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More Facebook friends linked to bigger brain areas

LONDON: Scientists have found a direct link between the number of "friends" a person has on Facebook and the size of certain brain regions, raising the possibility that using online social networks might change our brains. The four brain areas involved are known to play a role in memory, emotional responses and social interactions. So far, however, it is not possible to say whether having more Facebook connections makes particular parts of the brain larger or whether some people are simply pre-disposed, or "hard-wired," to have more friends. "The exciting question now is whether these structures change over time - this will help us answer the question of whether the Internet is changing our brains," said Ryota Kanai of University College London (UCL), one of the researchers involved in the study. They discovered a strong connection between the number of Facebook friends and the amount of "grey matter" in the amygdala, the right superior temporal sulcus, the left middle temporal gyrus and the right entorhinal cortex. Grey matter is the layer of brain tissue where mental processing occurs. The thickness of grey matter in the amygdala was also linked to the number of real-world friends people had, but the size of the other three regions appeared to be correlated only to online connections. With more than 800 million active users worldwide, Facebook has become a major component of social interaction, especially among the young. (Reuters)