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Lower engagement of cognitive control, attention, modulation networks and lower creativity in children while using ChatGPT: an fMRI study

Preprint comparing 15 children aged 6 to 7 and 16 adults during a naturalistic five-minute co-creative dialogue with ChatGPT inside an fMRI scanner, with the dialogues recorded and creativity assessed outside the scanner. Functional connectivity was computed within and between seven large-scale networks (cingulo-opercular, default mode, memory retrieval, frontoparietal, salience, ventral attention, dorsal attention). Creativity scores did not differ between the groups; adults showed stronger within-network connectivity in control and attention systems (most robustly frontoparietal, with salience and dorsal-attention effects) and greater cross-network integration. The study is the primary source behind the September 2026 'cognitive stunting' press coverage.

Read at biorxiv.org (opens the original source in a new tab) Archived copy(opens in a new tab)

Publisher

bioRxiv (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Kennedy Krieger Institute; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

Published

12 Nov 2025

Added

today

Key Findings

  • n=15 children (6 to 7 years) and n=16 adults; same prompt, five-minute in-scanner ChatGPT dialogue
  • Creativity scores assessed outside the scanner did not differ between children and adults
  • Adults showed stronger within-network connectivity in frontoparietal, salience and dorsal-attention networks and greater frontoparietal–salience and frontoparietal–dorsal-attention coupling than children during the dialogue
  • Press accounts (LA Times 14 September 2026; EdSource 16 September) add that highly creative children produced fewer imaginary stores after using ChatGPT while adults' output was unchanged; that comparison is not in the abstract

Methodology Notes

Small cross-sectional fMRI comparison; naturalistic in-scanner dialogue; Fisher-z functional connectivity across seven networks; creativity scored outside the scanner. Unreviewed preprint; no non-AI control condition is described in the abstract; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Posted 12 November 2025 (bioRxiv page); a v2 is listed on the DOI (date not displayed on the page fetched); Europe PMC PPR1116332 records first publication 2025-11-10. Press wave September 2026 via Brookings' 'cognitive stunting' framing.

Topics

cognitive epistemic safetyMinors' safetyhuman ai interaction safetyModel behavior

Authors

Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Yoed N. Kenett, Dafna Link, Emeel Ashqar, Rola Farah

Tags

biorxivtechnionfmrichildrenchatgptcreativitycognitive-stunting

Cite This

APA

Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus et al. (2025). Lower engagement of cognitive control, attention, modulation networks and lower creativity in children while using ChatGPT: an fMRI study. bioRxiv (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Kennedy Krieger Institute; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.07.687207v2