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Using multiple forms of media simultaneously can affect grey matter in the brain. istockphoto

Multitasking with smartphones, laptop computers and other media devices could change the structure of your brain, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who often use several forms of media simultaneously had lower gray matter density in a specific area of the brain than those who used just one device occasionally.

Scientists found the difference in gray matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex, which plays a major role in a number of thought processes and emotional control.

"Media multitasking is becoming more prevalent in our lives today and there is increasing concern about its impacts on our cognition and social-emotional well-being," Kep Kee Loh, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England, said in a university news release.

Loh said that it's conceivable that individuals with less dense gray matter are more inclined to multitask due to weaker socio-emotional regulation. But it's equally plausible that higher levels of exposure to multitasking situations can lead to structural changes in the brain.

These findings support previous studies that found links between media multitasking and inattention as well as anxiety and depression, according to the release. But the release also noted that other research has found that learning new things can boost gray matter density in certain areas of the brain.

The research team used functional MRI to examine the brain structures of 75 people who had provided information about their use of personal media devices as well as TV and print media. Regardless of personality traits, people who frequently used multiple media devices had lower gray matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex.

"The exact mechanisms of these changes are still unclear," Loh said.

However, the study only revealed a link between multitasking and less-dense gray matter, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Further research is need to clarify the link, the researcher said.

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Can media multitasking alter your brain?

MOSCOW, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Foreign ownership of Russian media outlets will be limited to 20 percent, in a bill passed by Russia's Parliament and supported by the party of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It targets publications critical of Putin and lengthens the reach of the government's control over the media in Russia. Foreign ownership in radio and television is restricted to 50 percent, but there had been no limits to print media ownership until now.

Russia's leading business newspaper, Vedomosti, is owned in part by Britain's Financial Times and the U.S.' Wall Street Journal, and would be subject to the proposed new rules as would magazines owned by Disney, Forbes and Conde Nast. The bill was passed in Parliament Tuesday by a 434-1 vote, legislators charging the West was using media to attack the Russian government.

"The cold war, namely the information war, which is being unleashed against the Russian Federation, requires us to apply its rules," said the bill's sponsor, Vadim Dengin.

Vedomosti and Forbes Russia have supplied Russia with some of the most critical coverage of the government. Both were successfully sued by Igor Sechin, head of the Russian oil company and a close friend of Putin's, after Forbes Russia named him Russia's highest-paid executive, at $50 million per year, and Vedomosti suggested he held excessive power over government decisions.

"Foreign ownership was the only thing that protected some Russian media outlets' editorial integrity," said Leonid Bershidsky, first editor of Vedomosti and the first publisher of Forbes Russia. "If it's not allowed, that last bit of protection is gone."

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Russian legislation aims to control media

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Sep-2014

Contact: Jacqui Bealing j.a.bealing@sussex.ac.uk 44-127-367-8888 University of Sussex

Simultaneously using mobile phones, laptops and other media devices could be changing the structure of our brains, according to new University of Sussex research.

A study published today (24 September) reveals that people who frequently use several media devices at the same time have lower grey-matter density in one particular region of the brain compared to those who use just one device occasionally.

The research supports earlier studies showing connections between high media-multitasking activity and poor attention in the face of distractions, along with emotional problems such as depression and anxiety.

But neuroscientists Kep kee Loh and Dr Ryota Kanai point out that their study reveals a link rather than causality and that a long-term study needs to be carried out to understand whether high concurrent media usage leads to changes in the brain structure, or whether those with less-dense grey matter are more attracted to media multitasking.

The researchers at the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre for Consciousness used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at the brain structures of 75 adults, who had all answered a questionnaire regarding their use and consumption of media devices, including mobile phones and computers, as well as television and print media.

They found that, independent of individual personality traits, people who used a higher number of media devices concurrently also had smaller grey matter density in the part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the region notably responsible for cognitive and emotional control functions.

Kep kee Loh says: "Media multitasking is becoming more prevalent in our lives today and there is increasing concern about its impacts on our cognition and social-emotional well-being. Our study was the first to reveal links between media multitasking and brain structure."

