4 ms·

ABCD study enrollment done, announces opportunities for scientific engagement

30 points by myinnerbanjo 8y ago

gammateam 8y ago
Any conclusions on if this are any beneficial components to this?
- PavlovsCat 8y ago
  Too early to tell, enrollment to the study only just finished.
RobLach 8y ago
In my experience, for the better.
PavlovsCat 8y ago
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
josephagoss 8y ago
Doesn't everything change the structure of a kids brain? What experiences would cause the brain not to change at all?
polskibus 8y ago
Please bring back the original title
geofft 8y ago
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-completes-enrollment-announces-opportunities-scientific-engagement https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/abcd-study-com... . (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/S1053811918320123 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191... 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.
stefangordon 8y ago
The relevant link is probably "Evidence for diverse structural correlation networks from the ABCD study" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918320123 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191... But has anyone found the full text of this yet?

30 points by myinnerbanjo 8y ago

gammateam 8y ago

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

PavlovsCat 8y ago
Too early to tell, enrollment to the study only just finished.

RobLach 8y ago

In my experience, for the better.

PavlovsCat 8y ago

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

josephagoss 8y ago

Doesn't everything change the structure of a kids brain? What experiences would cause the brain not to change at all?

polskibus 8y ago

Please bring back the original title

geofft 8y ago

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-completes-enrollment-announces-opportunities-scientific-engagement https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/abcd-study-com... . (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/S1053811918320123 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191... 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.

stefangordon 8y ago

The relevant link is probably "Evidence for diverse structural correlation networks from the ABCD study" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918320123 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191... But has anyone found the full text of this yet?