Key Stage 3 pupil Matthew, from Carlton Keighley school in West Yorkshire, recently took part in The Scholars Programme, where University of Leeds PhD student Kate Hiley taught him and other pupils her course titled ‘Neuro Navigators: Steering the Science of Brain Development’.
Kate was impressed by Matthew’s final assignment, a university-style essay on the effectiveness of using EEG to study the effects of screen exposure on the development of children’s brains, so submitted it for consideration to be published in the latest issue of our journal of outstanding student work, The Scholar. After peer review, Matthew’s article was chosen to be published, and we wanted to feature it here for you to read.
Matthew’s is one of 27 Scholars Programme articles to be featured in the latest edition of The Scholar. featuring STEM, Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences articles from Key Stage 2-5 pupils from non-selective state schools. Schools interested in running The Scholars Programme can fill out our quick enquiry form to learn more.
Key Stage 3
Pupil Name: Matthew
School Name: Carlton Keighley
Supervised by: K. Hiley
Tutor University: University of Leeds
Course Title: Neuro Navigators: Steering the Science of Brain Development
The brain is an infinitely complex and interesting organ that constantly drives and maintains both a human being and consciousness, something humanity has never been able to truly replicate. For centuries, humanity has studied the body and the brain, slowly piecing together how it functions. However, scientists back then could only study the brain after death, so the intricate system was never seen in action. In recent times, technology has given us the ability to see inside the body to see how the brain is working as it goes about its never-ending work. This essay will be looking at how effective the Electroencephalogram (EEG) device (which is a system for measuring surface brain activity) is as a tool in neuroscience, and how it is being used in current research on the effects of screens on developing young minds.
Developmental neuroscience is the study of the changes the brain and nervous system undergo as the brain develops and grows throughout childhood, looking at the creation, linking and adjustment of neurons as the brain learns about and experiences the world around it. It also looks at the genetic and environmental factors that determine the development of the brain and understand how it develops and works, and what causes neurodivergences and neural disorders. This field is vital in helping to understand how to best encourage and help the brain to grow to its full potential, as well as recognising, preventing, or treating neural issues, such as epilepsy.
Fig.1. Lobes of the brain (Hiley, 2024, adapted)
The brain is made up of multiple areas on its surface known as lobes, which work together in a harmonious network that enables complexities like consciousness to exist. These lobes are shown and labelled in Fig.1. Each lobe of the brain has its own set of tasks to accomplish in everyday life, whether on their own or sharing larger problems with each other, such as how the Frontal lobe is responsible for problem solving and planning ahead, and the Occipital lobe takes input from the eyes and converts the signals into the images we see.
Fig.2. A diagram of a neuron (Hiley, 2024)
The brain is made up of neurons, which are the brain’s specialised cells shown in Fig 2 that carry and process little chunks of information such as sensory input, working together as a larger whole. Neurons are also capable of creating connections that aid the speed at which the brain can access necessary information. Old unused connections can be replaced to be part of a new one if they are deemed unnecessary, which is known as pruning. This manifests as forgetting a skill you haven’t used in years, or memories. This ability is more prominent in younger children and is known as neuroplasticity, or the malleability of the brain’s connections. Neuroplasticity is slowly lost after the brain finishes the main part of its development at around 25 years old, and it becomes harder to learn new things as the neuron pathways begin to set and later, degrade.
Fig.3. Various kinds of brainwaves as seen on an EEG device (Hiley, 2024)
The neurons and their connections function by sending electrical impulses to other parts of the brain, as well as to the rest of the body to instruct a part of the body to perform its function, whether this is conscious, such as moving muscles, or unconscious, such as a heartbeat. The electrical impulses can be detected when in large, synchronised numbers by electrodes on the scalp, which can show the activity as a wavy line on a graph, with the appearance of the wave showing the brain activity in that region, as shown in Fig 3. Lowest frequencies (0.5-4Hz, delta) are associated with sleep, and highest frequencies (35Hz, gamma) are associated with concentration and focus (Abhang et. al, 2016). However, one area of the brain can emit various wave frequencies simultaneously. Just one EEG recording can contain substantial data and multiple kinds of brain waves. Patterns can also vary by individual. This all makes interpretation of the graphs from EEG measurements a time-consuming task, even without artefacts (systematic errors or unwanted signals).
Fig.4. Schematic diagram of EEG electrode placement (Hiley, 2024)
One tool neurobiologists use is electroencephalography (EEG), which consists of electrodes placed upon the scalp in specified places (Fig.4), which measures the various brainwaves up to 1cm deep in the brain by picking up and recording the electric pulses from neurons. EEG has excellent temporal resolution, is able to pinpoint electrical signals to the millisecond, and is non-invasive and quick to set up, as well as being both affordable and portable, making it ideal for leaving the laboratory to visit areas outside of a fixed clinic to get more data without the impact of being in a laboratory. EEGs are not invasive or unpleasant to use, so it is easier to use on children, who are often the focus of neurodevelopmental studies. Outside of developmental neuroscience, EEGs can also diagnose a large array of conditions, such as stroke, brain tumours or Alzheimer’s disease (Victoria State Government Department of Health, 2024). However, it has poor spatial resolution: most EEG devices with fewer than 64 electrodes are unable to accurately pinpoint specific locations due to electrical signals dissipating across the scalp and because electrical impulses from smaller regions are miniscule. Electrodes often record artefacts that render any activity at that time unreadable and need to be manually filtered out, such as blinking. EEGs are only capable of scanning the surface of the brain and not its centre (Hiley, 2024).
