Web addiction and brain change

@ Layback Bear

Yes, but it's a moot point. The trouble is, i think, that they were really in a no-win situation.
Not publish it and the criticism will come later why they did not publish it earlier so that other researchers have a lead and could start a similar project.
Publish it and the criticism will come that it is not a representative number of persons scanned (mind you, those people must probably first consent to being scanned and since they were teenagers the parents must consent).
It is coming to the point where scientific researchers (also?) need an army of lawyers.
Still i think it was worded very, very carefully with lots of leeway.

I am addicted to breathing!

Not only childish but also very dumb remarks.

It is well known that taxi drivers have changes in their brains due to the amount of memory devoted to 'the knowledge' and also that professional musicians similarly have changes in their brains so it comes as no surprise that if you concentrate on one particular activity then changes are likely. Whether one can call excessive use an addiction is debatable but we (some) do seem overly fond of our mobiles and/or computers to the extent that we are becoming dependent upon them. Try doing without them for a week to determine what they mean to you.

True about the musicians. On a brain scan it can even be seen that someone is a musican, without much of a doubt.

About mobiles: i see it too often........ guy and girl coming into a café or pub, sitting down, then each takes out the mobile and that's it as far as any contact between them goes. It could be though that they are talking to each other via the mobiles.

As I understand things the report was written based on a small group of 14-21 year olds, whose brains were still very much developing, and presumably needed those MRI scans for 'other reasons' which might suggest a reason, other than computer use, which may have been grounds to believe the scan results may have been abnormal anyway.

One mustn't forget that the Radiographers making those MRI scans work all day with computer imaging, but are also in close proximity to enormous magnetic fields; it crossed my mind that their interpretations of the scans could therefore be impaired - based upon their own suppositions...

Qdos said:

As I understand things the report was written based on a small group of 14-21 year olds, whose brains were still very much developing, and presumably needed those MRI scans for 'other reasons' which might suggest a reason, other than computer use, which may have been grounds to believe the scan results may have been abnormal anyway.

One mustn't forget that the Radiographers making those MRI scans work all day with computer imaging, but are also in close proximity to enormous magnetic fields; it crossed my mind that their interpretations of the scans could therefore be impaired - based upon their own suppositions...

That could be the case but i doubt it. The "subjects" would have been chosen very carefully. Remember too, the authors' reputation would be at stake if ....etc. In that world you can shove it if you publish garbage.
The point is that the scans show the same phenomenon as the scans of drug addicts. My question marks would be whether cause and effect are not mixed up. But for that you'd have to take people who do not show the pattern on the scan (i.e. healthy people) and then get them addicted to drugs and scan again. Obviously that's out of the question. So it could be that the difference in the brain from what is found normally is the cause and not the effect of becoming (more easily) addicted to whatever. It is curious that the same pattern shows up for any addiction and that addiction can only be treated with great difficulty. It could be due to wrong "wiring" and try and change that!

I call it "a lust for knowledge," but it depends what sites you're on, I suppose...