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Brain scans reveal 'gray matter' differences in media multitaskers

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - As the Islamic State group battles across Syria and Iraq, pushing back larger armies and ruling over entire cities, it is also waging an increasingly sophisticated media campaign that has rallied disenfranchised youth and outpaced the sluggish efforts of Arab governments to stem its appeal.

Long gone are the days when militant leaders like Osama bin Laden smuggled grainy videos to Al-Jazeera. Nowadays Islamic State backers use Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms to entice recruits with professionally made videos showing fighters waging holy war and building an Islamic utopia.

The extremist group's opponents say it is dragging the region back into the Middle Ages with its grisly beheadings and massacres, but its tech-savvy media strategy has exposed the ways in which Arab governments and mainstream religious authorities seem to be living in the past.

Most Arab governments see social media as a threat to their stability and have largely failed to harness its power, experts say. Instead, they have tried to monitor and censor the Internet while churning out stale public statements and state-approved sermons on stuffy government-run media.

Last week, Saudi Arabia's top council of religious scholars issued a lengthy Arabic statement via the state-run news agency denouncing terrorism and calling on citizens to back efforts to fight extremist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. Leading Sunni Muslim authorities in Egypt have issued similar government-backed statements.

Compare that to the Islamic State group. Its Furqan media arm produces slick videos complete with interviews, graphics and jihadist hymns echoing in the background, with Arabic and English subtitles. It promotes the videos and its glossy monthly magazines on an array of social media, reaching out to people in the Arab world and beyond. Islamic State fighters even tweet live from the battlefield, giving real-time updates and waging theological debates with online detractors.

"They definitely have an electronic army behind them," said Ray Kafity, vice president of FireEye for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. The company manufactures IT solutions for defending against cyber threats.

The Islamic State boasts thousands of foreign fighters, some of whom were first drawn to it in the privacy and security of cyberspace. It also uses social media for fundraising.

Fadi Salem, a Dubai-based researcher on Internet governance in the Arab World, said the immediate response of Middle Eastern governments to the power of social media has been to "control, block and censor as much as possible."

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Arab states lag in media war against extremists - NBC40.net

Okay, I have to tackle this one.

The media, which are not exactly immune to crazed obsessions, now stand accused of going off half-cocked on the NFL.

That is, theres a backlash to the backlash against the league, an argument that the press has taken some cases of domestic violence and abuse and practically equated the National Football League with the evildoers of ISIS.

To wit: On the NFL, the media has lost its collective mind.

The argument comes from National Review Editor Rich Lowry, writing in Politico. And while I admire Lowrys writing even when I disagree, on this one he is missing some crucial points.

Yes, the media do everything to excess, and the video of Ray Rice punching his fianc was aired so many times that it became mind-numbing (to the point that the networks finally agreed to cut way back). As Lowry says: The coverage of the Rice elevator video managed to combine moralistic preening with voyeuristic pandering. Everyone on TV professed to be so outraged by domestic violence that they had to show a clip of a woman getting viciously punched, over and over again.

And yes, cable news can cover such emotional stories in an endless loop. Lowry even likens the NFL coverage to the missing Malaysian plane.

But this is no longer a mere news story. Its a cultural moment. We are actually engaging in that much-overworked phrase, a national conversation.

Roger Goodells initial wrist-slap for Rice quickly gave way to a focus on other cases. The furor forced the Carolina Panthers to bench Greg Hardy at the last minute after his conviction for throwing his ex-girlfriend in a bathtub, choking her and threatening to kill her. The uproar forced the Minnesota Vikings to sideline Adrian Peterson at the last minute after his conviction for child abuse in the whipping of his 4-year-old son. And if all this wasnt bad enough, Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals was arrested Wednesday on assault allegations, with police saying he head-butted his wife and broke her nose after she refused him sex, and punched her in the face the next day. Lovely.

Im glad the press is going nuts over this. Of course the problem is not limited to professional sports, but men like Rice, with their $10-million-a-year salaries, are cast as community icons. This is not a debate that should be limited to ESPN and the sports pages, as Lowry suggests. Its been ghettoized there for too long. This is front-page, top-of-the-newscast stuff.

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Media out of control on NFL? Nope, it's about time