Screen media activity and brain structure in youth: Evidence for diverse structural correlation networks from the ABCD study

Abstract

The adolescent brain undergoes profound structural changes which is influenced by many factors. Screen media activity (SMA; e.g., watching television or videos, playing video games, or using social media) is a common recreational activity in children and adolescents; however, its effect on brain structure is not well understood. A multivariate approach with the first cross-sectional data release from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study was used to test the maturational coupling hypothesis, i.e. the notion that coordinated patterns of structural change related to specific behaviors. Moreover, the utility of this approach was tested by determining the association between these structural correlation networks and psychopathology or cognition. ABCD participants with usable structural imaging and SMA data (N=4277 of 4524) were subjected to a Group Factor Analysis (GFA) to identify latent variables that relate SMA to cortical thickness, sulcal depth, and gray matter volume. Subject scores from these latent variables were used in generalized linear mixed-effect models to investigate associations between SMA and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, as well as fluid and crystalized intelligence. Four SMA-related GFAs explained 37% of the variance between SMA and structural brain indices. SMA-related GFAs correlated with brain areas that support homologous functions. Some but not all SMA-related factors corresponded with higher externalizing (Cohen’s d effect size (ES) 0.06–0.1) but not internalizing psychopathology and lower crystalized (ES: 0.08–0.1) and fluid intelligence (ES: 0.04–0.09). Taken together, these findings support the notion of SMA related maturational coupling or structural correlation networks in the brain and provides evidence that individual differences of these networks have mixed consequences for psychopathology and cognitive performance.

Time for the Human Screenome Project

“…To indicate screen use, participants simply pick from a list of five standard time ranges, giving separate answers for each media category and for weekdays and weekends. (The first report about media use from this study, published last year, showed a small or no relationship between media exposure and brain characteristics or cognitive performance in computer-based tasks 9 . )…”

Associations Between Screen-Based Media Use and Brain White Matter Integrity in Preschool-Aged Children

“…[12][13][14] The World Health Organization recently released even more restrictive recommendations for children younger than 5 years, discouraging screen time and advocating greater study of its implications for health and development. 15 Recent evidence suggests that screen-based media use poses neurobiological risks in children, [16][17][18][19] yet its associations with early brain development are largely unknown, particularly during the dynamic span of development before kindergarten. 10 Although sensory networks mature relatively early, 11 those sensory networks for higher-order skills, such as language, 12 executive function, 20,21 multimodal association, 13 and reading, 22,23 exhibit protracted development 11,14 and are dependent on constructive stimulation in the home.…”

Severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: psychiatric and cognitive problems and brain structure in children

“…A linear mixed-effect model (LMM) was used to test the associations of the exposure to NVP with the brain morphometric measures and with the children's cognitive scores from the NIH Cognitive Toolbox and the psychiatric problems scores from the Child Behavior Checklist noted above that are provided by ABCD. As recommended by the ABCD and used in many studies [40,41], a linear mixed-effects model (LMM) was used to model the correlated observations within families due to twins and siblings and at sites. In this way, the LMM was specified to model family nested within the site.…”