While researching for my previous blog post, Is the Media at Fault, I happened to land on an article that found a correlation between television and brain cells. This sparked my interest and led me on an internet goose chase for a study that found any correlation between mobile devices and braincells. I eventually found one but was left with a further question of wether or not using multiple devices led to more brain cells being lost. It is widely assumed amongst society and especially our parents, that too much television and use of our phones is bad for us, but what if we use them together? Is it even worse?
First of all, multiple studies have shown that television in fact does not kill brain cells. It has also been found through many studies that there is no substantial evidence to support the claim that devices like cell phones kill brain cells either, the radiation is far too little. There is always chance though and on the assumption that things could change I have decided to evaluate the fallowing study through the eyes of one who still believes the devices really kill brain cells, like my parents. After all it is not the actual results of the study that I care most about but the way in which it was conducted.
courtesy of: http://sachendra.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/multiple-devices.jpg
In a study done by researchers at the University of Sussex’s Sackler Centre for Consciousness it was found that people who used a higher number of devices at the same time had “smaller grey matter density in the part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).” They determined this after doing a study, on 75 individuals who responded to questions regarding their use of devices. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to analyze the brain of the human subjects. The first issue I initially found with this research was the number of people being analyzed, far too small of a number in my opinion. Additionally, the study did not explicitly say if the subjects were randomly selected, compared to a similar group of people who didn’t use as many devices, or their age groups. The concerns I have all are critical in determining if a study is well done and credible. Without an answer regarding my concerns I cannot take this study too seriously.
Another issue with in the study, is the correlational findings. It is even stated within the article, Tweeting While Watching TV Linked to Fewer Brain Cells, that a “predilection for using several devices at once isn’t necessarily causing a decrease in gray matter, the authors note — this is a purely correlational finding.” It could very well be that the people who use more devices at once, do so because they have smaller grey matter density, according to the article.
All in all I find this study to be too flawed for serious consideration and as a result I am left with no real explanation for the decrease in brain cells of those who use multiple devices. I can only hope that carefully done and credible research can be done on this subject in the future.
Sources:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.5203v1.pdf
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/09/inside-the-brains-of-people-who-tweet-and-watch.html
This topic brings up an interesting point that strikes up a memory from high school. My physics teacher a couple of years ago told us a story about how people started believing that radiation from cell phones can cause cancer– because a woman who was constantly on her phone had a brain tumor that was near where a person would hold a cell phone. This is an example of a personal anecdote that spiraled way out of control– and a sign that our intuition is lousy, because those who hate the widespread usage of devices would definitely bring up an issue such as this to deter from constant technology use. As you can probably guess, we didn’t do much work in that physics class, mostly just talk about how people believe crazy things about science– kind of like this class. Something interesting brought up in this article is the idea that not enough time has passed for us to be able to tell– kind of like that it took over 100 years for us to realize that cigarettes cause cancer, which was something we thoroughly discussed in class.