Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Sunday, April 26, 2009

ADHD and TV

Last weekend I was reading on the topic of widely cited psychologists. Hans Eysenck was near the top of the list and so I read a little bit about him. Among the things I found was this article, which while not exactly complimentary, did talk about the link between cortical under-arousal and ADHD. After some additional research, it seems that at least a many (but not all) instances of ADHD can be explained by a chronic lack of cortical arousal.

That insight triggered something in my memory...a quick google search turned up this rather aggressive post, which coincides with my memory. Essentially...TV watching inhibits brain activity. Overall...that makes for a pretty interesting correlation.

TV watching has gone up as the rate of ADHD has gone up. I would bet someone could get a dissertation out of the correlation (or lack thereof) between TV watching and ADHD. Multi-country studies showing the penetration of TV vs. the incidence of ADHD? Historical data on ADHD vs. TV in the US...in some other countries for which we have the data?

IF the under-arousal theory of ADHD still has adherents
and
IF the TV implies lower brain arousal hypothesis is still supported
then
A. The correlation between ADHD and TV should be evident
B. The causation chain would be ... TV watching --> lower cortical arousal --> ADHD.

Interesting thoughts.
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5 comments:

Robert Sperry said...

How does this play out in your house?

How do you make the trade-off of limiting TV versus maximizing the kids choice (re Sudbury TCS)?

Given that now any computer with the internet is a TV.

I also think the TV is worse than just the ADHD, it also fills the child's mental space and affects the rest of their thinking. It can predominate and not leave room for much else. Thats before getting into the good/bad of the content.

April 28, 2009 at 12:02 AM
aretae said...

I've reached the rather conservative position that it is my job as a parent to prepare a child for his/her future. Sudbury and TCS are instrumentally awfully good at that in many/most cases. However, they are not, from first principles, the only choices.

At the same time, there needs to be a presumption of liberty, because parents no less than others, are fallible about the needs of their children, and in general likely to under-estimate the importance of the wants of the children.

As to avoiding TV?
There's net-nanny type programs (which we use).
There's time restrictions (which we use -- noon-six is electronics free)

I'm less worried about the filling-up of the children's mental space...and I'm not too unhappy about the content of the young kids stuff.

Passive Brains...that does bother me though.

May 13, 2009 at 3:33 PM
aretae said...

On the other hand...just saw an instance of your thesis today, and I liked it.

An older child of mine just demonstrated a rather appalling paucity of imagination from having become too immersed in the fictional worlds otherwise created. WOW, Halo, Pokemon, Yugioh, etc., seem to have limited his ability to imagine outside those boxes.

On the other hand (I should be an economist, or blogging at Hecatoncheires.com), there's something to be said for structure in which to put an imagination...

Musicians, poets, painters and artists of all types have argued for many years that in order to be truly creative, one needs constraints in order to transcend them. Perhaps the imaginational limitations of TV and computer gaming provide that kind of constraint.

May 26, 2009 at 9:07 AM
Freedom said...

I'm curious, is noon to six electronics free for everyone in your house, adults included?

How do you manage to be electronics free at work?

-Jen

June 30, 2009 at 1:25 AM
Aretae said...

Freedom,

Fair enough snark.
I'm not "in the family" while working. So...yes it's all-free at home during the week noon-6, but ... people away doing work, or visiting other houses and such are not bound.

July 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM

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