Mapping generative AI use in the human brain: divergent neural, academic, and mental health profiles of functional versus socio emotional AI use
Authors: Junjie Wang, Xianyang Gan, Dan Liu, Jingxian He, Stefania Ferraro, Keith M. Kendrick, Weihua Zhao, Shuxia Yao, Christian Montag, Benjamin Becker
Organizations: The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China · The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China · Brain-Computer Interface & Brain-Inspired Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China · Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Institute of Collaborative Innovation, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China · Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China · Department of Computer and Information Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China · MIND & AI Lab, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China · SRT AI, Society & Social Dynamics, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
The widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence conversational agents (AICAs) among university students constitutes a novel cognitive social environment whose impact on the maturing brain remains elusive. Combining surveys with high resolution structural MRI, we examined patterns of general, functional, and socio emotional AICA use, academic performance, mental health, and brain structural signatures in a comparatively large sample of 222 young individuals. Across computational anatomy, meta analytic network level, and behavioral decoding analyses, we observed use specific associations. Higher general and functional AICA use frequencies were linked to better academic outcomes (GPA), larger dorsolateral prefrontal and calcarine gray matter volume, and enhanced hippocampal network clustering and local efficiency. In contrast, more frequent socio emotional AICA use was associated with poorer mental health (depression, social anxiety) and lower volume of superior temporal and amygdalar regions central to social and affective processing. These findings indicate that the same class of AI tools exerts distinct effects depending on usage patterns and motivations, engaging prefrontal hippocampal systems that support cognition versus socio emotional systems that may track distress linked usage. These heterogeneities are crucial for designing environments that harness the educational benefits of AI while mitigating mental health risks.
Design School, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215123, China · School of Computer Science and Informatics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK
Slingshot AI · CREATIV Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington · Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine +1