There have been studies showing that watching television for a long time can affect cognitive ability, but causality is not so simple.
When we were children, we often heard adult warnings: “Watching TV will make your brain rusty!†Today, we are seeing children sitting in front of the TV all day long. And when they are not interested in exploring the real world, these warning words will blurt out. The parents' scolding can be traced back to the era of black-and-white television. Nowadays, with handheld devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers that can provide a lot of video content, people's worries grow. However, are children's brains really damaged by watching TV?
Through brain imaging technology, we can clearly see the impact of watching television on children's neural circuits. Research shows that watching television for a long time can change the anatomy of children’s brains and damage their language skills. From the point of view of behavior, there are even more serious effects: Although it is difficult to prove the causality among them, higher anti-social behaviors, obesity, and mental health problems are indeed related to watching TV for a long time.
However, a new study has sounded a wake-up call to this idea: Researchers found that previous studies ignored an important confounding variable, genetic traits. Therefore, the traditional view that watching television unfavorable to brain health may not necessarily be correct.
Where does the idea of ​​television damage the brain come from?
In 2013, a research team led by neuroscientist Takeuchi Kofuku of Tohoku University in Japan published the results of a study on the brain imaging of 290 young people aged 5 to 18 years. The researchers also investigated how young people watch TV each day (ranging from 0 to 4 hours). They found that the longer these children watch TV, the larger the area of ​​the hypothalamus, septum, sensory areas, and visual cortex in the brain. These areas are associated with a variety of activities such as emotional response, awakening, attacks, and imagination. In addition, there is a tendency for thickening of the anterior leaf region and the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which represents a decrease in the ability of language inference. The test results show that the children's IQ score (used to measure vocabulary and language ability) decreases proportionally with the increase in their time watching TV, and their brains regardless of their gender, age, and family income These changes will occur in the organization.
Some of these brain changes may be benign: the increase in visual cortex volume may be due to watching TV and exercising vision. However, thickening of the hypothalamus is a prominent feature of patients with borderline personality disorder, aggressive behavior, and mood disorders. Perhaps, when watching TV programs, a large number of dramas, actions, and comedies make the wake-up loops and emotional loops strengthened, and the circuits related to intelligence are relatively weakened. These changes may lead to psychological and behavioral problems: Previous studies have shown that for every hour of TV watching in childhood, the probability of suffering depression increases by 8%, and the probability of crime increases by 27%. Other studies have shown that for every 2 hours of watching TV in childhood, the probability of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20%.
There are many arguments to explain these phenomena. Since watching TV is often done by sitting alone, the children missed out on the health benefits of many sports and social activities. In addition, passively staring at the display can also impair speech expression, logical reasoning, and other cognitive abilities. “Guardians should take these effects into consideration and do not allow children to watch TV for a long time,†Takeuchi and his colleagues concluded.
But the correlation between watching TV and the brain and behavioral changes does not necessarily mean that watching TV leads to changes in the brain and behavior, but also pre-existing personal characteristics or other potential environmental factors lead to children like to frantically watch TV.
In the most recent study, Joseph Schwartz, a criminologist at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and Kevin Beaver, a criminologist at Florida State University The junior high school students were analyzed to find out the links between watching TV and other factors such as ethnicity, gender, anti-social behavior, and violent crimes in prison, two years later and after the 15,000 teenage adults (age 18 years old). By the age of 26, the researchers again conducted a follow-up survey of them. The results are very similar to previous studies: Researchers found that the longer they watch TV when they are younger, the more likely these teenagers are to have anti-social behavior and that they will be imprisoned at least once in adulthood.
Later, the researchers took into account more factors in the analysis. They studied more than 3,000 pairs of compatriots and siblings (including half-brothers, half-brothers, father-to-son mothers, and identical and fraternal twins). After taking into account phylogenetic factors in the statistics, they discovered negative behaviors and There is no link between TV durations. They concluded that genetic factors affect the brain and behavior. This includes how often children watch TV and how their brains respond. "For example," Schwartz said, "not watching TV makes children more aggressive, but more aggressive children themselves are more likely to indulge in television." Similarly, there is a genetic preference People who are depressed or obese are also more likely to spend their spare time watching TV than playing basketball on the basketball court.
