The next time you text your buddy to arrange some after-work drinks at that place where I lost my credit card, think about this: Something special is happening in your brain.
A team of researchers have found that we adopt an entirely unique brainwave pattern while we're tapping away at our phones. It actually changes the rhythm of waveform for some of us.
This discovery could be critical to future studies about the effects of smartphone use.
The research was carried out last year, and published in Epilepsy and Behavior journal.
Experts think our brainwave pattern changes because, to put it simply, there's so much to concentrate on when we text. First, we've got to think about stringing a sentence together that actually makes sense. Then, there's holding the phone and using finger dexterity to type.
Don't even get us started on that small screen: It just makes our eyes focus harder.
Lead study author, William Tatum, said,
We believe this new rhythm is an objective metric of the brain's ability to process non-verbal information during use of electronic devices, and that it is heavily connected to a widely distributed network augmented by attention or emotion.
So, there you have it. Texting comes so naturally to us, it's easy to forget we're creating brain magic in the process.
