Posted on 01/12/2014 12:34:54 AM PST by Ken H
Watching too much television can change the structure of a child's brain in a damaging way, according to a new study.
Researchers found that the more time a child spent viewing TV, the more profound the brain alterations appeared to be.
The Japanese study looked at 276 children aged between five and 18, who watched between zero and four hours TV per day, with the average being about two hours
MRI brain scans showed children who spent the most hours in front of the box had greater amounts of grey matter in regions around the frontopolar cortex - the area at the front of the frontal lobe.
But this increased volume was a negative thing as it was linked with lower verbal intelligence, said the authors, from Tohoku University in the city of Sendai.
They suggested grey matter could be compared to body weight and said these brain areas need to be pruned during childhood in order to operate efficiently.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Atrophy.
Yeah, but what if I’m busy and keeping the kids in front of the TV keeps them quiet!?!?
LOL
The TV was always on when I grew up. I ended up perfectly fine. My kids watch a lot of TV and they’re doing great too. My little girl wants to be a business owner just like Mr. Krabs.
TV/brain ping
Pruning brains?
Isn’t that sort of like a lobotomy?
Man I could have been a genius...
Presumably this exhausted the supply of Japanese children who watched less than four hours of TV per day. The rest of them were inaccessible to testing, having actually MERGED mentally and physically with their televisions.
Don’t worry about it that won’t hurt your brain.
Is this study just for TVs or does it include computers and cell phones also? Go anywhere and look at people. They’re always staring into some sort of screen.
That was my experience.
That was my experience, too.
Remember....they're using computers in Kindergarten.
Or, alternatively, the dimmest children are the ones most likely to sit in front of the idiot box and vegetate.
I’ve known some rather dim individuals that simply had to have the television on at all times, even if absolute nonsense was on (such as late-night infomercials). I have a pet theory that such persons must have some form of mindless chatter in the background all of the time, otherwise the echo of the wind whistling between their ears might drive them mad.
I have to point out: this study checked children that watch too much JAPANESE television. Even though it’s probable that the pattern holds, what they watch there is not even remotely similar to, well, anything at all.
We didn't have a TV until I was six. We had to go to the neighbors to see Davy Crockett and Peter Pan as Mary Martin. That's why I ended up perfect.
Speaking for my grandchildren, I would say that the picture is much smaller on the computer, and the shows are much shorter, but you have a wider selection to choose from.
I like to think I am a dumbed down version of perfect. I seem to fool enough people to get ahead.
I taught my Dad how to use the Youtube option on the TV over Christmas, and he loved it. He made us watch the Whos on First clip about five times, and the Honeymooners when Ralph thinks that Ed Norton wrote Sewanee River. It was so cute watching him.
It’s cute now, but wait for it, pretty soon he’ll be having you over every 10 mins to watch another clip, or keep calling to tell you about the one he just watched heh.
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