TEENS who spend lots of time on social media have complained of feeling like they can’t pay attention to more important things like homework or time with loved ones.

A new study has possibly captured that objectively, finding that for teens diagnosed with internet addiction, signaling between brain regions important for controlling attention, working memory and more was disrupted.

The findings are from a review, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Mental Health, of 12 neuroimaging studies of a few hundred adolescents ages 10 to 19 between 2013 and 2022.

“The behavioral addiction brought on by excessive internet use has become a rising source of concern since the last decade,” the authors wrote in the study.

Excessive internet use can distract an adolescent from both responsibilities and other activities they enjoy, experts said.

The criteria for clinical diagnosis of internet addiction in the included studies were “one’s persistent preoccupation with the internet, withdrawal symptoms when away from the internet, and sacrificing relationships for time to spend on the internet over an extended period of time (e.g., 12 months),” said Max Chang, first author of the study and outreach case manager at the nonprofit Peninsula Family Service in San Francisco, the United States. “The pattern of behavior results in significant impairment or distress in the individual’s life.”

Given the changing state of adolescent brains compared with adults, the authors felt understanding the impacts of internet addiction on the teenage participants’ brains was vital.

When participants clinically diagnosed with internet addiction engaged in activities governed by the brain’s executive function network — behaviors requiring attention, planning, decision-making and impulse control — those brain regions showed substantial disruption in their ability to work together, compared to those in peers without internet addiction. The authors think such signaling changes could suggest these behaviors can become more difficult to perform, potentially influencing development and well-being.

“Overall, the mechanisms underlying internet addiction are more like an emerging pattern than a finished picture,” Chang said. “A lot of causality between what happens in the brain and what is displayed through behavior is still being understood. As of now, observation using biomarkers such as functional connectivity helps bridge that gap.”

(SD-Agencies)