One topic that can be studied within developmental neuroscience is the effects of high use of screen-based technology during brain development. This area of study has important applications in real life, as with the growing number of devices and their increasing use due to convenience, children have more access to screens from earlier ages, which leads to worry over the effects of too much screentime in early life. These sorts of parenting questions can be answered by using EEG.
In one study, Zivan et. al (2019) measured the difference in attention spans and visual attention after a group of thirty children with no history of attention-based problems were spilt into two groups over 6 weeks. One group of children was given live person-based story telling sessions, whereas another group had the stories read to them via a screen. Afterwards, EEG was used to look at the differences in brain waves between the two groups. This study was carried out on the hypothesis that greater exposure to screens at an early age can lead to decreased attention spans and an increase in theta waves (Fig. 2) and a decrease in faster waves such as beta or gamma, as well as an increase in the theta/beta ratio in children, which is associated with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). It was concluded that the control group exhibited greater visual attention after exposure to live stories. EEG results also showed a greater connectivity between theta and beta bands in the group with screens, but not in the control group. In addition, exposure to screens early on had a correlation to EEG patterns associated with altered attention skills. Zivan et. al concluded that, while the evidence supported the idea that screens have a negative influence on cognitive skills compared to human interaction, the mechanism of the screen’s effect on the brain is not clear enough to make a full decision. This experiment was successful in terms of control variables, making sure the children were of similar starting points in terms of attention, and they were able to make a valid conclusion from both their findings and those of other studies.
In another study, Zivan et. al (2023) looked at the differences in which areas of the brain were activated when reading from a screen compared to reading from paper. They got fifteen 6-8-year-olds to read unillustrated, age-appropriate texts, reading a printed text or a digital text while wearing an EEG. They found that, when reading a printed text, there were more high frequency waves such as beta and gamma in areas related to reading such as language interpretation, whereas for reading a screen text, there were more low frequency waves, such as theta and delta. This evidences reduced focus when reading from a screen rather than paper. In conclusion, this agrees with AAP (American Academy of Paediatrics) guidelines on favouring paper reading and suggests avoiding screens for beginner readers. The study’s use of EEG here was effective because the un-invasive nature of the procedure makes it easier to perform certain tasks, such as reading, without the artefacts created by the effects of a more invasive piece of equipment.
A third paper, Farah et. al (2019) looked at the effect of dialogic reading (DR) compared to a similar, screen-based activity. They took thirty-two children of 4-6 years and split them into two equal groups, one of which took part in a DR session and the other in a screen-based story, and then both groups were evaluated with a behavioural assessment and comprehension task while wearing an EEG. The group who took part in the DR showed a greater vocabulary and lower functional connectivity, linked to a greater understanding of the story and an increase in vocabulary, whereas the group using the screen activity showed no changes in vocabulary or connectivity. This shows a beneficial effect of DR in younger school years and in attention-associated EEG bands. This experiment’s use of control variables and EEG on young children is useful in both not interfering with results by wearing it and through its quick process allowing for clear readings.
I have looked at three studies that use EEG to see differences between children learning through a screen versus learning through human interactions or printed paper, observing differences in brain wave patterns after the interventions (Zivan et. al, 2019; Zivan et. al, 2023; Farah et. al, 2019). Overall, the studies all indicate that screens have a (potentially long-lasting) detrimental effect on the development of children’s brains, although the lack of understanding of the exact mechanism behind this makes it hard to make a full conclusion. The use of EEG has been effective here and created noteworthy results, which fit hypotheses created from the results of previous experiments and so can be assumed to be correct. EEG devices were incredibly useful in and well suited to this undertaking due to their portability to allow them to be taken into schools, and their unintrusive nature meant that the brain’s function was not impaired by the distracting or stressful presence of large, loud equipment, especially ones that impair movement or vision required to complete tasks, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), on the children. Thus, I conclude that, despite its time-consuming nature to remove artifacts caused by fidgeting or active children and poor spatial resolution (that would hopefully be improved later on by having more and smaller electrodes on portable EEGs), its successful results, efficiency, having the least impact on the results due to being ignorable during testing, and the portability makes results more accurate. By being in the natural environment of this event, a school, rather than a laboratory, makes EEG the most effective method for studying the development of children’s brains.
Abhang, P. A., Gawali, B.W., and Mehrotra, S.C. 2016. ‘Technological Basics of EEG Recording and Operation of Apparatus’, in Introduction to EEG and Speech-Based Emotion Recognition. Academic Press.
Farah, R., Meri, R., Kadis, D.S., Hutton, J., DeWitt, T., and Horowitz-Kraus, T. 2019. ‘Hyperconnectivity during screen-based stories listening is associated with lower narrative comprehension in preschool children exposed to screens vs dialogic reading: An EEG study’. PLoS One, 22;14 (11). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225445.
Hiley, K. 2024. Neuro Navigators: Steering the Science of Brain Development. The Scholars Programme.
Victoria State Government Department of Health. 2024. EEG tests. Accessed from: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/eeg-test.
Zivan, M., Bar, S., Jing, X., Hutton, J., Farah, R., and Horowitz-Kraus, T. 2019. ‘Screen-exposure and altered brain activation related to attention in preschool children: An EEG study’. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 17.
Zivan, M., Vaknin, S., Peleg, N., Ackerman, R., and Horowitz-Kraus, T. ‘Higher theta-beta ratio during screen-based vs. printed paper is related to lower attention in children: An EEG study’. PLoS One, 18;18 (5). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283863.
“This has been a fantastic opportunity for Matthew to learn the secrets of academic writing and get a glimpse of university life. I am grateful to the programme for the opportunity and his tutor for her generous time. We are very proud of Matthew’s skills and efforts with this essay.” – Georgina
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