CMCH Visting Scholar John P. Murray, has published ground-breaking research using
brain scans to see what happens when children view media violence. While the participants’ brains were scanned using an fMRI machine, experimenters kept track
of their heart rates and brain activity. The researchers saw that while the children were viewing violent videos, the areas of their brains that lit up were the same areas
that are activated when facing real live danger. The children’s brains were ready to respond to the violence with increased attention, alertness, memory and plans for escape.

A study in the February 1, 2006 issue of Pediatrics co-authored by CMCH researcher Dr. David Bickham

suggests that true to popular belief, television is cutting into the time children would have spent on other activities.



Their study of over 1,700 children who kept diaries of their time showed that the more time kids spent with media, the less time they spent doing homework or interacting with parents or siblings.

However, the study found no evidence that television takes away time from reading or from engaging in active play.