Primary schools should ditch technology for the Classics - neuroscientist.

CLASSICS should be taught from primary school in order to better develop the minds of young children, a leading neuroscientist has said.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, whose warnings about digital technology have provoked controversy, called for video games to be replaced by the texts of Homer. She hit out at her portrayal as a "bad fairy" for cautioning on the effects of technologies such as computer games, the internet and social media on the brain, comparing it with the reaction to detractors of smoking in the 1950s.

Baroness Greenfield also outlined the research her company Neuro-Bio is doing to tackle Alzheimer's disease, during an event at the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics.

Asked her views on the education system, she said: "I would teach classics from the age of seven or eight. I hate that it has such an elitist image. I come from a completely working-class background but I did classics for A-levels. I think introducing people to that rather than video games at an earlier age would be wonderful. It gives you a long attention span and moreover when you then progress to doing Latin and Greek, it gives you many things all for the price of one, in one lesson you can learn logic, structure, language, grammar.

"You can compare the two and use your analytical powers, it strengthens your working memory because you have to remember all this grammar."

Baroness Greenfield said she is concerned screen technology encourages "short attention spans, visual imagery rather than ideas, more sensation as a premium, taking risks because there's no consequences, low empathy because we've got no experience of talking directly to other people, and a need for constant feedback, witness Facebook, a fragile sense of identity and low-grade aggression".