Heavy screen time appears to impact childrens’ brains: study

According to a current US research and its primary findings, it’s been discovered that children who spend excessive time on the screens have distinct brain patterns.



The National Institute of Health(NIH) revealed that it is dangerous if 9 or 10-year-old children’s screen time exceeds 7 hours per day. It can cause their cortex to become thinner before time. This part of the brain is responsible for dealing with sensory information.



Gaya Dowling, an NIH doctor serving in the study, told in an interview with a CBS news program about the early findings. She said that the researchers were uncertain as to whether the thinning of the cortex was caused by smart screen devices. Neither were they sure if it was actually harmful. What they were quite positive was that the different patterns in the brain were being found in kids having immoderate screen time.



Furthermore, as per the data are given on CBS, kids with more than 2 hours per day of screen time tend to be weaker in language and reasoning tests.

Another study that requires 4500 children’s brains to be scanned shall find out if spending too much time on electronic devices is an addiction.

However, this will take years for the researchers to collect proper evidence. Dimitri Christakis, a writer of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ latest screen time guide spoke to 60 Minutes. He said that researchers are kind of stuck in these unruly experiments about the kids of the coming generation. In a few months, the early data from the research will be released.



The pediatrics academy urges parents to keep away these smart devices from toddlers and reduce its usage.