In this August 2015 Psychology Today blog article, a child psychiatrist and author, Dr Victoria Dunckley makes a number of claims about how screen time is causing symptoms of mental health problems.
I am interested in a large number of her claims, but to keep this answerable, I am going to focus on this subsection:
- Screen time desensitizes the brain’s reward system.
Many children are “hooked” on electronics, and in fact gaming releases so much dopamine—the “feel-good” chemical—that on a brain scan it looks the same as cocaine use. But when reward pathways are overused, they become less sensitive, and more and more stimulation is needed to experience pleasure. Meanwhile, dopamine is also critical for focus and motivation, so needless to say, even small changes in dopamine sensitivity can wreak havoc on how well a child feels and functions.
Does playing electronic games release enough dopamine to interfere with how well a child feels and functions at other times?
