The excessive use of digital technology especially affects young people.

Attention and emotional and social intelligence can be altered by excessive digital technology use.

Later in life, technology can be associated with enhanced decision-making, reasoning, and visual processing.

This happened to me a few days ago. I am talking to a Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) on the phone about a trip we were planning. She seemed fragmented, texting her parents while speaking with me, and crafting decorations for a party for 20 people that she was giving in a few hours.

My gosh! How could she keep it going? The answer apparently is that she is young, a Gen Z. Her brain can’t do anything else.

This is why. Frequent use of digital technologies (smartphones, computers, video games, and ubiquitous online interfaces) can have profound effects on the human brain (Small et. al., 2020). From this perspective, the relevance of technology lies in how it engages neural circuits, exhausts or enhances cognitive systems, and potentially restructures brain development across the lifespan.

Attention and Technology Use

One of the most striking neuropsychological issues raised in this article relates to the relationship between screen time and attentional control. The authors summarize evidence that extensive digital media use correlates with heightened symptoms akin to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including distractibility and impaired sustained attention. This finding aligns with what we know about the executive control network (a constellation of frontal and parietal regions) responsible for attentional control, task switching, and cognitive inhibition.

To explain, when individuals constantly shift attention among apps, notifications, and multimedia stimuli, they effectively train the brain to fragment attention. Over time, this can reinforce neural pathways that favor rapid switching over sustained attention.

Cognitive neuroscience indicates that the brain adapts to environmental demands, and in this case, it may be adjusting in ways that favor rapid reactivity over sustained focus. From a neuropsychological standpoint, such revisions have implications for learning, problem-solving, and emotional regulation.

Emotional Intelligence, Social Cognition, and Digital Engagement

Beyond attention, the article highlights potential declines in emotional and social intelligence, particularly in young screen users. Neuropsychologists study constructs like theory of mind, facial emotion recognition, and social cue processing as emergent properties of complex neural circuits (the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and temporo-parietal junction).

When children and adolescents spend disproportionate time in the digital world at the expense of face-to-face interactions, they lose crucial experiences that support specific circuits. Research cited by the article indicates that reduced screen exposure improved children’s ability to interpret emotional and social cues—a neurobehavioral outcome with real-world implications.

From a neuropsychological view, this suggests that early experience shapes development not only structurally but functionally. If social processing networks are understimulated in early childhood due to the digital replacement of in-person interaction, the consequences may include altered neural trajectories that persist into adulthood.

Compulsive Use, Neural Reward Pathways, and Technology

The review also tackles problematic technology use, framing it within the concept of addiction. Neuropsychology has extensively documented how repeated engagement with rewarding stimuli, whether substances or behaviors, modulates the brain’s reward circuitry, principally through dopaminergic pathways between the ventral tegmental area (a midbrain structure associated with pleasure and dopaminergic neurons) and the nucleus accumbens (a pleasure center).

While “internet addiction” is not yet codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authors describe characteristics that align with addictive behaviors: preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, and functional impairment. This points to altered reward sensitivity and impulse control, two domains critical to adaptive decision-making and self-regulation.

The potential for technology to hijack reward systems through likes, notifications, and endless novelty suggests a reconfiguration of neural motivation networks that resemble other compulsive behaviors. Here, neuropsychology helps frame technology not just as a tool but as a stimulus environment that interacts with brain systems governing reinforcement and habit formation.

Cognitive Enhancement

Not all findings point to harm. Notably, the authors cite neuroimaging research indicating that internet searching activates brain regions associated with decision-making, reasoning, and visual processing, particularly in older adults. This implies that digital engagement can serve as a form of mental exercise, increasing neural activity and potentially strengthening integrative cognitive functions.

This aligns with cognitive reserve, the idea that engaging stimulating tasks can build resilience against age-related cognitive decline. Skills such as problem-solving, multitasking, and memory are not static; they are products of ongoing engagement with complex environments. Thus, certain kinds of digital use may strengthen neural networks rather than weaken them.

What’s neuropsychologically compelling here is the bidirectionality of technology’s effects: The same digital tools that can undermine attention and social cognition might also fortify other cognitive domains through intentional practice, especially later in life.

Sleep, Brain Health, and Means of Intervention

Another important dimension the article discusses is sleep disruption caused by screen exposure, particularly by blue light and circadian interference. Sleep is fundamental to memory consolidation, emotional regulation, and neural homeostasis, all of which are of intense interest in neuropsychology. Disrupted sleep impairs prefrontal function, weakens executive control, and degrades memory performance, which can create a vicious cycle when combined with heavy technology use.

Reading “Brain health consequences of digital technology use” through the lens of neuropsychology reinforces that digital engagement is neither inherently benign nor uniformly harmful. Instead, its impact depends on a multitude of subtleties, including how attentional systems adapt, social cognition develops (or degrades), reward pathways are modulated, and, finally, how sleep and cognition are affected.

Small GW, Lee J, Kaufman A, et al. Brain health consequences of digital technology use. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. 2020 Jun;22(2):179–187. DOI: 10.31887/dcns.2020.22.2/gsmall. PMID: 32699518; PMCID: PMC7366948.

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