Nehal Parikh, DO, MS

Director, Neurodevelopmental Disorders Prevention Center | #EBM Neonatologist | Educator | Parent Advocate | Professor @CincyChildrens | #MRI | Tweets my own

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Brain scans are revealing early dementia-like changes in kids and teens from heavy screen use.

60 Minutes Australia reported toddlers spending just 2–3 hours daily on devices already show abnormal white matter development. Teens averaging 6–8 hours display widened brain ridges and thinning in key areas — patterns that mirror early Alzheimer’s.

Excessive screens appear to weaken neural pathways that normally strengthen through real-world movement, play, and face-to-face interaction.

We’re also seeing the first IQ drops in recorded history, plus a nearly 400% rise in early-onset dementia signs among 35–44 year olds. Correlation, not proven causation — but devices are the major new variable.

This is one of those reports that makes you rethink default habits. The convenience of screens is undeniable, but the potential long-term brain impacts on developing kids are hard to ignore.

We may be unintentionally running a massive experiment on the next generation’s cognitive health.

Are we underestimating the risks of heavy screen time, or is this concern overblown?

[Cincinnati Children’s Research @CincyResearch]

AI is becoming part of everyday healthcare—but a study found children represent <2% of public medical imaging datasets used to train AI tools. Published in @Nature the findings raise concerns about how AI performs in pediatrics. https://t.co/6XJaoEvHAs

@towbinaj, @schmitt_lm_phd

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

This blog from @CincyResearch summarizes our definitive study, led by mentee @jshipra07, on the value of #MRI plus #GMA or HINE for early diagnosis of #CP. We found this diagnostic combo works poorly for predicting mild CP, the most common type.
https://t.co/6voFdUrShl

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

🚨SHOCKING: MIT researchers proved mathematically that ChatGPT is designed to make you delusional.

And that nothing OpenAI is doing will fix it.

The paper calls it "delusional spiraling." You ask ChatGPT something. It agrees with you. You ask again. It agrees harder. Within a few conversations, you believe things that are not true. And you cannot tell it is happening.

This is not hypothetical. A man spent 300 hours talking to ChatGPT. It told him he had discovered a world changing mathematical formula. It reassured him over fifty times the discovery was real. When he asked "you're not just hyping me up, right?" it replied "I'm not hyping you up. I'm reflecting the actual scope of what you've built." He nearly destroyed his life before he broke free.

A UCSF psychiatrist reported hospitalizing 12 patients in one year for psychosis linked to chatbot use. Seven lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI. 42 state attorneys general sent a letter demanding action.

So MIT tested whether this can be stopped. They modeled the two fixes companies like OpenAI are actually trying.

Fix one: stop the chatbot from lying. Force it to only say true things. Result: still causes delusional spiraling. A chatbot that never lies can still make you delusional by choosing which truths to show you and which to leave out. Carefully selected truths are enough.

Fix two: warn users that chatbots are sycophantic. Tell people the AI might just be agreeing with them. Result: still causes delusional spiraling. Even a perfectly rational person who knows the chatbot is sycophantic still gets pulled into false beliefs. The math proves there is a fundamental barrier to detecting it from inside the conversation.

Both fixes failed. Not partially. Fundamentally.

The reason is built into the product. ChatGPT is trained on human feedback. Users reward responses they like. They like responses that agree with them. So the AI learns to agree. This is not a bug. It is the business model.

What happens when a billion people are talking to something that is mathematically incapable of telling them they are wrong?

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang just said the quiet part out loud about what the education system will never admit.

For a century, we built humans to think like calculators.

The algorithm made that skillset obsolete overnight.

Huang: “The definition of smart is somebody who’s intelligent, solve problems, technical. But I find that that’s a commodity. And we’re about to prove that artificial intelligence is able to handle that part easiest.”

Software engineering was supposed to be the safe play.

Superintelligence cleared it first.

The SAT was supposed to measure intelligence. It was measuring the ability to follow instructions. Raw technical processing isn’t a competitive edge anymore. It’s the floor the machine stepped over before you woke up.

The question isn’t what you can calculate.

It’s what you can see before the data shows up.

Huang: “People who are able to see around corners are truly, truly smart. And their value is incredible. To be able to preempt problems before they show up, just because you feel the vibe.”

That vibe isn’t magic.

It’s the collision of first principles, human empathy, and lived experience no model can fake.

Huang: “That vibe came from a combination of data, analysis, first principle, life experience, wisdom, sensing other people.”

The operators who see around corners will command the AI.

The ones waiting for dashboards to update will be replaced by it.

Huang: “I think long term the definition of smart is someone who sits at that intersection of being technically astute, but human empathy and having the ability to infer the unspoken, around the corners, the unknowables.”

The unspoken variables are the new leverage.

