[this_steve_j]

The terms “Cognitive decline” or “brain rot” may have sounded too sensational, and to be fair the authors note the limitations of the small sample size.

Indeed the paper doesn’t provide a reference or citation for the term “cognitive debt” so it is a strange title. Maybe a last minute swap.

Fascinating research out of MIT. Like all psychology studies it deserves healthy scrutiny and independent verification. Bit of a kitchen sink with the imaging and psychometric assessments, but who doesn’t love a picture of “this is your brain on LLMs” amirite?