Studies show how cell phones affect your brain

For many, cell phones have become a major part of their everyday lives.

Entertainment, social media, information and navigation– our phones provide more information than we sometimes need.

Two studies released by the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin revealed how cell phones can affect your brain and how much thinking is actually done.

The study looked at the “brain drain” hypothesis, the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources.

Click here for the entire study.

“I think with your phone you can’t really pay attention so it’s more about not being aware,” said one man ABC-7 spoke with.

Another woman said, “I think people are becoming more dependent on their phones, although I don’t think it really disconnects them from reality.”

In another study the University of Texas at Austin reported people were asked to leave their phones out of sight.

Researchers found a significant difference in the subjects’ ability to carry out cognitive tasks.

The study showed that the farther away the phone was from the person, the better they performed the task.

A second experiment tested sustained attention, how well someone can concentrate on the task at hand. The study measured the amount of brainpower it took to do the task.

The study found there was no difference shown in sustained attention, but the amount of resources available to pay attention was limited.