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Updated: May 14, 2026
Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking
Published on: April 30, 2020
Sex-dominant differences in resting-state EEG microstates among young adults at risk of smartphone addiction
Jun Chen1, Yingying Zeng2, Hui Liu3
1Department of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei, China.
Background:
Smartphone addiction (SA) is increasing, but sex-sensitive neurophysiological markers for assessment and follow-up remain limited.
Methods:
In a balanced 2 × 2 design (sex × group; N = 120), young adults had resting-state EEG. Microstates A-D were extracted from GFP peaks using polarity-insensitive k-means (k = 4). Individual metrics (mean duration, occurrence, coverage, GEV) were compared using two-way ANOVA with FDR control (q = 0.05).
Results:
Sex effects outperformed group effects. Females had higher microstate C metrics-duration: F(1, 116) = 12.84, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.100; coverage: F(1, 116) = 14.21, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.109; occurrence: F(1, 116) = 9.02, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.072, while males had higher microstate D metrics-coverage: F(1, 116) = 7.01, p = 0.009, ηp2 = 0.057; occurrence: F (1, 116) = 16.82, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.127; duration did not differ (p > 0.05). These patterns remained FDR-significant at q = 0.05.
Conclusion:
Resting EEG microstates reveal sex-dominant dynamics associated with salience (C) and dorsal attention (D) processes in SA with high impulsivity, indicating the need for sex-sensitive screening and follow-up in addition to questionnaires.
