After providing all the funding for The Brain from Top to Bottom for over 10 years, the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction informed us that because of budget cuts, they were going to be forced to stop sponsoring us as of March 31st, 2013.

We have approached a number of organizations, all of which have recognized the value of our work. But we have not managed to find the funding we need. We must therefore ask our readers for donations so that we can continue updating and adding new content to The Brain from Top to Bottom web site and blog.

Please, rest assured that we are doing our utmost to continue our mission of providing the general public with the best possible information about the brain and neuroscience in the original spirit of the Internet: the desire to share information free of charge and with no adverstising.

Whether your support is moral, financial, or both, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Bruno Dubuc, Patrick Robert, Denis Paquet, and Al Daigen





Monday, 15 April 2013
The Harmful Effects of Television on Young Children

First of all, I want to say a very big “Thank you” to everyone who has already sent in a donation to help fund our web site. In one week, we have already raised $1750, which is almost enough to pay for all of the basic upkeep on this site for our current fiscal year (April 2013 to March 2014)! This is a very encouraging start. Please pass the word to anyone else you know who enjoys this site and may want to give us some financial support.

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Just to get a few minutes to breathe, tired parents can be strongly tempted to sit their kids down in front of the television. But a joint study by Quebec’s Sainte Justine university hospital and the University of Michigan, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, should convince anyone that this is a bad idea. This study showed that the more time children spent in front of the television at ages 2 and 4, the more problems they had in school and the more unhealthy habits they had acquired by age 10.

In this study, excessive television exposure in early childhood resulted in a 7% decrease in classroom engagement, a 6% decrease in math achievement, a 10% increase in victimization by classmates, a 13% decrease in time spent on physical activity on weekends, a 9% increase in consumption of soft drinks, and a 10% increase in consumption of snacks. As the authors of this study point out, early childhood is an essential period for brain development. During this period, the brain, like the body’s neuromuscular junctions, undergoes an intensive process of selective stabilization of the synapses. And the best activity to guide this process is playing—in other words, experimenting with the physical world through movement.

i_lien L’exposition précoce à la télévision a des effets négatifs et durables sur les jeunes enfants
i_lien Les enfants victimes de la télé
i_lien Michel Desmurget, TV Lobotomie. La vérité scientifique sur les effets de la télévision.
a_exp Prospective Associations Between Early Childhood Television Exposure and Academic, Psychosocial, and Physical Well-being by Middle Childhood

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