Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Decision Neuroscience, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2019 May 17;14(4):367-379. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsz024.
Youth around the world are increasingly dependent on social media and mobile smartphones. This phenomenon has generated considerable speculation regarding the impacts of extensive technology engagement on cognitive development and how these habits might be 'rewiring' the brains of those growing up in a heavily digital era. In an initial study conducted with healthy young adults, we utilized behavioral and self-report measures to demonstrate associations between smartphone usage habits (assessed both subjectively and objectively) and individual differences in intertemporal preference and reward sensitivity. In a follow-up neuroimaging study, we used probabilistic tractography of diffusion-weighted images to determine how these individual difference characteristics might relate to variation in white matter connectivity, focusing on two dissociable pathways-one connecting the ventral striatum (vSTR) with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the other connecting the vSTR with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Regression analyses revealed opposing patterns of association, with stronger vSTR-vmPFC connectivity corresponding to increased mobile technology engagement but stronger vSTR-dlPFC connectivity corresponding to decreased engagement. Taken together, the results of these two studies provide important foundational evidence for both neural and cognitive factors that can be linked to how individuals engage with mobile technology.
全世界的年轻人越来越依赖社交媒体和智能手机。这种现象引发了人们对于广泛的技术使用对认知发展的影响的大量猜测，以及这些习惯如何在一个高度数字化的时代“重塑”那些成长中的人的大脑。在一项针对健康年轻成年人的初步研究中，我们利用行为和自我报告测量来证明智能手机使用习惯（通过主观和客观评估）与跨期偏好和奖励敏感性的个体差异之间的关联。在后续的神经影像学研究中，我们使用扩散加权图像的概率追踪来确定这些个体差异特征如何与白质连接的变化相关，重点关注两个可分离的途径——一个连接腹侧纹状体（vSTR）与腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC），另一个连接 vSTR 与背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）。回归分析显示出相反的关联模式，与移动技术使用增加相对应的是 vSTR-vmPFC 连接增强，而与移动技术使用减少相对应的是 vSTR-dlPFC 连接增强。总之，这两项研究的结果为与个体使用移动技术相关的神经和认知因素提供了重要的基础证据。
