Frequent TV watching may harm long-term brain health

"Turn off that TV, it'll rot your brain!" has been a household refrain for decades. While "rot" might be too strong a term, researchers are finding that the overall sentiment could have some merit.

A study published recently in Alzheimer's and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association revealed that those who reported watching TV "very often" in midlife later exhibited reduced volume in areas of the brain associated with memory, smaller frontal and occipital lobes, and areas of damage in the brain's white matter that are associated with aging, stroke risk, cognitive decline and dementia.

For years we've focused on how much people sit. Our findings suggest we should also pay attention to what they're doing while they're sitting."

David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and senior author of the study