Short videos like Reels can switch off parts of your brain, study finds

A new brain study suggests your favourite short videos may temporarily shutdown areas in your brain linked to focus and self-control.Study says watching your favourite short videos may switch off parts of the brain linked to self-control. (Image created using AI)Short-form videos like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are designed to keep you scrolling, often giving you a quick hit of dopamine and which makes it easy to lose track of time. But a new study suggests they may be doing more than simply helping you kill time. Researchers found that watching short videos can temporarily reduce activity in parts of the brain linked to cognitive control. In simpler words, short videos can slow down the brain areas that help you focus, control your attention and make decisions.The study, published in NeuroImage, looked at 56 young adults and examined how their brains responded while they freely watched short videos. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track brain activity, along with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure levels of neurotransmitters, including glutamate and GABA, in the brain.The researchers focused on two areas involved in the brain's cognitive control network: the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). These regions are involved in functions that help people regulate their behaviour, respond to changing situations, and control their attention and actions.During the experiment, 56 participants watched short videos while researchers scanned their brains. The participants were shown different types of clips, including videos of people, pets, games and nature, and could skip a video whenever they wanted. Most of the clips were less than 30 seconds long. The researchers compared participants’ brain activity when they kept watching videos they liked with videos they chose to stop. The test revealed that when people were really into a video, activity dropped in parts of the brain linked to focus, self-control and decision-making. In simple terms, short videos made parts of the participants’ brains less active while they were watching them.Researchers suggest that findings may also help in explaining why it is so easy for users to keep scrolling, even when you only planned to watch for a few minutes. That said, the study does not mean that Reels literally switch off your entire brain. It found that some parts of the brain became less active when participants watched videos they enjoyed.It also does not prove that watching short videos causes permanent brain damage or long-term cognitive problems.And mind you this is not the first research alerting about the cognitive effects of short-form video consumption. A 2025 conducted by researchers Nicholas Barton and Michael Smyth, titled "Context-switching in short-form videos: What is the impact on prospective memory?"revealed that the rapid context switching characteristic of short-form videos could affect prospective memory, or the ability to remember something you intend to do later. Essentially the study found that short videos can make it harder for you to remember things.Another study from June 2026 by researchers Kaiyue Zhai, Yunfei Guo and Li Wang, titled “The Influence of Short-Video Usage on Prospective Memory Under Different Cue Type Conditions,” found that prolonged short-video viewing can reduce accuracy on tasks that require people to remember something they need to do later. The effect, however, varied depending on how much attention the task required.- EndsPublished By: Divya BhatiPublished On: Aug 19, 2026 12:18 IST