The first results of a new study into children’s screen time suggest that playing a lot of video games and frequently using tablets and smartphones makes their brains look different from those of peers who spend less time on screens.
These days, children quickly learn how a smartphone, tablet or television works. But what does all that screen time actually do to them? The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now carrying out a large study that tries to reveal how brain development is influenced by various factors, The New York Times reports.
This is not only about screen time, but also about the effects of drugs and alcohol, and concussions. In total, the NIH is following 11,800 American children to study the effects.
Early data show that a lot of screen time is associated in some children with lower scores on certain aptitude tests and faster thinning of the cortex. It should be said, though, that these are only early data, and it is still unclear whether the effects are lasting or whether they matter at all.
Variations
There have already been various studies into screen time habits and the health of young people, and almost all of them have produced different results. Social networks give people a larger social circle, which has advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is online bullying, for example.
Researchers eventually concluded that many results are sometimes even contradictory. The same goes for video games: some studies find links between games and aggressive behaviour, others do not. So far it is therefore unclear whether aggressive children simply like gaming, or whether they become aggressive because of gaming.
Simply put, we actually know very little about the effects of screen time. And we know even less about whether the influence of screen time on the brain of someone who is growing up is lasting. That is what the NIH wants to find out, by following 11,800 American children as they go through puberty.
Five years
The children have been followed since 2013. At that time the focus was mainly on the effects of drug and alcohol use. Every year, MRI scans are made of their brains to see whether changes in the brain are linked to behaviour or health. The study has since grown and now also looks at screen time.
So now we have had a first glimpse of the expected results. For the screen time part of the study, the brain scans of more than 4,500 children were analysed and correlated with the children’s screen time and their scores on language and thinking exercises.
And once again the results are mixed. In some heavy screen users, the cortex started to thin at a younger age than expected. But that thinning is a normal part of a brain becoming adult, and scientists have no idea what the difference means. Some heavy users also scored low on aptitude tests, while others did well. For now, then, we still know rather little.
Source: Numrush.nl
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