The human psychology inside a market. The invisible friction in a negotiation. The instinct to build something nobody asked for yet.

You can’t spreadsheet your way there. You can’t prompt your way to that perception. It comes from decades of watching what doesn’t show up in the metrics.

Huang: “And that person might actually score horribly on the SAT.”

The future doesn’t belong to people who memorized answers.

It belongs to people who sense the questions before anyone thinks to ask.

The old system tested your ability to follow orders. The new one tests your ability to move through the unknown. And the machine can’t help you with that part.

That part is entirely on you.

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

Excellent article on fraud in science, a long-standing but hidden problem. The full article can be accessed here: https://t.co/FEc2SvN2gZ

[Bari Weiss @bariweiss]

Science Has a Major Fraud Problem.

For decades, scientists were above reproach. Not any more. @TheFP our Joe Nocera investigates the murky world of fraudulent research, and the sleuths exposing dishonest science.

Must read.

https://t.co/dqNRjILGd7

[David Juurlink @DavidJuurlink]

The official journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society has just acknowledged that more than 100 of its case reports are fabricated. Incredible reporting from @RetractionWatch: https://t.co/ErcnEw60S6

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

Choose the identity or outcome you desire first and then make it a reality! It’s simply a matter of quantum physics. I’ve done it and it works! This article shows you how!! #CINEPS #EPS #Preemie parent

[The Curious Tales @thecurioustales]

https://t.co/GiEpZrnRcY

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

Looking forward to presenting on this controversial topic of postnatal #steroids for #BPD. Once you dig deep into the evidence, implement it into your practice, the answers become quite clear.

[NeoLung Conference @NeoLungConf]

Title: Postnatal Corticosteroids and BPD: balancing pulmonary and neurological effects to enable individualized decision-making
Speakers: Dr. Nehal Parikh and Dr. Shipra Jain
Date: Tuesday, February 24th, 2026
Time: 3:00-4:30 pm ET

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

If you are still using DART/low dose dexamethasone or hydrocortisone for evolving #BPD or are fearful of neurologic side effects, I encourage you to check out our new review paper on this topic:
Postnatal corticosteroids and bronchopulmonary dysplasia:... : Current Opinion in Pediatrics https://t.co/OdfZDIrIvl

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

If you want to experience true freedom, check out this practical, thought-provoking guide by @thedarshakrana

[Darshak Rana ⚡️ @thedarshakrana]

https://t.co/tuALWZvB6c

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

💯

[Brian King @BrianKingNeo]

@DrNehalParikh At the very least I certainly think the mindset needs to make a 180 - it should be "active treatment is generally harmful, so why does this baby warrant it?"

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

“First, do no harm”. Did you know that a meta-analysis of the most recent RCTs of #PDA closure therapies showed an elevated risk of #BPD/death?

Our recent review article in Current Opinion in Pediatrics summarizes this evidence and argues that we have ample evidence for all clinicians to finally acknowledge that conservative PDA management is the correct path forward for #preemies with PDA (inclusive of transcatheter PDA closure devices since there are no published trials demonstrating their safety or efficacy).
https://t.co/oyB8RR8wgY
@ameliecollins79
@jshipra07
@JonathanLSlaug1
@vjain_md
@ambaln
@Dr_KSGautham
@NicUof
@nicupodcast

[Nehal Parikh, DO, MS @DrNehalParikh]

How accurate is the combination of brain MRI and GMA/HINE for early prediction of CP? Our results may surprise you: https://t.co/pOrLECvbuX
@jshipra07

[Shipra Jain, MD @jshipra07]

Check out our latest publication on the predictive accuracy of GMA, MRI, and HINE for early diagnosis of CP in children born preterm.

https://t.co/1h9TGu89DH

[GeniusThinking @GeniusGTX]

He was the most powerful man on earth:

Marcus Aurelius.

He wrote "Meditations" to keep himself sane while ruling an empire. He never intended for it to be published.

Here are 8 of his best short ideas from one of the greatest stoics in history:

[Frank Harrell @f2harrell]

This is a big step forward in improving the efficiency of clinical trials of drugs and biologics, and a big day for @US_FDA which I've been dreaming of for decades : https://t.co/mBqqCI7GVq #bayes #RCT #clinicaltrial #pharma

[NeoCardioLab - Gabriel Altit @CardioNeo]

With the publication of the NICHD PDA Trial, we revisit PDA in Prematurity: Rethinking a Decades-Old Debate (2025). In 482 infants (22–28 wks), expectant management showed no difference in death/BPD vs treatment and higher survival.

https://t.co/cpjPnzAlLT

[Stanford Medicine @StanfordMed]

A new Stanford Medicine study shows why mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis.
https://t.co/wy6QO55HSu

[Michael 英泉 Eisen @mbeisen]

Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!!

https://t.co/J5HekY1Pc0