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Scientists have discovered that there is a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain brain regions.

The brain regions in question are responsible, in part, for memory, emotional responses and social interactions. The parts of the brain include the amyglada, the right superior temporal sulcus, the left middle temporal gyrus and the right entorhinal cortex.

The scientists have so far been unable to discover whether the amount of Facebook friends actually increases the size of the brain areas, or whether people who already have larger areas of the brain are simply pre-disposed to have more friends.

The scientists used MRI scanning to study the brains of 125 university students. They found that the thickness of grey matter in the amyglada was linked to the number of real-world friends that the students who were tested had, and also to the number of Facebook friends they had. However the size of the other three brain regions studied only related to online friends.

On average, each student had 300 Facebook friends, while some were connected to as many as 1,000.

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