Internet Search Alters Intra- and Inter-regional Synchronization in the Temporal Gyrus

Mental well-being of children and adolescents during COVID-19: evidence from the Italian context and possible future developments

The article aims to discuss the increased emergence of mental health problems among children and adolescents, as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic.The results of a research study conducted among various professionals, such as psychiatrists and psychologists specialized in childhood and adolescence, are presented. The study, which uses both qualitative and quantitative methods, investigates the main consequences of the physical social distancing measures undertaken by the Italian government during the pandemic. The results are in line with the main evidence highlighted by international research and underline the particularly negative effects of the pandemic emergency on the mental health of minors. It reports how the limitation of intersubjective relationships and the forced digitalization of relationships has triggered or caused the emergence of multiple and varied disorders of the psyche, also linked to the area of reference (e.g., metropolitan, urban o remote areas), the socio-economic and cultural fragility of families, as well as the presence of previous mental issues within them. Finally, the research emphasizes how the understanding and management of the psychic health of these population groups, also from a health organization point of view, will be crucial to address the medium and long-term effects of such emerging issues among younger cohorts.

Connectivity and Integration of Instagram® Use in the Lives of Dental Students and Professionals: A Country-Wide Cross-Sectional Study Using the InstaAA© Questionnaire

Purpose

This study probed towards the impact of Instagram® on the lives of dental students and professionals and how it affects their learning and professional performance.

Patients and Methods

A 24-item copyrighted and validated questionnaire was employed to examine the affinity and aftermath of Instagram® in the lives of dental students using a cross-sectional survey technique. Part I (6 questions) is the first of three sections included information on the participant's sociodemographic traits, Part II (8 questions) - Screened to determine Instagram® use, and Part III (10 questions) - Was based on attitudes regarding Instagram® to assess their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It includes a Likert scale with ten questions. The sample was collected by combining convenience and snowball sampling approaches. The difference in proportion was assessed using frequency and percentage. The Chi Square test of proportion was used to the data to examine and a p value <0.05 was considered as the proportional difference.

Results

The study comprised 461 participants, with 155 (33.6%) men and 306 (66.4%) women, having an average age of 23.13 ± 4.95 years. Among the participants, a significant proportion (119, 25.8%) were dental interns. In terms of Instagram® usage, 167 participants (36.2%) reported spending between 30 minutes and 1 hour on the platform (p<0.01). Approximately 52.5% acknowledged the influence of Instagram® on their dressing, behaviour, and usage of other social media platforms (p<0.01). Moreover, 52.1% experienced common distractions while performing important tasks, and 40.6% reported negative effects on their mental and emotional well-being (p<0.05).

Conclusion

This research concludes by emphasizing the huge influence that Instagram® has on dental workers' life. The results underline the necessity of striking a balance between social media use and academic and personal obligations while also emphasizing the need for knowledge and education about Instagram® features and ramifications.

The involvement of spontaneous brain activity in natural recovery from internet gaming disorder: A resting-state fMRI study

OBJECTIVE

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) can seriously impair an individual's physical and mental health. However, unlike the majority of those suffering from substance addiction, individuals with IGD may recover without any professional intervention. Understanding the brain mechanisms of natural recovery from IGD may provide new insight into how to prevent addiction and implement more targeted interventions.

METHODS

Sixty individuals with IGD were scanned by using a resting-state fMRI to assess brain region changes associated with IGD. After 1 year, 19 individuals with IGD no longer met the IGD criteria and were considered recovered (RE-IGD), 23 individuals still met the IGD criteria (PER-IGD), and 18 individuals left the study. The brain activity in resting state between 19 RE-IGD individuals and 23 PER-IGD individuals was compared by using regional homogeneity (ReHo). Additionally, brain structure and cue-craving functional MRIs were collected to further support the results in the resting-state.

RESULTS

The resting-state fMRI results revealed that activity in brain regions responsible for reward and inhibitory control [including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the precuneus and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)] was decreased in the PER-IGD individuals compared to RE-IGD individuals. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between mean ReHo values in the precuneus and self-reported craving scores for gaming, whether among the PER-IGD individuals or the RE-IGD individuals. Furthermore, we found similar results in that brain structure and cue-craving differences exist between the PER-IGD individuals and RE-IGD individuals, specifically in the brain regions associated with reward processing and inhibitory control (including the DLPFC, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, OFC, precuneus, and superior frontal gyrus).

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that the brain regions responsible for reward processing and inhibitory control are different in PER-IGD individuals, which may have consequences on natural recovery. Our present study provides neuroimaging evidence that spontaneous brain activity may influence natural recovery from IGD.

