Fifth Anniversary of "Applied Neuroscience and Neural Engineering" Section—Neuroscience Measures of Digital Impact
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Neuroscience and Neural Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editor
2. Faculty of Medicine, Sigmund Freud University, Freudplatz 3, 1020 Vienna, Austria
3. School of Psychology, Newcastle University, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Interests: non-conscious affective and cognitive brain processes; memory; perception; self-referential processing; olfaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Since its inception five years ago, the Applied Neuroscience and Neural Engineering Section has served as a critical forum for bridging the gap between fundamental brain research and transformative applications. As we celebrate this milestone, our new Special Issue, "Neuroscience Measures of Digital Impact," addresses one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century: the quantifiable alteration of the human nervous system by ubiquitous digital content. Human minds created highly functional tools meant to mimic human mental capacities and improve the quality of life. But do these tools now pose a detrimental threat, slowly and gradually throwing human mental power back millions of years? The modern digital landscape, defined by rapid-fire information, algorithmic curation, and industrialized "rage bait," has fundamentally shifted the nature of human attention and affective processing.
This Special Issue invites high-quality papers assessing both the advantages and disadvantages of this immersion. Accepted formats include empirical studies, theoretical work, and philosophical thoughts. We seek to map the neural plasticity of the digital age, from enhanced spatial attention and reduced attentional blink seen in action gamers to the cognitive erosion and "brain rot" associated with passive, high-arousal consumption.
Looking toward the next five years, this collection aims to provide a robust scientific record of how our tools are reshaping our minds and foster a deeper understanding of the "human being at risk" in an increasingly mediated world.
Prof. Dr. Peter Walla
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- affective neuroscience
- molecular neuroscience
- cellular neuroscience
- neuroanatomy
- neurophysiology
- neurophilosophy
- cognitive neuroscience
- computational neuroscience
- neuroinformatics
- behavioral neuroscience
- developmental neuroscience
- evolutionary neuroscience
- nanoneuroscience
- neural engineering
- neurochemistry
- neurogenetics
- neuroimaging
- neuroimmunology
- neurolinguistics
- neurophysics
- systems neuroscience
- neuroethology
- educational neuroscience
- aging neuroscience
- brain–computer interface
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