ArticleDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2022
Longitudinal associations between social media use, mental well-being and structural brain development across adolescence.
Article in Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause show shared and distinct structural changes across the lifespan.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Conceptualizing age-appropriate social media to support children's digital futures.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2026Review
- Social media use and early adolescent brain structure: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report.Pediatrics · 2026Review
- The role of sensory experience in the maturation of prefrontal cortical circuits.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- New Trends and Challenges in Academic Research on Adolescent Growth and Development.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Mental well-being in adolescence and eight years of follow-up for mental illness, risky behaviours, and mortality in 67,945 15-19-year-olds: a prospective cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2025Article
- Social media use, gaming and quality of life among adolescents in Norway: results from the Young-HUNT study.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Article
- Review
- The Cognitive Cost of AI: How AI Anxiety and Attitudes Influence Decision Fatigue in Daily Technology Use.Annals of neurosciences · 2025Article
- Role of Prefrontal Cortex Circuitry in Maintaining Social Homeostasis.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- The Emotional Reinforcement Mechanism of and Phased Intervention Strategies for Social Media Addiction.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Problematic Media Use and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents: The Role of Age and Gender.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Interactive effects of social media use and puberty on resting-state cortical activity and mental health symptoms.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Development of Self-Concept in Childhood and Adolescence: How Neuroscience Can Inform Theory and Vice Versa.Human development · 2024Article
- Youths' sensitivity to social media feedback: A computational account.Science advances · 2024Article
- Mood variability during adolescent development and its relation to sleep and brain development.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Neural correlates of depression-related smartphone language use in adolescents.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of Structural and Functional MRI Studies Investigating Social Networking Site Use.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Understanding Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Narrative Review and Clinical Recommendations.Brain sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Youth of today grow up in a digital social world but the effects on well-being and brain development remain debated. This study tracked longitudinal associations between structural brain development, social media use and mental well-being. The study demonstrated two pathways of heterogeneity in brain development. First, adolescents who used social media more than their peers showed higher baseline cortical thickness in lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial PFC; and stronger decreases in the lateral PFC and temporal parietal junction. In contrast, adolescents with lower mental well-being showed lower baseline levels of surface area in the medial PFC and posterior superior temporal sulcus relative to their peers. Whereas the associations between structural brain development and well-being remained significant after correction for multiple testing, the results for social media use did not survive FDR correction. These findings demonstrate that although social media use and mental well-being were both associated with differential trajectories of brain development, the associations we report are distinct. These results show a nuanced perspective on the presumed relations between social media use and well-being and provide a starting point to further examine neural mechanisms that could explain which adolescents thrive by social media and which might be harmed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.