
ABCD study enrollment done, announces opportunities for scientific engagement - myinnerbanjo
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/abcd-study-completes-enrollment-announces-opportunities-scientific-engagement
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josephagoss
Doesn't everything change the structure of a kids brain? What experiences
would cause the brain not to change at all?

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PavlovsCat
The headline and the article don't match up at all:

> _The National Institutes of Health announced today that enrollment for the
> Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study is now complete and, in
> early 2019, scientists will have access to baseline data from all ABCD Study
> participants._

It's very interesting though, but the title really needs to be changed, so
more people can see this:

> Researchers interested in accessing these data can visit the NIMH Data
> Archive [https://data-archive.nimh.nih.gov/abcd](https://data-
> archive.nimh.nih.gov/abcd) . As findings are published in various journals
> by both ABCD investigators and other scientists, study coordinators will
> continue to post information on the study website
> [https://abcdstudy.org/](https://abcdstudy.org/) at
> [https://abcdstudy.org/scientists-
> publications.html](https://abcdstudy.org/scientists-publications.html)

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RobLach
In my experience, for the better.

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geofft
The current title of this submission is "Screen Time Changes Structure of
Kids' Brains, New NIH Study Data Shows." The current link is to
[https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/abcd-study-
com...](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/abcd-study-completes-
enrollment-announces-opportunities-scientific-engagement) . (Related: I wish
there were a log of this.)

The current link has the text, "For example, a recent study by ABCD
investigators showed associations between differing amounts and kinds of
screen time (e.g., video games vs. social media) and different structural
brain characteristics, psychological traits, and cognitive function," linking
to
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918320123)
a paper "Screen media activity and brain structure in youth: Evidence for
diverse structural correlation networks from the ABCD study," whose abstract
ends, "Taken together, these findings support the notion of [screen media
activity] 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." It's
unfortunately an Elsevier paper, but I think my alma mater still gives me
access. Let me see what it says and try to summarize....

OK, I've read the article and it is hard for me to follow concrete
observations and exactly how _much_ change there is (probably because I'm not
an expert in the field and it's also 2 AM here). If I'm reading it right, they
did a "group factor analysis" using R to identify 4 hypothetical variables
with nontrivial correlation between both their screen time survey questions
and the brain measurements from the NIH ABCD study. They believe they found
some correlation between more screen time in general and more "externalizing
behavior," and also some between more gaming and more "fluid intelligence".

More interestingly, they caution, "First, this is a cross-sectional
assessment, which enables establishment of associations but does not allow
drawing causal inferences.Although multivariate methods such as [group factor
analysis] enable differential examination of the impact of [social media
activity] and structural brain characteristics on outcome variables, they
cannot address the 'chicken and egg' question.Therefore, the longitudinal
component of ABCD is essential to begin to delineate causal longitudinal
pathways." (ABCD is a long-term study as these children grow; they did this
paper based on a single snapshot of the data.) They also state, "This
diversity of findings provides an important public health message, i.e. screen
media activity is not simply 'bad for the brain' or 'bad for brain related
functioning'."

So I think this is a real interesting paper, but deserves more study and more
reporting on what's actually happening, and saying that screen time changes
brains (as opposed to, say, kids who want to take their aggression out on
something spend more time on the computer) is prematurely attributing
causality.

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gammateam
Any conclusions on if this are any beneficial components to this?

~~~
PavlovsCat
Too early to tell, enrollment to the study only just finished.

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polskibus
Please bring back the original title

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stefangordon
The relevant link is probably "Evidence for diverse structural correlation
networks from the ABCD study"
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918320123)

But has anyone found the full text of this yet?

