Watching TikTok Videos and Instagram Reels Deactivates the Brain's Cognitive Control Network (rathbiotaclan.com) 41
An anonymous reader quotes a report from RathBiotaClan: Millions of people finish short video after short video every day; a new brain-scan study shows that the very act of finishing a clip they like temporarily quiets the brain regions that normally help them stay focused and weigh longer-term goals. When people watch a short video they enjoy enough to finish, two brain regions involved in cognitive control show significant deactivation. That is the central finding of a new study from Zhejiang University, published in NeuroImagein January 2026.
Using functional MRI alongside proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS), the research team examined 56 young adults while they freely watched short video clips inside an MRI scanner. Both the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) showed reduced activity specifically when participants watched clips they liked enough to view to completion. Cognitive control helps people balance immediate pleasures against longer-term goals, and impairments in this system are linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction. Short-video platforms present rapid, algorithmically curated streams that are built for continuous, low-effort consumption.
Prior behavioral research has tied both internet addiction and smartphone addiction to weaker self-control, and separate neuroimaging work has documented disruptions to reward and cognitive-control circuits in people with behavioral addictions. Despite this, few studies had directly tested whether the act of watching entertaining short videos itself suppresses the brain's cognitive control regions. The Zhejiang University team set out to answer that question, along with a second one: what neurochemical factors might explain why this suppression varies from person to person?
Using functional MRI alongside proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS), the research team examined 56 young adults while they freely watched short video clips inside an MRI scanner. Both the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) showed reduced activity specifically when participants watched clips they liked enough to view to completion. Cognitive control helps people balance immediate pleasures against longer-term goals, and impairments in this system are linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction. Short-video platforms present rapid, algorithmically curated streams that are built for continuous, low-effort consumption.
Prior behavioral research has tied both internet addiction and smartphone addiction to weaker self-control, and separate neuroimaging work has documented disruptions to reward and cognitive-control circuits in people with behavioral addictions. Despite this, few studies had directly tested whether the act of watching entertaining short videos itself suppresses the brain's cognitive control regions. The Zhejiang University team set out to answer that question, along with a second one: what neurochemical factors might explain why this suppression varies from person to person?
well, that's companies off of the hook. (Score:1)
I guess state attorneys general are going to lose their case against Meta and Alphabet.
Eh? Surely the opposite (Score:2)
Maybe I missed some sarcasm?
How does showing that the algorithms are physiologically addictive i.e. impairing self-control, let Meta (reels) or Alphabet (shorts) "off the hook"? TikTok is probably the worst offender and I'm not sure how it managed to get off with a "confidential settlement", but it doesn't absolve the others.
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Because it is blaming the victim. It can very easily be spun into "the person is dumb" and "he/she deserved it."
Reality is, all this "addiction" bullshit started from what was just euphemistic associating of natural obsessive habits and behaviours, some good, some not so good, with what was an actual medical condition containing legal teeth.
We obsess to specialise. It provides shareable skills across the community.
Re:Eh? Surely the opposite (Score:4, Insightful)
PS: I'm not saying blaming social media is wrong. That is the correct finger to point. Just that the reason is wrong. And that leads to incorrect remedies.
Banning minors from the platforms is not a solution when the flaw is with the platforms, not the children.
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The problem is that it is more difficult to ban the platform itself within current regulatory frameworks (and that's before we talk governments simping for big tech).
Banning minors has legal precedent that has been set through legal systems throughout the past century, and some adults (in some cases rightfully so) would question whether the government's role is to make personal decisions for them (something that minors lack the maturity to do).
So yeah, it doesn't address the root cause, but it's about as go
slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
Just wait until they study slashdot...
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See, it deactivates your brain entirely.
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Well, okay, but are you going to leave your brain to science for the research? (Or time to modify my own will?)
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They won't be able to prove that I died from exposure to slashdot.
So, it's procrasturbation (Score:3)
This was already a pretty well known phenomenon. Hell, awhile back I made an AI generated song about putting off mowing the lawn, because I literally was putting off mowing the lawn by playing with AI song generation tools.
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Naw, every generation has to have a monster to blame.
