( CNN ) -- Rapid-fire TV news bulletins or getting updates via social-networking tools such as Twitter could numb our sense of morality and make us indifferent to human suffering , scientists say . Scientists say updates on networking tools such as Twitter are often to quick for the brain to fully digest . New findings show that the streams of information provided by social networking sites are too fast for the brain 's `` moral compass '' to process and could harm young people 's emotional development . Before the brain can fully digest the anguish and suffering of a story , it is being bombarded by the next news bulletin or the latest Twitter update , according to a University of Southern California study . `` If things are happening too fast , you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people 's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality , '' said researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang . The report , published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition , studied how volunteers responded to real-life stories chosen to stimulate admiration for virtue or skill , or compassion for physical or social pain . iReport.com : Growing pains for Twitter , Facebook ? Brain scans showed humans can process and respond very quickly to signs of physical pain in others , but took longer to show admiration of compassion . `` For some kinds of thought , especially moral decision-making about other people 's social and psychological situations , we need to allow for adequate time and refection , '' said Immordio-Yang . She said the study raises questions about the emotional cost , particularly for young people , of heavy reliance on a torrent of news snippets delivered via TV and online feeds such as Twitter . She said : `` We need to understand how social experience shapes interactions between the body and mind , to produce citizens with a strong moral compass . '' USC sociologist Manuel Castells said the study raised more concerns over fast-moving TV than the online environment . `` In a media culture in which violence and suffering becomes an endless show , be it in fiction or in infotainment , indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in . '' Research leader Antonio Damasio , director of USC 's Brain and Creativity Institute , said the findings stressed the need for slower delivery of the news , and highlighted the importance of slow-burn emotions like admiration . Damasio cited the example of U.S. President Barack Obama , who says he was inspired by his father , to show how admiration can be key to cultural success . `` We actually separate the good from the bad in great part thanks to the feeling of admiration . It 's a deep physiological reaction that 's very important to define our humanity . '' Twitter , which allows users to swap messages and links of 140-characters or less , says on its Web site that it sees itself as a solution to information overload , rather than a cause of it . This function , it says , `` means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention . ''
USC study says rapid-fire Twitter and news updates are too fast for brain . Scans show humans respond rapidly to pain , but not compassion , admiration . Score: 7