A new study conducted by a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia suggests that young people are developing “a hook or hornlike feature” jutting out from the skull, just above the neck, citing excessive phone usage to be blamed.
According to a report by The Washington Post, researchers David Shahar and Mark Sayers found that the shifting body posture brought about by handheld devices such as smartphones which require users to bend their heads forward causes the bone growth.
Such growth which was previously attributed to older people suffering from prolonged strain was later observed by the researchers to appear prominently on X-rays of younger subjects.
According to Shahar, the formation could fit to people’s imagination and can e compared to “a bird’s beak, a horn, a hook.”
But apart from its look, he noted that the formation is a sign of a serious posture deformity which can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.
“What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives,” Sayers said.
However, Michael Nitabach, a professor of physiology, genetics and neuroscience at Yale University, was not convinced by the findings.
“Without knowing about the cell phone use of any of the people whose head X-rays were analyzed, it is impossible to draw conclusions about correlation between cell phone use and skull morphology,” Nitabach said.
In order to check if one might have the hornlike formation, Shahar suggested reaching ah hand around to the lower rear of the skull. He said that those who have could probably feel it.
(Photo source: news.com.au/ washingtonpost.com)
