ArticleScientific reports2025
Naturalistic fNIRS assessment reveals decline in executive function and altered prefrontal activation following social media use in college students.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Person, Affective, Cognitive, and Executive Dimensions Associated with Problematic Social Media Use, Internet Gaming Disorder, and Their Co-Occurrence in Young Adults.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging in Addiction: Principles of Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy and Its Emerging Role in De-addiction: A Narrative Review.Annals of neurosciences · 2026Review
- Effects of Social Media Use on Brain Dynamics in Young Male Adults: Multistage Concurrent Electroencephalography-Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Internet addiction and mind-wandering in Chinese college students: chain mediation roles of physical activity and self-control.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The binge scrolling scale measures excessive scrolling through a validated three-factor structure.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
As of 2023, 69% of adults and 81% of teens in the U.S. use social media regularly. This study investigates the immediate impact of social media consumption on executive functioning (EF) and emotion in college students using a wearable, naturalistic functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. Twenty participants completed EF tasks and self-report questionnaires both before and after a brief social media exposure. Over half (55%) met criteria for social media addiction, with an average Instagram usage of five hours per week. Behaviorally, social media exposure led to reduced accuracy in EF tasks, including n-back and Go/No-Go paradigms. Neurally, increased medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation suggested greater cognitive effort and performance monitoring, while decreased dorsolateral (dlPFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) activation reflected impairments in working memory and inhibition. Reduced inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) activity was also linked to difficulties suppressing motor responses. Emotional changes were modest, with the control group reporting slightly lower happiness post-intervention. These findings demonstrate the cognitive cost of social media use and underscore the potential of wearable fNIRS for real-world brain monitoring. This approach may inform future interventions and support precision mental health strategies targeting digital behavior.
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