Home
Sitemap
Global Network
A new UCLA study, part of the growing research into the effects of technology on the brain, shows that searching the Internet may keep older brains agile -- it's like taking your brain for a walk. It's too early to conclude that technology will help vanquish Alzheimer's disease, but "our study shows that when your brain is on Google, your neural circuitry changes extensively," said psychiatrist Gary Small, director of UCLA's Memory & Aging Research Center.
The new study, which will be published next month in the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, comes at a time when medical experts are forecasting that Alzheimer's cases will quadruple by 2050. In response to such projections, "brain-gyms" and memory-building computer programs have proliferated. The subjects in Small's nine-month study were 24 neurologically normal volunteers ages 55 to 76, with similar education levels.
They were assigned two tasks: to read book-like text on computer screens and to perform Internet searches. While doing so, their brains were scanned inside a specially equipped magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. Half the group was familiar with Internet searching; the other half was not. Subjects viewed simulated Web pages through goggles, then, using a finger pad to approximate an online search, pressed one of three response buttons to control the cursor. For the book reading task, they pressed a button to advance text pages. To increase their motivation, subjects were told in advance that they would be assessed for their knowledge of the topics they researched. Topics included the benefits of eating chocolate, planning a trip to the Galapagos and how to choose a car.
The MRI results showed that both text reading and Internet searching stimulated the regions of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and vision. But the Internet search lit up more areas of the brain, additionally activating the regions controlling complex reasoning and decision making. The increased brain activity, which is probably due to the many rapid choices such searches involve, suggests that subjects had a richer sensory experience and heightened attention.
By focusing on older users, Small said, he aimed to fill a gap in brain research. Few studies have looked at the effects of technology on these "digital immigrants," who began using computers later in life than their younger counterparts, the "digital natives." Small's study was started as part of the research for his latest book, "iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind." "Our findings point to an association between routine Internet searching and neural circuitry activation in middle-aged and older adults," the study said. "Further study will elucidate both the potential positive and negative influences of these technologies on the aging brain." The implications are provocative, particularly because it is well known that developments in technology affect human behavior. "People who are more adept with the technology will be more successful in society, and their offspring will be more likely to excel," Small told The Chronicle.
Some researchers, including Kevin Lee, deputy executive director of the Ellison Medical Foundation, which funds research on aging, say such statements go too far. "The printed book and typewriters may change our brains, individually, over a lifetime," Lee said. "But whether using computers would change our genetic makeup is something that would only happen over thousands of years." Small acknowledges that our increasing dependence on technology is controversial. "It's not all good," he said. "We know that a teenager does not have the empathy skills of a middle-ager. What will happen if they play video games endlessly?" The study, he hopes, will be a stepping stone. "The brain is complicated, and the technology is complicated -- it's not all good, it's not all bad, but it definitely has an impact on our lives," Small said.
"We need to acknowledge that and be thoughtful about our relationship with technology so it enhances our lives and our relationships with other people."