.
• People with problematic smartphone use performed worse on the task when distractors were present, showing greater difficulty keeping attention on the main task.
• Across all task conditions, the problematic smartphone group had consistently higher activity in frontoparietal brain regions, which are areas involved in attention and control.
• Higher activity in one area called the inferior parietal lobule was specifically linked to worse task performance when distractions were present.
• When the task became more demanding, people with problematic smartphone use showed weaker communication between the right inferior parietal lobule and the right superior temporal gyrus—parts of a network that reacts to things that suddenly grab attention.
• The weaker communication between these brain areas was associated with stronger dependence on smartphones, suggesting the brain network was less coordinated even though some parts were more active.
• This study cannot show cause and effect; it cannot tell us whether heavy smartphone use caused the brain differences or whether preexisting brain differences made some people more prone to problematic phone use.

Abstract

As a portable media device that enables ubiquitous access to friends and entertainment, smartphones are inextricably linked with our lives. Although there is growing concern about the detrimental effect of problematic smartphone use on attentional control, the underlying neural mechanisms of impaired attentional control in problematic smartphone users (PSU) has yet to be investigated. Using a modified cognitive conflict task, we examined behavioral performance in the presence of distracting words during functional magnetic resonance imaging in 33 PSU and 33 control participants (CON). Compared with the CON group, the PSU group demonstrated impaired performance that was accompanied by constantly enhanced but not differentiated activation in the frontoparietal regions across all conditions, regardless of distractor saliency. The inferior parietal lobule (IPL) activation in the PSU group, in particular, showed an association with performance deficits in the distractor conditions. Furthermore, the PSU group exhibited decreased functional connectivity of the right IPL with the right superior temporal gyrus of the ventral attention system in the attention-demanding condition relative to the easiest condition, which was associated with the severe dependence on smartphone use. Our findings suggest that greater distractibility in the PSU group during the attentional control task may be associated with inefficient recruitment of the ventral attention network involved in bottom-up attentional processing, as indicated by hyperactivation but less coherence within the network. The present study provides evidence for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the impaired ability to keep attention from being oriented to task-irrelevant stimuli observed in PSU.

Topics

Cognitive Functions and Memory Mind wandering and attention Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Association (psychology) Attentional control Audiology Cognition Cognitive psychology Continuous performance task Economics Functional magnetic resonance imaging Inferior parietal lobule Management Medicine Middle frontal gyrus Neural correlates of consciousness Neuroscience Psychology Psychotherapist Task (project management)

Conditions & symptoms

Addiction Addiction or harmful habbits Difficulty focusing