Association between problematic social media use and memory performance in a sample of Lebanese adults: the mediating effect of anxiety, depression, stress and insomnia

BACKGROUND

Psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia and problematic social media use are able to alter our memories and might have an impact on memory function and retrieval. More studies are needed to better understand the relationship between memory performance and mental health disorders, especially the ones that could be related to problematic social media use. The objective of this study was to evaluate any association between problematic social media use, depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia vs memory performance among a representative sample of Lebanese people.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study, conducted between January and May 2019, enrolled 466 community dwelling participants using a proportionate random sample from all Lebanese governorates. The questionnaire consisted of the following measures: the Memory Awareness Rating Scale (MARS) to assesses views of memory performance, the problematic social media use scale to measure the degree of addiction to social media, the Hamilton depression rating scale and Hamilton anxiety scale to assess depression and anxiety respectively, the Beirut Distress Scale to assess stress and the Lebanese Insomnia sale to assess insomnia. The data analysis was performed using the SPSS software version 25. A linear regression was conducted, taking the memory performance scale as the dependent variable. A mediation analysis was performed to test the effect of problematic social media use on memory performance mediated by depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia.

RESULTS

Higher problematic social media use (Beta = - 0.21) and higher anxiety (Beta = - 0.25) were significantly associated with lower memory performance. The association between problematic social media use and memory performance was partially mediated by anxiety (21.19%) but not depression, stress or insomnia.

CONCLUSION

Concerning problematic social media use, a clear correlation was demonstrated in this study linking it to lower memory performances. Future studies should evaluate the possible mechanisms and methods for effective awareness especially towards the younger generation.

Exploring the Impact of Internet Use on Memory and Attention Processes

The rapid uptake of the internet has provided a new platform for people to engage with almost all aspects of life. As such, it is currently crucial to investigate the relationship between the internet and cognition across contexts and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms driving this. We describe the current understanding of this relationship across the literature and outline the state of knowledge surrounding the potential neurobiological drivers. Through focusing on two key areas of the nascent but growing literature, first the individual- and population-level implications for attention processes and second the neurobiological drivers underpinning internet usage and memory, we describe the implications of the internet for cognition, assess the potential mechanisms linking brain structure to cognition, and elucidate how these influence behaviour. Finally, we identify areas that now require investigation, including (i) the importance of the variation in individual levels of internet usage, (ii) potential individual behavioural implications and emerging population-level effects, and the (iii) interplay between age and the internet–brain relationships across the stages of development.

The "online brain": how the Internet may be changing our cognition

The impact of the Internet across multiple aspects of modern society is clear. However, the influence that it may have on our brain structure and functioning remains a central topic of investigation. Here we draw on recent psychological, psychiatric and neuroimaging findings to examine several key hypotheses on how the Internet may be changing our cognition. Specifically, we explore how unique features of the online world may be influencing: a) attentional capacities, as the constantly evolving stream of online information encourages our divided attention across multiple media sources, at the expense of sustained concentration; b) memory processes, as this vast and ubiquitous source of online information begins to shift the way we retrieve, store, and even value knowledge; and c) social cognition, as the ability for online social settings to resemble and evoke real-world social processes creates a new interplay between the Internet and our social lives, including our self-concepts and self-esteem. Overall, the available evidence indicates that the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in each of these areas of cognition, which may be reflected in changes in the brain. However, an emerging priority for future research is to determine the effects of extensive online media usage on cognitive development in youth, and examine how this may differ from cognitive outcomes and brain impact of uses of Internet in the elderly. We conclude by proposing how Internet research could be integrated into broader research settings to study how this unprecedented new facet of society can affect our cognition and the brain across the life course.

Altered intra- and inter-regional functional connectivity of the visual cortex in individuals with peripheral vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa

This study investigated changes in intra- and inter-regional functional connectivity (FC) in individuals with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) by using regional homogeneity (ReHo) and FC methods. Sixteen RP individuals and 14 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI). A combined ReHo and FC method was conducted to evaluate synchronization of brain activity. Compared with HCs, RP individuals had significantly lower ReHo values in the bilateral lingual gyrus/cerebellum posterior lobe (LGG/CPL). In FC analysis, the RP group showed decreased positive FC relative to the HC group, from bilateral LGG/CPL to bilateral LGG/cuneus (CUN) and to left postcentral gyrus (PosCG). In contrast, the RP group showed increased negative FC relative to the HC group, from bilateral LGG/CPL to bilateral thalamus, and decreased negative FC from bilateral LGG/CPL to right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and to left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Moreover, ReHo values of the bilateral LGG/CPL showed negative correlations with the duration of RP. FC values of the bilateral LGG/CPL-left IPL showed negative correlations with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of the right eye and left eye in RP individuals. Our results reveal reduced synchronicity of neural activity changes in the primary visual area in RP individuals. Moreover, RP individuals showed intrinsic visual network disconnection and reorganization of the retino-thalamocortical pathway and dorsal visual stream, suggesting impaired visuospatial and stereoscopic vision.