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Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

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Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#3
I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've gone back to the 1940s for the 2020s moral panic.

Using EEG to try to say something about executive function has about as much legitimacy as a horoscope does about how my day will go. It's amazing this passed JAMA's review to be published.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#4
As long as it's correlations and there's no biochemical pathway it's little more than social sciences.

I have to wonder if they don't have the correlation reversed, ie, parents who park their kids in front of screens at a younger age (because of disinterest) read less to them and provide a less stimulating and engaging environment for their children.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#5
post #3

I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've g…

Screens are far more interactive now. Perhaps that’s a component as well

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#7
A brief summary of what this study was about:

- screen time was reported by parents at 12 months

- television was the only screen time experienced by the vast majority of subjects (they explain that this was around 2010, before handheld devices were ubiquitous)

- they found that at 9 years old, the children who had had more screen time at 12 months had worse attention and executive functioning at 9 years

- EEG correlates at 18 months explained some of those differences at 9 years

- this is in Singapore btw

What blew me away was that in this cohort, the average (average!) reported TV time for the 12-month-olds time was 2 hours a day!

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#8
post #3

I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've g…

More people have access to screens now, and (anecdotally) parents were much more careful about screen time in the early 80s/90s.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#9
I'm completely out of the water, but one thing that I'm not seeing is control for ADHD which is highly heritable (depending on study there are various numbers ranging between 60-90%).

I wouldn't be surprised that ADHD parents would give their ADHD children access to screen earlier (as screens are hypnotic and thus have some calming effect, so, eh, life's experience?).

I'd probably change HN title: study says it's associated, but title suggest there's causation.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#10
post #3

I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've g…

Screens are far more interactive now. Perhaps that’s a component as well

I think this might be something to it. I’ve noticed parallels between the stereotypical “kid glued to their phone” and “elderly person glued to slot machine at the casino”. Both of those are more interactive that TV.
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