MIT Study Finds Artificial Intelligence Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline

By Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

A new MIT study titled, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, has found that using ChatGPT to help write essays leads to long-term cognitive harm—measurable through EEG brain scans. Students who repeatedly relied on ChatGPT showed weakened neural connectivity, impaired memory recall, and diminished sense of ownership over their own writing. While the AI-generated content often scored well, the brains behind it were shutting down.

The findings are clear: Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Grok don’t just help students write—they train the brain to disengage. Here’s what the researchers found:

Brain Connectivity Declines with AI Use

• EEG scans revealed a systematic scaling down of neural connectivity in the brain with increasing reliance on external tools:

  • Brain-only group: strongest, most widespread connectivity.

  • Search Engine group: intermediate.

  • LLM group: weakest connectivity across alpha, beta, delta, and theta bands.

• LLM use resulted in under-engagement of critical attention and visual processing networks, especially in Session 4 when participants tried to write without AI.

LLM Users Forget What They Just Wrote

AI Use Disrupts Memory and Learning Pathways

LLM Users Felt Detached From Their Work

Switching from LLM to Brain Use Doesn’t Fully Restore Function

• Session 4: LLM-to-Brain participants showed lingering cognitive deficiency, failing to return to their original (Session 1) brain activity patterns.

• Their neural activity remained below baseline, even after AI use was stopped.

Search Engine Users Showed Healthier Brain Engagement

• Search users maintained stronger executive function, memory activation, and quote recall.

• EEG data showed more robust occipital and parietal activation supporting visual processing and cognitive effort.

AI Dependency Leads to “Cognitive Offloading”

• Researchers noted a trend toward neural efficiency adaptation: the brain essentially “lets go” of the effort required for synthesis and memory.

• This adaptation led to passivity, minimal editing, and low integration of concepts.

Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Cognitive Debt

• Despite receiving decent scores from judges, the LLM group’s writing:

  • Lacked strategic integration.

  • Used fewer diverse structures.

  • Was shorter and more robotic.

• Over time, the group showed a consistent decline in engagement, performance, and self-reported satisfaction.

Based on this study, as more of the global population begins to rely on artificial intelligence to complete complex tasks, our cognitive abilities and creative capacities appear poised to take a nosedive into oblivion.

One thing is clear: if you currently use AI, take regular breaks—and give your own mind the chance to do the work. Otherwise, you may face severe cognitive harm and dependence.

The machines aren’t just taking over our work—they’re taking over our minds.

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation

http://www.mcculloughfnd.org

Please consider following both the McCullough Foundation and my personal account on X (formerly Twitter) for further content.

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IPAK-EDU is grateful to FOCAL POINTS (Courageous Discourse) as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement.

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