Relationship between media multitasking and functional connectivity in the dorsal attention network

Abstract

With the development of digital technology, media multitasking behaviour, which is using two or more media simultaneously, has become more commonplace. There are two opposing hypotheses of media multitasking with regard to its impact on attention. One hypothesis claims that media multitasking can strengthen attention control, and the other claims heavy media multitaskers are less able to focus on relevant tasks in the presence of distractors. A total of 103 healthy subjects took part in this study. We measured the Media Multitasking Index (MMI) and subjects performed the continuous performance test. Resting state and oddball task functional MRI were conducted to analyse functional connectivity in the dorsal attention network, and the degree centrality (DC) was calculated using graph theory analysis. We found that the DCs in the dorsal attention network were higher during resting state than during the oddball task. Furthermore, the DCs during the task were positively correlated with the MMI. These results indicated that the DC reduction from resting state to the oddball task in high media multitaskers was attenuated compared with low media multitaskers. This study not only reveals more about the neurophysiology of media multitasking, but could also indicate brain biomarkers of media multitasking behaviour.

Figure 1

Research design. A total of 123 subjects performed all tests; 20 subjects were excluded due to head motion and incomplete questionnaires. Degree centrality of the dorsal attention network was calculated from this final total of 103 subjects. Another five subjects were excluded due to errors during the continuous performance test.

Figure 2

Difference in DCs between resting-state and oddball task fMRI. Each dot indicates the value of degree centrality (DC) of 103 subjects. There was a significant decrease of DCs from resting state to oddball task fMRI, as calculated using paired t-tests (t = 4.56, p < 0.01).

Figure 3

Differences in DCs in each ROI between resting-state and oddball task fMRI. Each dot indicates the averaged degree centrality (DC) of each region of interest (ROI) in the dorsal attention network. The dots and ROIs in red show significant DC differences between the resting state and oddball task. Those in blue did not show any significant differences.

Figure 4

Correlation between MMI and DCs of the DAN during the oddball task. The correlation coefficient ρ was calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation. MMI Media Multitasking Index scores, DC degree centrality, DAN dorsal attention network.

Figure 5

Correlation between the MMI and DCs of the bilateral superior parietal lobule during the oddball task. The correlation coefficient was calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation. SPL superior parietal lobule, MMI Media Multitasking Index scores, DC degree centrality.