Brain and Smartphone Addiction: A Systematic Review

Table 1

Details of the reviewed papers.

S. No.	Author	Year	Tools/techniques	Sample size	Result	Insight	Contribution
1	Li et al.	2022	Smartphone Addiction Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory -State Scale, Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, and Beck’s Depression Scale-II	503 students	The prefrontal cortex (PFC) and temporal areas show altered brain activity and functional connectivity patterns in the context of an addiction to smartphones, which significantly impacts one’s ability to think creatively.	The detrimental effects of smartphone addiction on creative cognition were seen in the PFC and temporal regions’ brain activity and functional connection patterns.	This discovery has promising ramifications for exposing the harmful impacts of smartphone addiction on people’s higher-order cognitive processes.
2	Zou et al.	2022	Self-rating questionnaire for adolescents, PMPU, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, MRI, and fMRI	The baseline MRI scan was completed by 268 students, and the criterion of image preprocessing included 238 college students	The intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) analysis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left occipital gyrus (OcG), right orbital gyrus (OrG), left OcG and left parahippocampal gyrus (PhG), and right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) was higher in the group of college students with problematic mobile phone use than in the group without problematic mobile phone use.	This study sheds light on the neurological processes that underlie the association between depressed symptoms and excessive mobile phone use.	The article adds to the expanding corpus of research on the connection between mental health, brain function, and technology use.
3	Zou et al.	2021	MRI, PMPU, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9	266 students	The anterior cingulate gyrus and right fusiform gyrus both had lower grey matter volume (GMV) as a result of smartphone use. In the corpus callosum body, fractional anisotropy (FA) and PMPU have an inverse relationship.	The research sheds light on neurobiological mechanisms at play to comprehend how the anterior cingulate gyrus, which is engaged in emotional and cognitive functions, may either exacerbate or lessen the onset of depression symptoms when used in conjunction with problematic mobile phone use.	The study adds to the body of research on the connection between technology usage, brain function, and mental health by focusing on the anterior cingulate gyrus, a crucial brain area, and its moderating role.
4	Cho et al.	2021	Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale, Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), Brief Self-Control Scale, Korean-Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale, and Structural MRI Acquisition	87 adolescents	Unlike other brainstem substructures, the volume of the superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) was drastically reduced. Furthermore, the degree of problematic smartphone use (PSU) is related to a decrease in SCP volume.	The study establishes a link between the observed structural changes and problematic smartphone use, suggesting that excessive use of smartphones may contribute to alterations in the anatomy of this brainstem substructure.	The study sheds light on the possible neurobiological causes of PSU in adolescents by detecting structural alterations in a particular brainstem substructure, which advances our knowledge of the consequences of problematic smartphone usage.
5	Lee et al.	2019	Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS) test, Internet Addiction Test and The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale version 11, BDI, Beck’s Anxiety Inventory, and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT)	39 problematic smartphone users and 49 male and female users under normal control	In the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), smartphone users displayed lower GMV than nonusers.	The main finding of the study is that those with problematic smartphone use had anomalies in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex related to grey matter. This demonstrates the connection between structural alterations in this brain region and heavy smartphone use.	By detecting certain structural changes in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, the research advances our knowledge of problematic smartphone usage. This data might improve our understanding of the neurological processes that underlie PSU.
6	Chun et al.	2018	Korean SAPS for Youth, the K-Scale, BDI, Beck’s Anxiety Inventory, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Korean (4th edition), and Functional and Structural MRI	38 adolescents who used their smartphones excessively and 42 healthy controls	Researchers discovered that teenagers who used smartphones excessively had reduced functional connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex, the middle cingulate cortex, and the nucleus accumbens in a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study that used ROI to ROI analysis.	This study offers insight into how neural communication between the frontal cortex and striatum may be affected in individuals exhibiting problematic smartphone use.	The research adds to our understanding of the neural underpinnings of smartphone use, particularly in the adolescent population. Focusing on frontostriatal connectivity provides valuable information about the brain’s role in the development and maintenance of problematic smartphone use.
7	Chun et al.	2017	SAPS, Behavioral Inhibition Scale and Behavioral Activation Scale, Facial Emotion Discrimination, and Image acquisition through fMRI and Structural MRI	Heavy smartphone users (25) and normal control users (27)	When an angry visage and an emotional transition were displayed, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) of compulsive smartphone users had more neuronal inactivation than the control group.	As to the study, the neural mechanisms involved in interpreting facial emotions may be affected in those who engage in problematic smartphone use.	The research contributes to understanding the neural correlates of excessive smartphone use, emphasizing the role of altered brain activity during facial emotion processing. This information may aid in identifying potential factors contributing to problematic smartphone use.