Your mom always told you if you watched too much TV, your brain would turn to mush. But would it really?

From a very young age, we have always been intrigued by these shiny, colorful moving pictures. However, being intrigued for too long has been linked to obesity, attention problems, and aggression.

While this may seem like enough reason to steer clear of the tube, a recent study shows there is even more reason.

In Japan, a recent study was done showing that the more a child watches TV, the more profoundly there are differences in developing brains.

Scientists observed kids from the ages 5 to 18 who watched an average of two hours of TV per day.

They proceeded to do brain scans on these children, and they found that there were larger parts of the brain.

Just to clarify, the brain parts were larger. They were not more developed.

The larger volume of the brain was  result of an increase in gray matter. This gray matter to the brain is analogous with body fat in the body.

It is bigger, but it is not better.

The increase in gray matter has correlated with lower verbal IQ scores.

However, the study only concluded a correlation. It could not conclude that TV was in fact the culprit of the increase in gray matter in the brain.

TV could be an indirect factor. The gray matter could be a result in lack of being involved in other things, such as playing sports, hanging out with friends, or playing an instrument.

This study is the first study to attempt a direct correlation between television and neuroscience, but it still was unable to prove that.

However, even if there is no direct correlation that can be proven, it is safe to say that spending a lot of time in front of the TV is not good for the brain.

Whether it affects the decrease in gray matter by taking away time from other brain activities or it does in fact directly increases the gray matter build up, television is not a friend to your brain.