Texting can change rhythm of your brain

Texting can change your brain waves, according to a new study that found a unique “texting rhy-thm” in people who used their smartphone to text message.

People communicate increasingly via text messaging, though little is known of the neurological effects of smartphone use, researchers said.

To find out more about how our brains work during textual communication using smartphones, researchers analysed data from 129 patients.

Their brain waves were monitored over a period of 16 months through electroencephalograms (EEGs) combined with video footage.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in the US found a unique ‘texting rhythm’ in about one in five people who were using their smartphone to text message while having their brain waves monitored.

The researchers asked patients to perform activities such as message texting, finger tapping and audio cellular telephone use in addition to tests of attention and cognitive function.

Only text messaging produced the newly observed brain rhythm, which was different than any previously described brain rhythm.

The unicity of the texting rhythm compared to other forms of mental stimulation could be caused by the combination of mental activity with motor and auditory-verbal neurological activity.

No correlation was found between the presence of a texting rhythm and the patients’ demographic information, including age, gender, epilepsy type, presence of a brain lesion on MRI, or ictal EEG.