A recent study by Chinese experts has found that internet addiction affects your brain in the much the same way that cocaine, and other drugs, does.

Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan performed brain scans on 35 men and women, all between the ages of 14 and 21. The tests examined the white matter in the brain, the part that contains nerve fibres.

Overall, our findings indicate that IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder) has abnormal white matter integrity in brain regions involving emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control.

The scans were conducted along a series of questions such as, “Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet use?” It was found that of the group 17 were addicts.

A similar study was undertaken by Professor Gunter Schumann, chair of biological psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London, who was testing for video game addiction.

For the first time two studies show changes in the neuronal connections between brain areas as well as changes in brain function in people who are frequently using the internet or video games.

The studies have been described as “ground-breaking” by other experts in the field. It’s the first time that there is scientific backing supporting clinician’s suspicions that behavioural addictions affect the brain in the same way that substance addiction does.

Further testing is required to confirm the findings which could lead to new treatments for patients suffering from addiction.

[Source: BBC]