The Impact of Digital Media on Youths’ Attention Development

[kyliewoodman]

Research question(s)

Do adolescents' attention networks adapt to increasing amounts of screen time and the attentional demands which accompany it?

H1: Based on the typical neural development of adolescence (Thomas et al., 2020; Klenberg et al., 2010), we expect activation in vigilant attention clusters (BA 32, 22, 9, & 47; Morandini et al., 2020) to increase from ages 9 to 12 among low digital media users.
H2: However, for high digital media users, we hypothesize a decrease in the activation of vigilant attention clusters over time.

(Variables of Interest: Youth screen time questionnaire & SST fMRI task)

Description

Digital entertainment is designed to sustain an individual's attention by minimizing the need for active vigilant attention processing (Exogenous) or self-regulation (Endogenous; Kokoç et al., 2021; Portugal et al., 2021; Ra, 2019). As youth develop alongside the advancing digital landscape, it would be interesting to examine how individuals adapt to digital demands on attention. Longitudinal studies have observed positive relationships between screen time and the development of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptomatology, but changes in the attention system at a neurological level have yet to be examined in healthy populations (Corkin et al., 2021; Soares et al., 2021).

Tools and algorithms to be used

Tools

fMRIPrep
Nilearn & nipype
Python
R

Statistical Approaches

Factorial repeated measures ANOVA
Open to Suggestions

Skills we could use help with

Nipype
FSL

Suggested keywords/tags

Attention
fMRI
Screen Time
Longitudinal

[icubr]

Nice!

[sarahechang123]

Hi Kylie! I'm interested in joining this project - would you be interested in integrating some of the behavioral measures of attention/attention variability from the NIH Toolbox into this analysis? Happy to chat further about your current ideas/any analysis plans you may have. I'm a 3rd year PhD student in Neuroscience, with some experience with the ABCD tabular data and R and looking to grow my neuroimaging skills further.

[kyliewoodman]

Hi Sarah,
We would love to have you join the project! It would be great to have a behavioral measure of attention like the Flanker task as a secondary measure of attention. Ioannis and I are thinking about meeting on Tuesday, April 12th at 8 am (PT) if you can meet. We can also discuss details over Slack!

[sarahechang123]

Hi Kylie,
Great! Looking forward to chatting soon - Tuesday at 8am (PT) works for me. I'll follow-up via Slack!