Kids’ Screen-Time Can Affect Their Brain Structure

Gadget use by children can impact their brain structure and mental and emotional development, says an online study.

Gadget use by children can impact their brain and mental and emotional development, an ongoing study reports. 

(Photo: iStockphoto)

There now seems to be another reason for parents to be concerned about their children’s heavy usage of smartphones, tablets and video games.

A report by ’60 Minutes’ has shared results from an ongoing study that looked at brain scans of adolescents and found a difference in structure of their brains depending on their screen-time.

As reported by Bloomberg, these findings have been reached after scanning 4500 nine to ten-year-old kids, who will be tracked for more than a decade to gauge how childhood experiences like using digital gadgets affect their brains and emotional and mental development.

The scans of children who reported daily screen usage of more than seven hours revealed premature thinning of the cortex (the part that processes information from the physical world).

The study has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Study director Gaya Dowling spoke in a broadcast on CBS,

We don’t know if it’s being caused by the screen time. We don’t know if it’s a bad thing. It won’t be until we follow them over time that we will see if there are outcomes that are associated with the differences that we’re seeing in this single snapshot.

Thus, the results are not certain, and final conclusions can only be made after the completion of the study.