Children who spend seven hours or more on smartphones and tablets are changing the structure of their brains and risking lower IQs and declining memory and cognitive function
Scientists are currently in the process of monitoring 11,000 nine to ten-year-olds
The £236 million project shows early signs of damage screen time can have
Study compared daily screen use of 7 hours and versus those who used it for 2
Children that used screens for 7 hours showed signs of brain cortex thinning
Children spending 2 hours still scored lower on thinking and language tests
By VICTORIA BELL
DAILYMAIL.COM
10 December 2018
Children who use screens for seven hours or more a day are showing signs that their brain cortex is thinning prematurely.
The findings show that children are at risk of deteriorating memory function, perception skills and cognitive abilities, according to new major US study.
The ongoing $300 million (£236mn) research is funded by the National Institute of Health and shows results of the effects of technology on children.
Researchers made the early findings by scanning the brains of 4,500 children.
Scientists are in the process of following more than 11,000 nine to ten-year-olds over the course of a decade.
The aim of the study, called Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, is also to show how screen time affects emotional development and mental health.
The researchers also determined that children who spend more than two hours of daily screen time score lower on thinking and language tests.
The brain cortex is the outermost layer of neural tissue that processes information from the physical world.
It is critical for cognitive functions such as perception, language, memory and consciousness but thins as we mature into old age.
Though the difference was significant from participants who spent less time using smart devices, the study director cautioned against drawing a conclusion.
Dr Gaya Dowling, an NIH doctor working on the project, cautioned against drawing a conclusion because they aren’t completely sure it’s being caused by the increased use of modern technology.
‘We don’t know if it’s being caused by the screen time. We don’t know if it’s a bad thing,’ said Dr Dowling.
‘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’.
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