How your smartphone could be changing the way your brain works

Smartphones are changing how our brains register touch, according to a study published in Current Biology.

Researches used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity in 37 volunteers, 26 of whom were smartphone users and 11 of whom used older mobile phones.

They found an increase in the use of touch-screens can make the brain more sensitive to our fingertips being touched.

Smartphone users had higher brain activity measurements in response to touch on their thumb, index and middle fingers. This increased in those who used their smartphones more.

"I was really surprised by the scale of the changes introduced by the use of smartphones," said the University of Zurich's Arko Ghosh, one of the study's authors.

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