Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

throwaway27727

Correlation or causation? The article doesn't specify whether the subjects' brain sizes were measured prior to the study.

testing22321

It’s called “the idiot box” for a reason.

BoingBoomTschak

It's not called an "idiot box" for nothing =)

analog8374

people like to put their television down, but we are still good friends

Aurornis

Direct study link: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz... Observational study with an MRI at the end and user-reported activity histories. The results indicate a correlation, not necessarily causation. The study authors don't pretend to imply causation and are straight with these facts. You can't randomize humans to either do a lot of TV watching for years or stay away from TV for years. So you can you safely assume any study making these correlations is not randomized. It does not mean it should be discarded. There are a lot of other studies looking at how cortical volume can be preserved through aging with other interventions, however. There are a lot of before/after studies showing aerobic exercise can reduce the brain volume loss associated with aging - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41491407/ So despite this being a correlation study, the result is not surprising. Sedentary activity is correlated with slightly faster degradation of multiple brain measures. What is interesting in this study is that sedentary work that was intellectually challenging appeared to be somewhat protective. This is also consistent with past studies with before/after measurements around interventions like really intensive skill learning or even meditation.

relium

Now I'm curious if it matters what you watch.

tripleee

Use it or lose it

Lerc

I guess that means we are lucky that TVs weigh so much less now.

laxmena

One big concern for me in this article is, the MRI scans were not taken during the start of the study. But, I couldnt eliminate this because the pattern (of reduced white matter in brain) seem to hold true across the pool of 1700 people. Most curious part of in this article is the active vs passive sitting distinction. Occupational sitting (or performing intellectual activity while sitting) correlated with better brain scans and white matter. This makes sense, if I view it as consumption vs processing thing. TV is pure consumption, Intellectual work requires output and creation. If this thesis holds, the rise of AI tools is a bit concerning for knowledge workers. We are shifting from active creation (writing code, writing articles, designing, etc) to passive consumption and curation (reviewing AI generated content). Will be interested to learn more on how this study unfolds further.

tqi

Would they have published this study if the correlation was inverted, or would that have been rejected as spurrious bc it goes against our priors?

WalterBright

Lack of exercise results in smaller muscles, too.

haunter

Interestingly there is no mention of semantics or what does actually "TV watching" mean. I have friends who self admittedly don't "watch TV" but they watch every single hyped up Netflix series available. Are they watching TV? By this study they probably not. Are they watching TV? I'd say most likely yes, they also use the device called TV to watch Netflix

danubis

Sitting while passively watching something that captivate your brain leaving no room for thoughts seems like the perfect combo for brain rot

nabbed

I watch (or listen to) a lot of youtube on my iPad (and sometimes on my TV, but not too often). I wonder if youtube watching is also correlated with the mentioned brain changes.

wartywhoa23

Next up: Heavy AI usage.

nephihaha

I could have told you that years ago. LOL. The problem is that as a medium it is so passive. Radio forces you to visualise to some extent or maybe do other things. Computer games and some of the internet (even social media!) require some interaction. Reading and stage plays require heavier use of the brain too. In the case of reading, you both interpret the words and in many cases visualise things based on them.

theplumber

I guess it’s just brain rot and it could apply to any kins of compulsive consumption of junk(I.e social media, Netflix, TV etc)

cramer4next

I'd like to see the study go farther with a specific consumed content breakdown. For example somone who watches Jimmy Kimmel vs someone who watches Dateline nightly. How much impact does the content affect the brain rot?

holografix

Maybe smaller brain structures watch more tv?

bushwart

Bad TV, very bad. Good thing I watch my moving pictures on social media instead!