At around age 12, the students already showed distinct patterns of behavior. Habitual users reported checking…

Questão

At around age 12, the students already showed distinct patterns of behavior. Habitual users reported checking their feeds 15 or more times a day; moderate users checked between one and 14 times; nonhabitual users checked less than once a day. The subjects received full brain scans three times, at approximately one-year intervals, as they played a computerized game that delivered rewards and punishment in the form of smiling or scowling peers. While carrying out the task, the frequent checkers showed increasing activation of three brain areas: reward-processing circuits, which also respond to experiences like winning money or risk-taking behavior; brain regions that determine salience, picking out what stands out in the environment; and the prefrontal cortex, which helps with regulation and control. The results showed that “teens who grow up checking social media more often are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers,” Dr. Telzer said. Social sensitivity could be adaptive, showing that the teenagers are learning to connect with others; or it could lead to social anxiety and depression if social needs are not met. “They are showing that the way you use it at one point in your life does influence the way your brain develops, but we don’t know by how much, or whether it’s good or bad,” said Jeff Hancock, the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, who was not involved in the study. He said that many other variables could have contributed to these changes. He described the paper as “a very sophisticated piece of work,” contributing to research that has emerged recently showing that sensitivity to social media varies from person to person. Over the last decade, social media has remapped the central experiences of adolescence, a period of rapid brain development. Researchers have documented a range of effects on children’s mental health. Some studies have linked use of social media with depression and anxiety, while others found little connection. Without more information about other aspects of the students’ lives, “it is challenging to discern how specific differences in brain development are to social media checking,” said Adriana Galvan, a specialist in adolescent brain development at the University of California Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. Dr. Telzer, one of the study’s authors, described the rising sensitivity to social feedback as “neither good nor bad.” “It’s helping them connect to others and obtain rewards from the things that are common in their social world, which is engaging in social interactions online,” she said. This is the new norm,” she added. “Understanding how this new digital world is influencing teens is important. It may be associated with changes in the brain, but that may be for good or for bad. We don’t necessarily know the long-term implications yet.” In the study involving 169 North Carolina school students who had brain scans 3 times, the teens who check social media frequently showed a/an (UECE 2023)

1. A) declining interest in social rewards.
2. B) increasing activation of three brain areas.
3. C) anti-social behavior towards older people.
4. D) better interaction with their teachers.

✅ Resposta correta: alternativa B

Resolução passo a passo

1. O enunciado descreve um estudo longitudinal com 169 estudantes da Carolina do Norte, que fizeram exames cerebrais três vezes. Ao final, pergunta-se o que os adolescentes que checam redes sociais com frequência apresentaram.
2. O texto afirma que, enquanto jogavam, os que checavam mais o celular mostraram ativação crescente de três áreas cerebrais: circuitos de processamento de recompensa, regiões de saliência e o córtex pré-frontal. Logo, a alternativa correta é a B, 'increasing activation of three brain areas', que reproduz literalmente essa informação.
3. A alternativa A está errada, pois o estudo indica sensibilidade crescente ao feedback dos colegas, e não interesse decrescente em recompensas sociais.
4. A alternativa C está errada, porque o texto não trata de comportamento antissocial em relação a pessoas mais velhas; fala de sensibilidade social com colegas.
5. A alternativa D está errada, pois não há qualquer menção a interação com professores no texto.
6. Comparando com o gabarito oficial (B), há concordância total. A resposta é a B.

💡 Dica: Leia atentamente o texto para identificar as principais conclusões do estudo.

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