UCLA Scientists Prove Internet Changes Human Brains
A new study by UCLA scientists
proves that Internet use alters human brains. And at least for older adults that's actually a very good thing. Older adults who had never used the Internet had their brains scanned using a functional MRI before and after weeks of doing tasks using the Internet, such as doing searches and reading articles. After the training, the adults showed increased neural activation which could potentially enhance brain function and cognition.
It only took one week of using the Internet for the changes to be seen in the brain. Mental stimulation has been shown to help slow the degenerative processes that lead to Alzheimer's and other types of dementia in the elderly. In other words, using your brain more as you age will help you retain a higher level of cognitive functioning.
The UCLA team worked with 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 78. Prior to the study, half the participants used the Internet daily, while the other half had very little experience. Age, educational level and gender were similar between the two groups.
The participants performed Web searches while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which recorded the subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced during this activity. This type of scan tracks brain activity by measuring the level of blood flow in the brain during cognitive tasks. While the study involves a small number of people and more research on this topic is needed, small study sizes are typical of fMRI-based research.
After the initial brain scan, subjects went home and conducted Internet searches for one hour a day for a total of seven days over a two-week period. These practice searches involved using the web to answer questions about various topics by exploring different websites and reading information. Participants then received a second brain scan using the same Internet simulation task, but with different topics.
The first scan of participants with little Internet experience showed brain activity in the regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities. The second brain scan of these participants, conducted after the home practice searches, demonstrated activation of these same regions, but there was also activity in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus – areas of the brain known to be important in working memory and decision-making.
Thus, after Internet training at home, participants with minimal online experience displayed brain activation patterns very similar to those seen in the group of savvy Internet users.
"The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults," Teena D. Moody, the study's first author and UCLA researcher, said in a statement.
When you search Google for information on the flu or which store has your size in your favorite shoes, your brain is using the ability to hold information in working memory and to quickly process multiple inputs of data. As you search through photos and discard irrelevant results, you are enhancing and preserving the decision-making and memory functions of your brain.
The conclusion is obvious: the more time you spend on the Internet buying shoes the smarter you'll be. Okay, fine, that's not what the scientists said at all. We're extrapolating a bit.
The researchers made it clear that these findings only apply to older adults (those in the study were aged 55-78) and does not apply to children whose brains are in a different state of development. Some educators and researchers are concerned that too much Internet time may impede the development of children's own imagination and creativity, if they don't also participate in activities that don't require a video screen, such as reading and playing "let's pretend" type games such as dolls and Legos.
