Touching a display changes the brain: this is how technology changes us | Video

The relationship between brain and technology is increasingly talked about, from Samsung that designs the chips of the future based on the human brain and projects like Neuralink that aim to make it smarter with hundreds of electrodes. Staying in the present though, have you ever thought that touching a display could structurally change our brain? It is one of the ways in which the relationship with technology “modifies us” but, however unprecedented it may seem, it is not an absolute novelty.

The process is similar to what happens for those who play musical instruments, who have a cortical space assigned to the tactile receptors influenced by the frequency of use of the hand. Similarly, a study showed that repetitive use of the touchscreen reshapes the somatosensory processing in the fingertips, and it is a fact that concerns us all, if we consider that the average American user touches a display about 2,176 times a day.

However, such a change may not be permanent, since it also changes in short periods of time – we also speak of days – depending on the use of the device. One of the aspects to be investigated remains whether this cortical expansion occurs at the expense of other motor coordination skills.

As the analogy with musicians suggests, the issue is actually broader because it does not only concern digital but man’s relationship with technology in a broad sense: there are several theories that link our cognitive abilities with the objects we interact with. The human being – say the scholars – can be defined as a technological being for this very reason.

And so the invention of the wheel has not only changed the way we transport things but also our mind, and indeed London taxi drivers have a super hippocampus. One study found that learning the map of London’s 25,000 streets caused structural changes in their brain and memory function: after years of studying urban topography they have more gray matter in the brain region involved in spatial navigation and memory than non taxi drivers, although it remains to be seen whether it depends on learning efficiency or a genetic predisposition.

The bottom line is that every time we deal with technology we learn something, the tools we interact with change us: it all depends on the choice of things to be exposed to. Today one of the main tools we are dealing with is the web, and the question is what changes are involved.

The advent of electronic tools such as smartphones, tablets and PCs has revolutionized daily habits, this goes without saying. According to Ofcom data, a British communications agency, about 95% of people aged between 16 and 24 have a smartphone and check it on average every 12 minutes; 20% of adults spend more than 40 hours a week online.

Digital media have become central aspects of our modern life, and According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, there are more SIM cards on the planet today than people. At the end of 2021 the former had exceeded the threshold of 8.2 billion units, while the inhabitants of the Earth amounted to 7.9 billion people; it is estimated that there will be 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2027.

If we ask ourselves what the impact of these media is on the brain areas involved in the processes of attention, language and cognitive performance, the answer does not seem completely univocal. On one side various researches support the hypothesis that the intensive use of technological tools is related to a deficit in working memorywhile other authors say that digital media can produce positive or negative results on the brain depending on the use made of it.

It seems that the effect is different according to age, and indeed WHO has issued strict guidelines on the time children should spend in front of a screen. The basis lies in the observation, by any scientific literature, that an intensive use of digital devices leads to a reduction in the capacity of working memory, but also psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and sleep disorders, as well as learning problems and difficulties. comprehension of the text while reading on the screens.

Instead, reading complex stories in a printed book would promote a better memory of the story, of the details and the connection between events with respect to reading the same text on a display, because it changes the way in which associations of facts are made with spatial signals and other sensory signals, such as the position of a page in a book; it seems that even the smell of the book helps to increase the memory.

Going to the other extreme, game-based digital training programs could foster cognition in older adults. Computer training is a possible tool for training the brain in people over 65, and brain training programs can help promote healthy cognitive aging.

Electronic devices can also be used to directly stimulate the human brain, and research into BMI brain / machine interfaces has shown that robotic prostheses are incorporated into the somatosensory representation of the brainso our sense of self can be altered by electronic technologies to incorporate external devices.

Psychotherapy can also benefit from digital and in particular the network, so some studies have found that web-based interventions can have the same antidepressant efficacy as face-to-face meetings. VR technology is also becoming an important tool in mental health researchbecause it can bring patients into immersive and interactive virtual worlds fully controlled by the researcher or doctor, highly customizable for the patient.

In conclusion, the brain changes depending on how we make it work: It is possible that the intensive use of digital media changes the human brain due to its plasticity, but it would probably be reductive to relegate the definition of the complex interaction between man and machine to the measurement of the time spent in front of the screen.

As recent interventions explain, in addition to the time spent in front of the display it also counts what is done in front of the screen and what kind of cognitive interaction is required during this activity.

Certainly, like all technological tools and since we use them a lot, digital media have an impact on human psychological well-being and cognitive performance, but technology does not “happen” to people: Individuals can shape the experiences they have with technologies, so it will be important in the future to focus on an active and conscious way of using them to improve their lives and connect with others.

In this regard, given that a lot of time online is spent on the smartphone, there are features that allow you to see how much time you spend with the screen active and how. On the iPhone, for example, it is a system function that is located next to the home screen, while Android smartphones have sections, even if a little more hidden, dedicated to digital well-being.

If what you discover with these tools does not excite you, you could think of intervening by exploiting (also) the help of technology: there are apps designed to limit the use of social networks that set timers and silence notifications in given time intervals to improve the level of concentration avoiding distractions. One of these for example is Forest, which makes you “plant a tree” at the start of work and you have to stay in the app to keep it alive. The goal is to grow a virtual forest with the minutes spent focusing away from the display.

The images are taken from 123RF

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