Children's screentime is associated with reduced brain activation during an inhibitory control task: A pilot EEG study

Abstract

Children's screentime has been linked with a variety of behavioral consequences, including decreased inhibitory control. While children's screentime is associated with distinct functional brain differences, the links between screentime and neural markers of inhibitory control are unknown. Therefore, we examined these relationships in a pilot study using a Go/No-Go task (N = 20). After controlling for age, increased child screentime was significantly correlated with reduced P2 and P3 amplitudes elicited by No-Go trials. No significant relationships were observed with behavioral accuracy or response time. These findings indicate that children with greater screentime exhibit less robust neural processes for inhibitory control. Limitations and future directions are discussed within these preliminary findings.

How Early Digital Experience Shapes Young Brains: A Scoping Review

“…Playing with a human opponent did not show this effect, suggesting that social interaction reduced distraction. Lewin et al (2023) (#30) examined the relationship between child screentime and neural processes for inhibitory control. They found that after controlling for age, increased screentime was associated with reduced P2 and P3 amplitudes elicited by No-Go trials, indicating less robust inhibition.…”

“…First, this scoping review found that 23 studies reported the impact on children's brain functions: six positive effects, 15 negative impacts, and two mixed results. In particular, six EEG/ERP (Twait et al, 2019;Kostyrka-Allchorne et al,2019;Law et al, 2023;Lewin et al, 2023;Wetzel et al, 2021;Zivan et al, 2019), five fNIRS (Matsuda & Hiraki, 2006;Shimada & Hiraki, 2006;Li et al, 2019;Li et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021), and four fMRI (Baker et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2023;Horowitz & Hutton, 2017;Hutton et al, 2020) reported the negative effects of digital experiences on children's brain function. In contrast, two EEG/ERP studies (Mondéjar et al, 2016;Bergen et al, 2017), one fNIRS study (Li et al, 2017), and three fMRI studies (Han et al, 2007;Murray et al, 2006;Chaarani et al, 2022) reported the positive and training effects of digital experience on children's brain function.…”

“…Which Brain Area(s) and Functions Are Affected First, this scoping review found that altogether 15 studies (Baker et al, 2018;Baumgartner et al, 2006;Bergen et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2023;Kostyrka-Allchorne et al, 2019;Law et al, 2023;Lewin et al, 2023;Li et al, 2017;Li et al, 2019;Li et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021;Matsuda & Hiraki, 2006;Mondéjar et al, 2016;Twait et al, 2019;Zivan et al, 2019) reported the impact of digital experience on the function and structure of the frontal lobe, especially the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the neural base of executive function. In particular, some studies (Li et al, 2017;Li et al, 2021;Matsuda & Hiraki, 2006) focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DPFC), which is the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex and includes lateral part of Brodmann's area 9 and 46.…”