Research shows that genetic factors are part of the reason for the formation of antisocial behavior, and partly because of environmental impacts. In particular, genes that affect neural signals such as dopamine and serotonin have a certain relationship with criminal activities, antisocial behaviors, and psychological disorders. "Our findings show that as long as we have these genes, whether watching TV is more or less, the changes in the neurobiological model observed by Takeu et al. may occur," Schwartz said.
However, there is no time to do this.
Obviously, researchers have been ignoring the important influence of genetic factors in TV watching habits when weighing the roles of various factors. This is similar to a chicken or egg problem. The final answer is similar to the real chicken and egg problem: it is a cyclical relationship of interdependence. For example, in 1990, a study found that children in the same family and their own children watched television for different periods of time. Therefore, it is inferred that inheritance is the most important factor affecting children's watching television. However, the study also found that the higher the mother’s IQ, the shorter the time that her biological and adoptive children watch TV.
Everyone's brain is different, and what you do with your brain does affect its physical structure and function, especially when the young brain is still developing. If a child has a behavioral disorder due to hereditary factors, he or she may spend more time watching TV while watching TV does not help. "Looking more television may trigger various neurobiological changes and eventually make the potential for aggressive behaviors of all kinds more serious," warns Schwartz. In such cases, limiting the time spent watching television may have some effect. For other children, watching TV does not have such risks.
But in any case, parents control the children to watch TV on the right time: The longer you sit on the couch and watch TV, the less time your child participates in sports activities, reading, and interacting with friends. Lack of physical activity and knowledge exploration can have obvious negative consequences for body and cognition. Whether or not the TV will damage your brain, sitting in front of the TV for a long time seems to be too wasteful.
When we were children, we often heard adult warnings: “Watching TV will make your brain rusty!†Today, we are seeing children sitting in front of the TV all day long. And when they are not interested in exploring the real world, these warning words will blurt out. The parents' scolding can be traced back to the era of black-and-white television. Nowadays, with handheld devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers that can provide a lot of video content, people's worries grow. However, are children's brains really damaged by watching TV?
Through brain imaging technology, we can clearly see the impact of watching television on children's neural circuits. Research shows that watching television for a long time can change the anatomy of children’s brains and damage their language skills. From the point of view of behavior, there are even more serious effects: Although it is difficult to prove the causality among them, higher anti-social behaviors, obesity, and mental health problems are indeed related to watching TV for a long time.
However, a new study has sounded a wake-up call to this idea: Researchers found that previous studies ignored an important confounding variable, genetic traits. Therefore, the traditional view that watching television unfavorable to brain health may not necessarily be correct.
Where does the idea of ​​television damage the brain come from?
In 2013, a research team led by neuroscientist Takeuchi Kofuku of Tohoku University in Japan published the results of a study on the brain imaging of 290 young people aged 5 to 18 years. The researchers also investigated how young people watch TV each day (ranging from 0 to 4 hours). They found that the longer these children watch TV, the larger the area of ​​the hypothalamus, septum, sensory areas, and visual cortex in the brain. These areas are associated with a variety of activities such as emotional response, awakening, attacks, and imagination. In addition, there is a tendency for thickening of the anterior leaf region and the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which represents a decrease in the ability of language inference. The test results show that the children's IQ score (used to measure vocabulary and language ability) decreases proportionally with the increase in their time watching TV, and their brains regardless of their gender, age, and family income These changes will occur in the organization.
