The neural basis underlying impaired attentional control in problematic smartphone users

Jihye Choi,Ji-Won Chun,In Young Choi,Hyun Cho,Jung-Seok Choi,Dai-Jin Kim

doi:10.1038/s41398-021-01246-5

Abstract

As a portable media device that enables ubiquitous access to friends and entertainment, smartphones are inextricably linked with our lives. Although there is growing concern about the detrimental effect of problematic smartphone use on attentional control, the underlying neural mechanisms of impaired attentional control in problematic smartphone users (PSU) has yet to be investigated. Using a modified cognitive conflict task, we examined behavioral performance in the presence of distracting words during functional magnetic resonance imaging in 33 PSU and 33 control participants (CON). Compared with the CON group, the PSU group demonstrated impaired performance that was accompanied by constantly enhanced but not differentiated activation in the frontoparietal regions across all conditions, regardless of distractor saliency. The inferior parietal lobule (IPL) activation in the PSU group, in particular, showed an association with performance deficits in the distractor conditions. Furthermore, the PSU group exhibited decreased functional connectivity of the right IPL with the right superior temporal gyrus of the ventral attention system in the attention-demanding condition relative to the easiest condition, which was associated with the severe dependence on smartphone use. Our findings suggest that greater distractibility in the PSU group during the attentional control task may be associated with inefficient recruitment of the ventral attention network involved in bottom-up attentional processing, as indicated by hyperactivation but less coherence within the network. The present study provides evidence for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the impaired ability to keep attention from being oriented to task-irrelevant stimuli observed in PSU.

Highlights

As portable media devices that enable ubiquitous access to the Internet, smartphones have become pervasive in our lives and transformed our ways of thinking, socializing, and entertaining
Functional connectivity analysis We explored the brain regions that were functionally connected in terms of the condition-dependent activity of the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) using a generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis[26] implemented in the CONN functional connectivity toolbox[24]
There was no brain region showing increased functional connectivity in the problematic smartphone users (PSU) group compared with the control participants (CON) group. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the effect of distractor interference on attentional control in PSU

Summary

Introduction

As portable media devices that enable ubiquitous access to the Internet, smartphones have become pervasive in our lives and transformed our ways of thinking, socializing, and entertaining. In a media-saturated environment, an individual with a smartphone can have immediate and easy access to friends, entertainment, and escapism[1]; the use of a smartphone itself may act as a reward that leads to the risk of the addictive use of smartphones. Smartphone users sometimes express their growing concerns about their distractibility and habitual cognitive function, such as attention, has been well established. Smartphones were shown to be more reinforcing than food[3], and the mere presence[4] and the awareness of the notifications[5] of the smartphones were sufficient to distract their attention and worsen their cognitive performance. It has been reported that frequent multitasking may be associated with bottom-up processing[10] as well as a reduced ability to control attention with increased prefrontal activity[9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion