Hyperconnected Minds: A Systematic Review of the Neurobiology of Problematic Internet Use

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has created an unprecedented level of increased connectivity, yet the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these changes remain incompletely understood. This systematic review synthesizes the currently available evidence on neurobiological findings related to problematic internet use, problematic smartphone/social media use, and internet gaming disorder, with a focus on reward processing, attentional control, and emotional regulation. Across the included studies, recurrent findings suggested the involvement of fronto-striatal circuitry, salience- and reward-related regions, and executive-control networks. Alterations in large-scale brain networks, including the default mode, salience, and frontoparietal systems, were also reported, although the evidence base was heterogeneous and consisted largely of cross-sectional studies with modest sample sizes. Overall, the findings support a provisional neurobiological framework linking reward-related processing, inhibitory-control difficulties, and large-scale network alterations, but better-standardized studies are needed to draw conclusions.