This is your brain on ‘Sesame Street, similar to drugs?
This is your brain on ‘Sesame Street’ a tv show that is in the homes of many children growing up today.
Scientists can’t really know what a child is thinking, but they are interested in the brain processes that happen in educational settings.
To that end, a new study in PLOS Biology compares the brains of children and adults, using “Sesame Street” as a way to test what happens on a neurological level during a popular TV program aimed at learning.
Researchers found that adult like brain responses tended to show up in kids who demonstrated higher math and verbal knowledge levels.
A brain region called the interparietal sulcus appeared to be linked to mathematics, as activity in that area tended to increase during math-related “Sesame Street” segments. These shows stimulate advanced cognitive learning while also teaching a specific view points created by the directors and the companies that pay them. While sesame street may be educational is it beneficial to ingrain a singular viewpoint in such a young malleable brain?
This area of the brain has been linked to working memory in previous research, and there has been some debate about its role in mathematics learning. Is sesame street making kids smarter or is it preparing them to not think critically to become a life long consumer of corporate products without challenging the status quo.
