Too much screen time may be bad for bubs' brains as they grow up

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-01-31 03:10

International

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Too much screen time might be bad news for bubs' brains as they grow up, according to international researchers. They say there's existing evidence that increased screen time in infancy is linked to impairments in cognitive processes critical for health, academic achievement, and future work success. So, the team collected parent-reported screen time of 437 children at 12 months of age, conducted brain scans at 18 months of age, and used teacher-reported questionnaires and lab-based tasks at age nine to assess the children's brain functions. They found a link between higher screen use at 12 months and impairments at nine years. The authors say this type of study cannot prove screen time actually caused the impairments, so further studies are required to confirm the link.

Media release

From: JAMA

Associations Between Infant Screen Use, Electroencephalography Markers, Cognitive Outcomes

About The Study: Screen use during infancy may contribute to variations in neural activities implicated in the development of high-order cognitive skills, according to the findings of this study involving 437 children. Further efforts are urgently needed to distinguish the direct association of infant screen use compared with family factors that predispose early screen use on executive function impairments.

Journal/
conference: JAMA Pediatrics

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: National University of Singapore, Singapore

Funder: This research is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council Transition Award (MOH-000270), National Research Foundation (NRF) under the Open Fund Large Collaborative Grant (MOH-000504), and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. In the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan (RIE2025), Growing Up in Singapore Toward Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) is supported by funding from the NRF’s Human Health and Potential Domain under the Human Potential Program.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.