{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1794893,
        "msgid": "guppies-raised-on-screens-develop-brain-abnormalities-1781067089",
        "date": "2026-06-10 11:15:00",
        "title": "Guppies Raised on Screens Develop Brain Abnormalities",
        "author": "Thalatie Kaprina Yani",
        "source": "MEDIA_INDONESIA",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Social Policy",
        "summary": "New research from Stockholm University indicates that young guppies exposed only to video screens develop brain structures similar to those raised in total isolation. The study highlights the critical importance of real-time interactive feedback for normal brain development, showing social interaction shapes specific brain areas. While not directly applicable to human children, the findings provide a compelling analogy suggesting that the quality of interactive experience matters more than the quantity of visual information.",
        "content": "<p>A new study from the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University,\nSweden, has revealed surprising facts through trials on guppies\n(Poecilia reticulata). Young fish that only interacted via a video\nscreen experienced brain development similar to fish living in total\nisolation. The study, led by Olivia Carmstedt for her master\u2019s thesis,\ndeliberately chose guppies because of their high brain development\nflexibility. \u201cFish are a very good model for studying brain plasticity\nbecause their brains continue to develop throughout their lives,\u201d\nexplained Professor Niclas Kolm, the study\u2019s senior author. In an\nexperiment lasting 20 days, researchers divided young guppies into three\ndifferent environmental conditions. The first group was placed next to\nan aquarium containing live fish they could see and interact with. The\nsecond group was only presented with video recordings of other guppies\non a monitor screen. Meanwhile, the third group was raised in near-total\nisolation without any companions at all. All environmental variables\nwere kept identical, from food and water quality to lighting. The sole\ndifference was the type of social stimulation they received. The group\nwatching videos actually received the same visual information as the\nfirst group, but they missed the aspect of two-way feedback from real\ninteraction. When the research team measured the brain volume of these\nfish, the results were startling. The group that grew up alongside live\nfish had brains almost 6% larger than the group that only watched\nscreens. Furthermore, this direct interaction group also developed a\nsignificantly larger olfactory bulb. What was most surprising for the\nresearchers was the condition of the screen-watching group. Instead of\nfalling somewhere between the direct interaction and isolated groups,\nthe brain structure of the screen-watching guppies was almost identical\nto fish raised in total isolation. \u201cThe interaction itself, the fact\nthat another individual responds to you in real-time, appears to be very\nimportant for normal brain development,\u201d Carmstedt revealed. Simply\nwatching visual footage proved not to have the same impact as real\ninteraction. However, this difference in brain size did not affect their\nbasic non-social cognitive abilities. When tested using an object\npermanence test, the ability to track a target that has disappeared from\nview, akin to a baby understanding a hidden toy, all three groups\nperformed equally well. This indicates that social experience\nspecifically shapes certain brain areas, not overall intelligence.\nAlthough humans are not guppies and these results cannot be directly\nmatched to the impact of tablets on toddlers, the findings provide an\nimportant analogy in the screen time debate. The study suggests the\nquality of interaction is far more important than the quantity of visual\ninformation. Two-way video calls with family members, where there is\nreal-time reciprocal response, are thought to provide much better\nstimulation for a developing brain than simply watching passive, one-way\ncontent. The research has been officially published in the journal\nBiology Letters.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/guppies-raised-on-screens-develop-brain-abnormalities-1781067089",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}