According to findings presented at the Oct. 19 at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, Illinois, internet surfing can stimulate neural activity and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults.
As we know from science, our brain undergoes many structural and functional changes as we advance in age, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity, deposits on the brain that can that minimize cognitive function and even decay. Wooo hooo! We have lots to look forward to.
However, adults with little Internet experience who were tested after just one week online, show significant changes in their brain activity, a new study finds;
“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,” Dr. Gary Small, study author and professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, said in a statement.
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 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.
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 and frontal 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.
Studies on the impact of internet use on younger people’s brains are on there way, but for now despite the age, the odds look good. Therefore, onward with your daily brain stimulation here on 5Portals.com.
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