The above myth was born out of the report that "excessive internet access leads to brain atrophy" which was active on major websites before [1]. Can the Internet really affect our brains so deeply? Are these reports true or are they distorted and exaggerated? Let's discuss it in detail.
Research does exist, and news reports are not rigorous.
These reports all come from an article published in July by PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science, one of a series of periodicals) on 201/kloc-0, which studies the brain structure of 18 college students with internet addiction disorder. It was found that in some brain regions (such as DLPFC in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, SMA in auxiliary motor area, OFC in orbitofrontal cortex, etc.). ), the gray matter volume of these internet addiction students is smaller than that of the normal control group of the same age [2], which is the "brain atrophy" mentioned in the report, and the longer the internet addiction time, the more obvious this atrophy is.
Regardless of the small sample size and the principle of random sampling, after strict statistical analysis, there is indeed a statistically significant difference between the subjects and the control group, that is, there is a certain correlation between "brain atrophy" and Internet addiction, but this does not mean that "excessive internet access leads to brain atrophy" as reported.
Internet addiction ≠ excessive internet access
The research object of this paper is teenagers with internet addiction. The so-called "Internet addiction" refers to the uncontrollable impulse to surf the Internet under the action of addictive substances, which is manifested as obvious psychological and social function damage caused by excessive use of the Internet [3].
At present, the diagnostic scale of Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction (YDQ) is concise and authoritative:
1) Are you obsessed with the Internet?
2) Do you think it is necessary to extend the online time in order to achieve satisfaction?
3) Do you often get out of control on the Internet and stop using it?
4) Do you feel uneasy when you stop using the Internet?
5) Is the online time longer than expected?
6) Are your interpersonal relationships, work, education or career opportunities affected by the Internet?
7) Have you hidden your fascination with the Internet from your family, doctors or others?
8) Do you use the Internet as a way to avoid problems or release anxiety?
Only five of them can be diagnosed as "Internet addiction". That is to say, in addition to surfing the Internet for a long time, you must be as addicted as tobacco and alcohol (editor's note: the "addiction" mentioned here is pathological addiction, which is different from the usual "addiction"), and you can't control your online behavior and rely on the Internet. This is different from the ordinary "over-surfing" that uses the internet for a long time but has self-control ability to surf the Internet. In this paper, the average online time of "Internet addiction college students" is 10.2 hours per day, which is difficult for ordinary people to reach.
Brain atrophy and internet addiction, chicken lays eggs or eggs lays chickens?
The study did find that the gray matter volume in some brain regions of teenagers with Internet addiction decreased, but this was only a cross-sectional study, and these subjects themselves did not compare before and after. Moreover, the psychological behavior of Internet addiction patients is inherently different from that of normal people. Could this difference be caused by some defects in the development of their nervous system?
This leads to a very traditional logical question: does the chicken lay eggs or does the egg lay chickens? -Does Internet addiction lead to atrophy of brain gray matter, or does atrophy of gray matter lead to abnormal behavior of Internet addiction? Or are Internet addicts more prone to brain atrophy than normal people after surfing the Internet for a long time because of some defects in their own nervous system development?
Although it is mentioned in the paper that the longer the internet addiction lasts, the more serious the atrophy will be, which seems to imply that internet addiction leads to brain atrophy, but this clue is not convincing enough. Even if we have enough time to do some follow-up research, we can record the brain structure of "internet addiction teenagers" before they indulge in the internet, and then compare it with the present, which can not prove that brain atrophy is a long-term addiction to the internet.
It may not be the internet that makes the brain shrink, but "addiction"
Internet addicts naturally spend a long time surfing the Internet, so it is easy for people to regard excessive surfing the Internet as the cause of brain atrophy and ignore the other two words of "Internet addiction"-"addiction".
In addition to the prolonged online time, there is a significant difference between internet addicts and normal people, that is, the self-control is weakened. The atrophy of brain regions mentioned in this paper is closely related to self-control [5].
Many studies have found that the brains of drug addicts have similar structural changes [5][6][7]. Although it is still inconclusive whether addiction itself leads to the change of brain structure, correspondingly, whether brain atrophy is caused by surfing the Internet for a long time or addiction itself needs further study.
Having said that, in fact, the most important thing is that the original text on PLoSone is aimed at people with internet addiction, aiming at studying the formation mechanism of internet addiction and its harm to teenagers. There is not enough evidence to generalize the conclusion to normal people. However, netizens should form a good habit of using the Internet, and pay more attention to the computer vision syndrome that may be caused by using computers for a long time [note 1]!
[Note 1] Computer vision syndrome (CVS), also known as VDT syndrome. Its main symptoms are asthenopia, blurred vision, dry eyes, head, neck and shoulder pain. The main reasons for these problems are: the screen is too bright or too dark, the distance between the eyes and the screen is not appropriate, the sitting posture is not appropriate, the number of blinks is reduced when using the computer, and all the vision problems of the computer users themselves. [8]
Note 1] Computer vision syndrome (CVS), also known as VDT syndrome. Its main symptoms are asthenopia, blurred vision, dry eyes, head, neck and shoulder pain. The main reasons for these problems are: the screen is too bright or too dark, the distance between the eyes and the screen is not appropriate, the sitting posture is not appropriate, the number of blinks is reduced when using the computer, and all the vision problems of the computer users themselves. [8]
References:
[1] Lianhe Zaobao? Chinese and American experts: excessive internet access and brain atrophy warn that internet addiction harms teenagers
[2] Kaiyuan, Wang Guihong, Fang Zeng, et al. (20 1 1) The microstructure of adolescents with Internet addiction is abnormal. PLoSone, June 20 1 1 Volume 6, No.6 e20708
[3] edited by Liu Xinmin. Abnormal Psychology. Beijing: China Medical Science and Technology Press, June 2005.
[4] The modification of the diagnostic criteria of Internet addiction proposed by Beard K and Wolff E (200 1). Network psychology and psychology. Behavior 4: 377–383.
[5] ( 1,? 2)? Wilson S, Sayette M, Fiez J (2004) Prefrontal response to drug cues: a neurocognitive analysis. Natural Neuroscience 7: 211–214.
Jiang Shaoai, Wang Xuyi, Hao Wei. Comparative study on gray matter density of heroin addicts [J] China Journal of Drug Dependence, 2006, (05).
Li C, Sinha R (2008) Inhibitory Control and Emotional Stress Regulation: Neuroimaging Evidence of Frontal-Marginal Dysfunction in Psychotropic Addiction. Neuroscience and medicine. Biobehavioral Review 32: 581–597.
[8] Computer vision syndrome
Can surfing the Internet for a long time lead to brain atrophy?