Sensory Overload / Research Excesses?
- kim32739
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
A throwback, adapted from an article published in Concordia News in 2017
What happens when you expose baby mice to a cacophony of light and sound for six hours per day for six weeks? That is exactly what scientists in Seattle did, hoping to learn something about how people might be affected by overstimulation at a young age (Source: Science News, December 10, 2016).
Jan-Marino Ramirez and his colleagues at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute found that baby mice showed dramatic changes in their brains and behavior, including several reminiscent of ADHD in children: more activity and risk taking, difficulty with memory, and less patience. The effects were less dramatic in adult mice.
It may come as no surprise that bombarding young children with stimuli should have a dramatic effect. But, such research may help us answer questions about what types of exposure have bigger effects, at what stage of development the brain is most susceptible, and what behaviors arise from overstimulation versus other factors.
The scientists noted that their findings were too preliminary to change any guidelines, and cautioned that there are always issues translating research on mice to effects on people. Which spurs an additional line of questions: What are the overall benefits and costs of the research? What benefit to humanity is sufficient to justify the harm we inflict on our animal science subjects? Are we harming our collective psyche allowing and condoning such treatment of animals for our benefit?
Though the questions about the research findings and the research methodology may seem unrelated, they both come down to trade-offs: Up to a point, stimulus prepares and sculpts young brains constructively (especially when it is interactive). In some cases it makes sense to sacrifice the good of some for the benefit of others. The difficulty lies in deciding where to draw the line.