Popular press article: Some of what happens during youth can’t be reversed. It’s another reason to rethink kids’ screen time - https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/04/health/screens-kids-brain...

Keypoint:

The researchers found that our sensory experiences, movement and social relations growing up, along with our culture and environment, profoundly and sometimes irreversibly determine who we become.

The authors call this concept the “criticome,” which is the first time it has been given a name, said Dr. Julio Licinio, coauthor of the review and a distinguished professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.

“The main takeaway is that there is a critical window of development that goes from birth all the way up to 25 years,” Licinio said. What is imprinted on the brain then will “determine who you are for the rest of your life.”