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The Teen Brain Likes Social Media 'Likes'

''Social media "likes" appear to have a powerful effect on the teen brain, new research suggests.

Getting a large number of likes on their own photos or the photos of their peers activated the same brain circuits turned on by such things as eating chocolate or winning money, the study found.

"When the teens saw their own photos with a large number of likes, we saw activity across a wide variety of regions in the brain," said study lead author Lauren Sherman, a researcher in the University of California, Los Angeles' Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.

The study included 32 teens, 13 to 18 years old, looking at social media. They had functional MRI (fMRI) scans while looking at photos and the number of likes the photos received. Each of the teens submitted 40 of the photos they were shown while undergoing fMRI. In reality, the researchers controlled the number of likes each photo received, but this was not revealed to the teens.

During the test, one especially active region was a part of the brain's reward circuitry, which is believed to be particularly sensitive during adolescence, Sherman explained...''

by HealthDay