Don't play violent video games, they cause kids to become violent in real life. Don't listen to Rock and Roll, it will corrupt our youth. Don't smoke weed, it causes... I forget.
When book printing became cheap enough for mass distribution, there was an entire generation of oldsters complaining about how much time those damned kids spent with their nose in a book. I'm sure, if we had some form of history to point to it, there were similar gripes about scrolls and stone tablets.
Re: So, it's procrasturbation (Score:2)
One man and AI went to mow a meadow...
How do you play videos inside an MRI machine? (Score:3)
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A projector and lots of mirrors?
Realistically, probably just an LCD set up in the patient's line of sight and not a smartphone. MRI rooms already have LCDs set up so I'd have to presume it's safe.
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OK, off topic, but how do you display videos to somebody inside an MRI scanner? The magnetic / EMF forces those machines generate are pretty titanic, and any piece of metal gets sucked into the center of it.
Assuming it is installed inside somehow, you can avoid the projectile risk by not using any ferrous metal in its construction. Non-ferrous metals (e.g. dental fillings) aren't a problem in an MRI, though you may feel the electrical eddy currents induced by the magnetic fields. For something like an LCD panel, you'd probably want to shield the ever-living crap out of it to minimize problems, and I'm not even certain that it is feasible for that reason, but that's different from the LCD panel physically fly
It's Homer's brain! (Score:2)
with the little monkey playing his cymbals. Do do do do do... D'oh!
Address the Addiction already. (Score:5, Insightful)
Great. So we've finally realized that addictive behavior creates shitty outcomes. Or we've at least remembered why we should have remembered that long ago. Now tell me what we're going to DO about the zombie horde of junkies in total denial.
You can tell a 3-pack a day smoker that smoking is bad for them. They could even agree with you. Does FUCK ALL when they no longer give a shit about that fact because addiction.
Even worse when we're battling a society desperately trying to normalize their addictions before anyone really starts calling them out for that shit. If you see an iPad junkie toddler screaming about no WiFi, check the iPad junkie parent for the root cause.
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check the iPad junkie parent for the root cause
Most of the time I see iPad junkie toddlers their parents aren't addicted to the iPad. They may be at fault for enabling that behaviour, but they quite often are not addicted themselves.
Heck my neighbour owns one iPad: for the kids. They've never used tablets for anything other than to numb their kids by filling their faces with Bluey while they go and attempt to do normal adult things. The society normalising bit here is that parents expect life to go on as normal when they have kids, and not have to give
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Why all the escapism though? Isn't it only happening because of things we're not addressing and are in denial about at a lower level?
We're all basically Jerry now. (Score:3)
President Curtis: At first it was fun spending all day watching whatever YouTube autoplays after the last one autoplayed, but a man can only watch so many ads for Grammarly.
Sorry. (Score:3)
what did you say - I was scrolling
So not surprised.. (Score:1)
Don't like short videos (Score:2)
TikTok makes you dumb? (Score:2)
Naa. People are generally pretty dumb without social media. All TikTok will do is stop them from more failure using the pathetic excise for rationality the own.
You can block this rot on Youtube (Score:2)
Install ShortsBlocker extension: (FYI, for those unaware)
https://chromewebstore.google.... [google.com]
preferably on Brave. And there are other ways.
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Enhancer for Youtube and BlockTube extension do it for me on Firefox.
Finally! (Score:1)
Proof that "TV rots the brain", lol!
Now excuse me, while I go watch another Gilligan's Island.
not new (Score:2)
Who remembers TOP 40 radio? (ORIGINAL DOOMSCROLL) (Score:1)
I'd be interested if they would do the exact same testing on viewers of 24 hour news stations like CNN Headline News, FOX News and others.
Of course, before these, there was MTV and VH1. Before that, it was "continuous hits" radio playing top 40.
These are the original "Doom Scroll" media outlets.
So we have 3-4 generations of "doom scrollers" that extend back long before the Internet was accessible via dial-up modem.
This is *NOT* new.
flashback... (Score:1)
Relaxed? (Score:2)
Is this different than the brain state when watching a movie or play?
"Suspension of Disbelief" is an ancient concept.
Not to defend the technology but the summary sounds like confirmation of the null hypothesis.