Touchscreen smartphones are changing the way user's fingers and brains work together, according to a new study.
The scientists involved in the study used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity in 37 volunteers while they were using their cell phones. Of those studied, 26 people were using smartphones and 11 were using "old-fashioned" mobile phones, the BBC reported.
Electrodes were placed on the user's head to read the electrical messages sent back and forth from the brain to the hands while they were using their phone, showing that smartphone users had more brain activity.
"I was really surprised by the scale of the changes introduced by the use of smartphones," study author Arko Ghosh, from the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich, told BBC.
The results show that the brain is adaptable to the individual experiences of a person.
In violinists the part of the brain that represents the fingers that play the instrument is larger than in non-musicians. In the same way, the study shows that smartphones are sculpting their users brains as well, reported BBC.
The study was published in the journal Current Biology on Dec. 23.
