Smartphones are our everyday travel companion. Be it for work, in our leisure time or to connect with family and friends they acompany us. However, for some this utility turns into a need. A need such that it could even called addiction. New research from Heildelberg University has shown that smartphone addiction is also correlated to differences in brain structure.

The research involved 48 adults, with ages between 18 to 30 years old, right-handed and no history of previos neurological disease, mental and/or health problems. All participants were asked to complete the Smartphone Addiction Scale, a test developed in 2015 to assess addiction to this technology. The results of the test produced a group of 22 “adicts” and 26 “normal” people, who were subjected to an MRI scan in the search for structural brain differences in the brain.