Study Shows Connection Between Brain Configuration and Social Networks

[The Straight Story]

Study Shows Connection Between Brain Configuration and Social Networks

Using MRIs to document and study the brains of 125 university students in London, researchers have linked the size of specific areas of the brain to the size of a person's virtual and real social networks.

In the article published Oct. 21 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers claim that “findings demonstrate that the size of an individual's online social network is closely linked to focal brain structure implicated in social cognition."
?The regions showing these changes, according to BBC, are the areas of the brain handling memory, social interaction and autism.

One of the researchers involved in the study, Ryota Kanai of the University College of London, told Reuters, “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."

Professor Geraint Rees, also from UCL, told the BBC that only scant information about how the brain is impacted by social networks is understood, which has led to the belief that the Internet is not good for us.

http://www.afro.com/sections/news/Health/story.htm?storyid=72852

[seabeyond]

1. do it, adn do it fast. cause i have my tripidations of the net for the young brain

seeing the effects it has caused me and i wonder about this great big huge ass experiment without any fore knowledge.

i keep kids off the social networks. when they leave the house, they are on their own. they will be older, but still young. we talk about it a lot at home so kids are aware of possible effect. but they are getting old, so won't be long before they are on their own.

[iris27]

2. Makes sense. I'm pretty much of a hermit IRL - possible undiagnosed

Aspergers - at the very least I have major issues meeting new people, making idle chitchat, and calling anyone on the phone.

The only "social media" I use is a tiny Facebook account that I log into maybe once a month. On it, I am friends with folks from my last job, because none of them are on LinkedIn. I basically only have it because in the pre-FB days, two of my former bosses retired or changed jobs and have since changed contact info, so I have no way to reach them or use them as reference. Didn't want that to happen again.

I'm pretty sure the causation is all one-way here though, with socially impaired individuals deliberately or unintentionally forming smaller networks because of their issues.

[TrogL]

3. How in hell did this pass peer review?

It's got a logical fallacy in it you could fly a truck through. Correlation is not causation. Brain structure is determined primarily by genetics. Auties and Aspies are born, not made.

What about people who have a small RL social circle and vast social network?

[Jim Lane]

5. The researchers expressly disavowed the conclusion you say is unfounded.

I agree with you that the evidence of correlation wouldn't prove causation. There's no claim to the contrary, though. From the linked article:

“Our study…cannot determine whether the relationship between brain structure and social network participation arise over time...or whether individuals with a specific brain structure are predisposed to acquire more friends than others,” researchers wrote.

[saras]

4. If you use part of your brain, it develops. If you don't, it doesn't.

The gross shape of your brain is genetically determined. The specifics vary widely. People exposed to multiple languages throughout infancy and youth have different connections between neurons, and more neurons in some areas relating to language, than people without this exposure. The same is true for music, mathematics, face recognition, and many other abilities linked to specific brain regions.

It make sense, in an obvious crude way, that someone who habitually keeps track of hundreds of people will have development in the parts of their mind that do social tasks than someone with three or four close friends and few acquaintances or interactions with strangers. Duh.

The statement that there is an "area of the brain handling...autism" is simply a sloppy misstatement. Autistic spectrum "disorders" are a wide range of variations in the size, shape, wiring, and function of certain parts of the brain involved in some social skills. There isn't a gene for autism, there are hundreds of genes that contribute in complicated and obscure ways.

The important lesson to take from it, I think, is that with long-term effort, it is possible to substantially change the brain function one was 'born' with, for better or worse.