Some of these brain changes may be benign: the increase in visual cortex volume may be due to watching TV and exercising vision. However, thickening of the hypothalamus is a prominent feature of patients with borderline personality disorder, aggressive behavior, and mood disorders. Perhaps, when watching TV programs, a large number of dramas, actions, and comedies make the wake-up loops and emotional loops strengthened, and the circuits related to intelligence are relatively weakened. These changes may lead to psychological and behavioral problems: Previous studies have shown that for every hour of TV watching in childhood, the probability of suffering depression increases by 8%, and the probability of crime increases by 27%. Other studies have shown that for every 2 hours of watching TV in childhood, the probability of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20%.
There are many arguments to explain these phenomena. Since watching TV is often done by sitting alone, the children missed out on the health benefits of many sports and social activities. In addition, passively staring at the display can also impair speech expression, logical reasoning, and other cognitive abilities. “Guardians should take these effects into consideration and do not allow children to watch TV for a long time,†Takeuchi and his colleagues concluded.
But the correlation between watching TV and the brain and behavioral changes does not necessarily mean that watching TV leads to changes in the brain and behavior, but also pre-existing personal characteristics or other potential environmental factors lead to children like to frantically watch TV.
In the most recent study, Joseph Schwartz, a criminologist at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and Kevin Beaver, a criminologist at Florida State University The junior high school students were analyzed to find out the links between watching TV and other factors such as ethnicity, gender, anti-social behavior, and violent crimes in prison, two years later and after the 15,000 teenage adults (age 18 years old). By the age of 26, the researchers again conducted a follow-up survey of them. The results are very similar to previous studies: Researchers found that the longer they watch TV when they are younger, the more likely these teenagers are to have anti-social behavior and that they will be imprisoned at least once in adulthood.
Later, the researchers took into account more factors in the analysis. They studied more than 3,000 pairs of compatriots and siblings (including half-brothers, half-brothers, father-to-son mothers, and identical and fraternal twins). After taking into account phylogenetic factors in the statistics, they discovered negative behaviors and There is no link between TV durations. They concluded that genetic factors affect the brain and behavior. This includes how often children watch TV and how their brains respond. "For example," Schwartz said, "not watching TV makes children more aggressive, but more aggressive children themselves are more likely to indulge in television." Similarly, there is a genetic preference People who are depressed or obese are also more likely to spend their spare time watching TV than playing basketball on the basketball court.
Research shows that genetic factors are part of the reason for the formation of antisocial behavior, and partly because of environmental impacts. In particular, genes that affect neural signals such as dopamine and serotonin have a certain relationship with criminal activities, antisocial behaviors, and psychological disorders. "Our findings show that as long as we have these genes, whether watching TV is more or less, the changes in the neurobiological model observed by Takeu et al. may occur," Schwartz said.
However, there is no time to do this.
Obviously, researchers have been ignoring the important influence of genetic factors in TV watching habits when weighing the roles of various factors. This is similar to a chicken or egg problem. The final answer is similar to the real chicken and egg problem: it is a cyclical relationship of interdependence. For example, in 1990, a study found that children in the same family and their own children watched television for different periods of time. Therefore, it is inferred that inheritance is the most important factor affecting children's watching television. However, the study also found that the higher the mother’s IQ, the shorter the time that her biological and adoptive children watch TV.
Everyone's brain is different, and what you do with your brain does affect its physical structure and function, especially when the young brain is still developing. If a child has a behavioral disorder due to hereditary factors, he or she may spend more time watching TV while watching TV does not help. "Looking more television may trigger various neurobiological changes and eventually make the potential for aggressive behaviors of all kinds more serious," warns Schwartz. In such cases, limiting the time spent watching television may have some effect. For other children, watching TV does not have such risks.
But in any case, parents control the children to watch TV on the right time: The longer you sit on the couch and watch TV, the less time your child participates in sports activities, reading, and interacting with friends. Lack of physical activity and knowledge exploration can have obvious negative consequences for body and cognition. Whether or not the TV will damage your brain, sitting in front of the TV for a long time seems to be too wasteful.
ALLIN , https://www.displayapio.com