The Impact of Technology on the Reward System Regarding Addiction Behavior: A Narrative Review

The objective of this narrative review is to summarize and analyse the neurobiological effects of advancing technology on the brain's reward system regarding addiction. The primary methods used to accomplish this objective were searching databases for relevant articles and reviewing the available literature for information, as well as identifying key themes present in the existing literature. The results show that technology has impacted several factors of the brain's inherent reward system, causing addictive behaviours to have an increased addictive impact due to the increased availability of access, alongside the dopaminergic impact that blue monochromatic light has on our brains. Technology has also had a positive impact by increasing access to therapeutic modalities. Technology has had a broad impact on addictive behaviours by changing the common addictive behaviours, such as smoking, gambling, illicit substances, alcohol, and sex, to have a strong technological basis, resulting in the increased addictiveness of the behaviour and the increased dopamine release in response. It has also introduced new addictive behaviours to society, such as the internet, social media, and video gaming, which have highlighted a negative trend towards excessive use. It has also been shown to have some positive impact with increased access to treatment modalities.