Watching Reels and Shorts may temporarily switch down parts of your brain, study finds
Follow UsStudy tracked brain activity in 56 young adults while they watched short videos.
Researchers observed lower activity in key cognitive control regions when participants enjoyed a video.
The findings do not suggest that Reels or Shorts cause permanent brain damage.
If you often end up watching Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts for hours, a new study has an interesting explanation that might stop you. The researchers have found out that watching short-form videos may temporarily reduce activity in brain regions involved in attention, self-control and decision-making.
SurveyAccording to a NeuroImage study which examined 56 young adults to understand how the brain responds while people watch short videos. It used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure neurotransmitters such as glutamate and GABA.
Short videos linked to lower activity in cognitive control regions
The researchers focused on two regions associated with the brain’s cognitive control network: the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). For the unversed, these areas play an important role in regulating behaviour, managing attention and adapting to changing situations.
During this experiment, participants were allowed to watch a variety of short clips including people, animals, games and nature. Most of these videos were under 30 seconds and participants had the option to skip if they wanted.
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The researchers then compared the brain activity when participants continued watching the videos they enjoyed with activity recorded when they chose to stop watching. The results showed reduced activity in parts of the cognitive control network while participants were engaged with videos they liked.
As per the researchers, this may help explain why the short-form video platforms can make it difficult to stop scrolling after watching just a few clips. However, the findings can not be interpreted as evidence that Reels or Shorts cause permanent damage to the brain. It only observed the temporary changes in activity in specific brain regions and did not establish a long term decline in cognitive ability.
