Neural Correlates of Personality Traits in Adolescents Exhibiting Excessive Smartphone Use: A Resting-State FMRI Study

Background: Although smartphone usage is inevitable and convenient in recent days, numerous potential problems due to excessive smartphone use (ESU) have been highlighted. With the rising concern about ESU, the focus on exploring the relationship between ESU and personality traits and their neural correlations also increased; however, studies that explore these factors simultaneously are lacking. Objective: This study investigated whether altered resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) is related to personality traits in adolescents exhibiting ESU compared to healthy controls (HCs). Methods: Thirty-one adolescents exhibiting ESU and 31 HCs (62 adolescents) aged 12–18 years were included in this study. Seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis was used to examine group differences in rsFC in the middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and insula, key parts of the salience network, in relation to personality traits. Results: Adolescents exhibiting ESU showed trends toward low persistence and high harm avoidance in terms of personality traits. Additionally, they exhibited enhanced rsFC between the MCC and insula but reduced rsFC between the precentral and postcentral gyri compared with HCs. Notably, increased rsFC between the MCC and insula in the ESU group was negatively correlated with low persistence. Conclusions: ESU was associated with low persistence at the uncorrected threshold in terms of personality traits and involved in neuro-functional alterations between the key hubs of the salience network, MCC, insula, and several other brain regions. These findings may provide a neurobiological basis for intervention targeting behavioral addiction in youth. Accordingly, adolescents with low persistence may need tailored education on appropriate and controlled use of smartphones and internet-based technologies.