The Changing Brains May Be ‘Internet’

Brain scans show a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain parts of their brain.
It's not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers.
The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.
The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London.
Researchers counted the number of Facebook friends each volunteer had, as well as assessing the size of their network of real friends.

A strong link was found between the number of Facebook friends a person had and the amount of grey matter in certain parts of their brain.
The study also showed that the number of Facebook friends a person was in touch with was reflected in the number of "real-world" friends.
"We have found some interesting brain regions that seem to link to the number of friends we have - both 'real' and 'virtual'," said Dr Ryota Kanai, one of the researchers from University College London.
"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."
One region involved is the amygdala, which is associated with memory and emotional responses.
Previous research has shown a link between the volume of grey matter in the amygdala and the size and complexity of real world social networks. Grey matter is the brain tissue where mental processing takes place.
Three other areas of the brain were linked with the size of someone's online social network but not their tally of real-world friends.