Chemical Imbalance in Brain May Cause Smartphone Addiction In Young People

DooKey

DooKey

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Researchers in Seoul, South Korea, studied 19 youths who were addicted to their smartphones to try to figure out why this was happening. After running scans with an MRS machine they discovered the addicted youths had abnormal levels of two brain chemicals. Additionally, the addicted youths had higher scores in depression, anxiety and impulsivity. However, I couldn't find mention of whether or not the chemical imbalance was the cause of the addiction or if it was caused by the addiction. Regardless, keep an eye on your kids and their smartphone use.

What they found is enough to make you want to drop the Animal Crossing for a few hours. Compared to the healthy controls, smartphone addicts had higher ratio of two brain chemicals: gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate-glutamine (Glx). GABA is meant to slow down brain signals while Glx causes neurons to get excited.
 
I didn't even read the article because a study of only 19 people regarding an issue that effects nearly billions isn't worth the time. When it's a rare AF disease, yeah 19 participants makes sense. What has happened to our understanding of the scientific method if people think 19 smartphone addicts can represent the world?
 
DedEmbryonicCe11 said:
I didn't even read the article because a study of only 19 people regarding an issue that effects nearly billions isn't worth the time. When it's a rare AF disease, yeah 19 participants makes sense. What has happened to our understanding of the scientific method if people think 19 smartphone addicts can represent the world?
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Thousands of research articles by major universities only involve a small number of people. Having 19 people in the study does not make it invalid.
 
I too scratched my head a bit when they said 19 students. Representative sample much? I am sure they represented something. Maybe they all picked their noses, and had in-grown toe nails too?
 
TorryHolt81 said:
Thousands of research articles by major universities only involve a small number of people. Having 19 people in the study does not make it invalid.
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It doesn't make it valid either, does it? I've read plenty of research articles myself because my mother was blinded by an illness that has so far effected roughly 20 other people in the entire US medical history. In her case, that would make perfect sense to study her and the others. Please explain how it's possible the researchers made sure the 19 participants in this study reflect the other hundreds of millions of smarthphone addicts.
 
Maybe they only got 19 because they were too busy with their smartphones to get more?
Or maybe there were only 19 students who realized there was a study as the rest were too busy playing Candy Crush?

Ahhh, the wonder of it all.
 
Wouldn't that just be their brains reacting to the given stimuli? If you're doing something that you mildly enjoy, I'm sure your brain reacts with excitement (at least to some degree) and then maybe it chills back out using the other chemical. Repeat or prolong that cycle for a bit, and I'm sure it's expected behavior for increases in those chemicals. Remove the stimuli, and they probably settle back to normal. If it's not some permanent shift in levels, I don't see how this is surprising.
 
DedEmbryonicCe11 said:
It doesn't make it valid either, does it?
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You're correct in the sense that 1 study doesn't prove anything. There now needs to be multiple studies conducted by 3rd parties to verify the results. Kinda like how 1 random BS story on how climate change is fake doesn't prove anything when hundreds of others that have been fact checked by other parties proves the opposite. Everything needs to be peer reviewed and conducted in other independent labs.
 
mr_zen256 said:
In today's news. Human brains react to certain stimuli..
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It is far more complicated as what you mention here the human brain evolves until your are about 21 years and between that certain things can have a good or bad impact on how well your brain develops.

In older people the impact might be not as big as on a brain that is still not reached later stages of development....
 
I don't find my smartphone entertaining enough.
Too small to watch porn. Too slow to play games.
So WTF else is there to do?
 
oh yeah. I don't do that. socializing on the phone is even more nonproductive than watching porn.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I don't have to be productive. However, rubbing one out while watching big titties bouncing on a 5" screen is very productive. Can't think of a better way to spend a 2 floor elevator ride.
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That must be one slow ass elevator.... or you're a 2 pump chump.
 
From TFP linked to by TFA, they also included 19 controls, so the study size was 38. TPA also mentions Internet addiction as one of the selection criteria. For a preliminary study used to justify a larger study, seems fine. Wonder if the two brain chemicals in question are common to ALL addictions or unique to Internet/smartphone addiction?
 
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