Brain scans show a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain parts of their brain.
It's not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers.
The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.
The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London.
Researchers counted the number of Facebook friends each volunteer had, as well as assessing the size of their network of real friends.
It's not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers.
The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.
The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London.
Researchers counted the number of Facebook friends each volunteer had, as well as assessing the size of their network of real friends.







