美国国家公共电台 NPR Heavy Screen Time Rewires Young Brains, For Better And Worse

Heavy Screen Time Rewires Young Brains, For Better And Worse

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There's new evidence that excessive screen time early in life can change a developing brain. That might not be a bad thing. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports some scientists say the changes may help our brains cope with a fast-paced world.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE²: A developing brain needs stimulation³. So for a long time, parents were encouraged to give kids as many sensory⁴ experiences as possible. Jan-Marino Ramirez of Seattle Children's Research Institute says that advice was based on a simple idea.

JAN-MARINO RAMIREZ: And the idea was basically the more you are exposed to sensory stimulation, the better you are cognitively⁵.

HAMILTON: Then studies began to suggest that children who spent too much time watching TV or playing video games were more likely to develop attention deficit⁶ hyperactivity disorder⁷. So scientists have been studying rats and mice to see how an excess of audio-visual stimulation changes brain circuits.

At a press conference at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, Ramirez described his latest study. It looked at young mice that spent six hours a day bombarded with a sound-and-light show meant to simulate screen time.

RAMIREZ: We found dramatic changes everywhere in the brain. So many of those changes suggest now that you have a brain that is wired up at a much more baseline-excited level. You need much more sensory stimulation to get the attention.

HAMILTON: Ramirez says the mice were also hyperactive and prone⁸ to risky⁹ behavior. He thinks that's because the mouse brain hasn't evolved to handle so much stimulation early in life. And he doubts the human brain has either.

RAMIREZ: The big question is, was our brain set up to be exposed to such a fast pace? If you think about nature, you would run in the savanna¹⁰. And you would maybe once in your lifetime meet a lion.

HAMILTON: In a video game, you can meet a lion every few seconds. And Ramirez says when that happens early in life, the brain appears to become less sensitive to stimulation. So the mice didn't get stressed by the sound-and-light show. Overall, though, Ramirez thinks the changes are a bad thing.

But Leah Krubitzer, an evolutionary¹¹ biologist at the University of California, Davis, says, for humans, it may not be so bad. She says our environment has changed a lot.

LEAH KRUBITZER: Less than 300 years ago, we had an industrial revolution. And today we're using mobile phones. And we interact on a regular basis with machines. So the brain must have changed.

HAMILTON: Krubitzer says, maybe even in some useful ways.

KRUBITZER: There's a tendency to think of the good old days when you were a kid. And, you know, I didn't do that. And I didn't have cell phones. And I didn't have this TV. And look how great I turned out. And we kind of want our kids to go back to that.

HAMILTON: Krubitzer says, even if that were possible, it might not be a good idea. And the American Academy of Pediatrics seems to agree. A few weeks ago, it relaxed its long-standing rule against any screen time for kids under 2. Gina Turrigiano, a brain researcher at Brandeis University, says that gives parents more discretion¹² and more responsibility.

GINA TURRIGIANO: Parents have to be really aware of the fact that each kid is going to respond very, very differently to the same kinds of environments.

HAMILTON: Turrigiano says what's fine for one developing brain may be too much for another. Jon Hamilton, NPR News, San Diego.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

4 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

5 cognitively   

参考例句：

• Cognitively,man,the subject of cognition,must classify and categorize the objects. 从认知学角度来看 ，作为认知主体的人对于认知对象必须进行分类和范畴化。 来自互联网
• Cognitively, reference can be studied along with information processing of human mind. 从认知的角度看，要研究人类思维的信息处理过程。 来自互联网

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

8 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

9 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

10 savanna   

n.大草原

参考例句：

• The savanna is also the home of meat-eaters--the lion,leopard,and hyena who feed on the grasseaters.大草原也是食肉动物的家乡--狮子、豹、鬣狗--它们都是以草食动物维持生命的。
• They sped upon velvet wheels across an exhilarant savanna.他们的马车轻捷地穿过一片令人赏心悦目的大草原。

11 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

12 discretion   

n.谨慎；随意处理

参考例句：

• You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重。
• Please use your best discretion to handle the matter.请慎重处理此事。