For middle-aged and older adults who have little Internet experience, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles found that just a week of Internet use was able to trigger the parts in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.
“The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults,” said Teena D. Moody, the study’s first author and a senior research associate at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, in a press release.
The scientists worked with 24 volunteers, between the ages of 55-to-78, who were neurologically normal, meaning that they had no cognitive defects. The two groups had similar ages, genders, and educational level. While one group had very little experience with the Web, the other used the Internet daily.
The participants were under functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans while they performed Web searches. The fMRI scans allow the researchers to monitor subtle changes to the brain’s circuitry that happen during the activity.
After a scan at the beginning of the experiment, the volunteers did Web searches for one hour a day for two weeks. They looked at different websites in order to gain information to answer questions about various assigned topics. After that, they got another scan while they conduct the same exercise with different topics.
The first scan showed that those who had little Internet experience had more activity in brain areas that control language, reading, memory, and visual abilities. However, the second scan additionally showed a triggering in the areas that control working memory and decision-making processes.
“We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function,” said another author of the study, Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute.
Our Take:
I guess our parents were always wrong when they say that spending too much time on the Internet is bad for you. As you all can see, LOLcats greatly improve your brain.
All joking aside, I think this experiment shows some interesting findings. Even though this study was short, I felt like it was a good start in terms of showing what effects the internet has on the brain. The fMRI scans showed good change, and if the researchers want to continue with this, I think they could find the specific techniques that would actually improve the brain’s functions.
