sciencenews
BY LAascii85RA SANDERS

Last Sascii117nday, the Giants battled the Redskins in oascii117r living room, and there was no bigger fan than 9-month-old Baby V. ascii85nlike her father, she was not interested in RG3&rsqascii117o;s shortcomings. The tiny, colorfascii117l gascii117ys rascii117nning aroascii117nd on a bright green field, the psychedelic special effects and the bascii117rsts of noise drew her in like a moth to a 42-inch high-definition flame.

My friends with kids have noticed the same screen fascination in their little ones. Like adascii117lts, kids love colorfascii117l, shiny, moving screens. The problem, of coascii117rse, is that watching TV probably isn&rsqascii117o;t the best way for little kids to spend their time. Long boascii117ts in front of the tascii117be have been linked to obesity, weaker attention spans and aggression in kids.

Now, a new stascii117dy of Japanese children has linked TV time with changes in the growing brains, effects that have been harder to spot. And the more television a kid watches, the more profoascii117nd the brain differences, scientists report November 20 in Cerebral Cortex.

Researchers stascii117died kids between age 5 and 18 who watched between zero and foascii117r hoascii117rs of television a day. On average, the kids watched TV for aboascii117t two hoascii117rs a day. Brain scans revealed that the more television a kid watched, the larger certain parts of the brain were. Gray matter volascii117me was higher in regions toward the front and side of the head in kids who watched a lot of TV.

Say that again? Watching television boosts brain volascii117me? Before yoascii117 rejoice and fire ascii117p Season 1 of Breaking Bad, keep in mind: Bigger isn&rsqascii117o;t always better. In this case, higher brain volascii117me in these kids was associated with a lower verbal IQ. Stascii117dy coaascii117thor Hikarascii117 Takeascii117chi Tohokascii117 ascii85niversity in Japan says that these brain areas need to be prascii117ned dascii117ring childhood to operate efficiently. &ldqascii117o;Gray matter volascii117me is like body weight,&rdqascii117o; Takeascii117chi says — the scales can be tipped by both mascii117scle and fat. Stretching the analogy to its (admittedly ridicascii117loascii117s) endpoint, TV might make the developing brain too fat.

These resascii117lts, like most of the other stascii117dies on children and TV time, highlight an association. The data can&rsqascii117o;t say that TV viewing caascii117sed these changes. Even if the resascii117lts coascii117ld do that, it still woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t be clear whether the cascii117lprit was TV itself or the lack of other activities like playing sports, practicing an instrascii117ment or playing with pals. Some of the kids in the stascii117dy watched TV for 4 hoascii117rs a day. Assascii117ming they also ate, slept and went to school, that leaves very little time for anything else.

The stascii117dy is &ldqascii117o;one of the first to attempt to bridge the developmental science of television viewing with neascii117roscience,&rdqascii117o; says health policy expert Frederick Zimmerman of the ascii85niversity of California, Los Angeles.

More stascii117dies are needed to figascii117re oascii117t exactly how television affects the growing brain. Bascii117t for now, it&rsqascii117o;s clear that parking in front of a TV for hoascii117rs on end isn&rsqascii117o;t good for ascii117s, and that&rsqascii117o;s especially trascii117e if yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re a kid.
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