Excessive smartphone use in adolescents is associated with reduced frontostriatal connectivity and greater cortisol-related withdrawal symptoms¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2026: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Excessive smartphone users had diminished functional connectivity between the right OFC and NAcc and between the left OFC and the MCC, and withdrawal symptoms were related to greater cortisol concentrations. → Marciano Laura 2021
Evidence¶
Marciano Laura 2021¶
Marciano Laura, Camerini Anne-Linda, Morese Rosalba. (2021). The Developing Brain in the Digital Era: A Scoping Review of Structural and Functional Correlates of Screen Time in Adolescence. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671817
q3 · i? · review · r3
fMRI and cortisol study of 38 15-year-old participants with excessive smartphone use or Internet addiction and an equal number of controls; the review reports damaged PFC-ventral striatum connectivity associated with "impaired top-down executive control ability." No effect size printed.
"excessive smartphone users had diminished functional connectivity between the right OFC and NAcc and between the left OFC and the medial cingulate gyrus (MCC), which are regions related to cognitive control in the PFC and ventral striatum."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Adolescents with Internet addiction show structural and resting-state functional brain alterations, including reduced gray matter density, reduced white matter FA, and decreased connectivity in DMN and CEN
- Internet-addicted adolescents show deficient response inhibition, failing to recruit the frontal-basal ganglia pathway engaged by controls
- Frequent and longer screen-based media use, including Internet-related addictive behaviors, is related to a less efficient cognitive control system in adolescence
- Screen time is not significantly associated with white matter microstructure (FA, MD) in 10-year-olds, while sports participation is positively associated with FA
- Smartphone attachment is associated with impatience and impulsive behavior in young children, per cited literature
- Self-regulation scores correlate with functional coupling between the right striatum and left motor cortex during reactive inhibition, but not frontostriatal coupling during proactive inhibition — related
- Viewing Instagram pictures with many Likes recruits the reward network and reduces cognitive-control activation in adolescents — related
- Frequency of Internet use negatively predicts longitudinal change in gray and white matter volumes and in verbal IQ in early adolescents — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
excessive-smartphone-frontostriatal-cortisol |
title |
Excessive smartphone use in adolescents is associated with reduced frontostriatal connectivity and greater cortisol-related withdrawal symptoms |
description |
Excessive smartphone use in adolescents is associated with reduced frontostriatal connectivity and greater cortisol-related withdrawal symptoms |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2021 |
recheck_by |
2026 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — marciano-laura-2021 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.