Heavy screen time impacts kids' brains
Researchers have found "different patterns" in brain scans among children who record heavy smart device and video game use, according to initial data from a major ongoing US study.
The first wave of information from the $300 million National Institute of Health (NIH) study is showing that those nine and 10-year-old kids spending more than seven hours a day using such devices show signs of premature thinning of the cortex.
"We don't know if it's being caused by the screen time. We don't know yet if it's a bad thing," said Gaya Dowling, an NIH doctor working on the project, explaining the preliminary findings in an interview with the CBS news program 60 Minutes.
"What we can say is that this is what the brains look like of kids who spend a lot of time on screens. And it's not just one pattern," Dowling said.
The NIH data reported on CBS also showed that kids who spend more than two hours a day on screens score worse on language and reasoning tests.
The study -- which involves scanning the brains of 4,500 children -- eventually aims to show whether screen time is addictive.
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