Internet Use Can Be Good For the Brain

ddelmonte writes "This Washington Post article examines a test conducted at UCLA. The test had two groups, young people who used the Internet, and older people who had never been online. Both groups were asked to do Internet searches and book reading tasks while their brain activity was monitored. 'We found that in reading the book task, the visual cortex — the part of the brain that controls reading and language — was activated,' Small said. 'In doing the Internet search task, there was much greater activity, but only in the Internet-savvy group.' He said it appears that people who are familiar with the Internet can engage in a much deeper level of brain activity. 'There is something about Internet searching where we can gauge it to a level that we find challenging,' Small said. In the aging brain, atrophy and reduced cell activity can take a toll on cognitive function. Activities that keep the brain engaged can preserve brain health and thinking ability. Small thinks learning to do Internet searches may be one of those activities."

Comments

Looking at porn is good for the brain!

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . when they announce that next week, we're all set!

i dunno

[ionix5891]

i found my attention span has gone to dogs since the advent of the internet and each year it gets worse

Re:i dunno

[Swizec]

Same here, I used to be able to concen OH HEY LOOK LOLCAT!

Re:i dunno

[morgan_greywolf]

That's why I try, as much as possible, to get API and language reference documentation in a format for offline viewing other than HTML -- if I'm looking up the parameters of, say, a GtkSpinBox callback or the methods of a PyGTK gtk.Assistant object, and I look in a web browser I'm always tempted to load a new tab to someplace like Slashdot. :/

Re:i dunno

[McDutchie]

i found my attention span has gone to dogs since the advent of the internet and each year it gets worse

You're not the only one...

Hold the phone!

[Overzeetop]

You mean that young brains, when confronted with a familiar, engaging audio-visual medium stimulated more of the brain than when they tested elderly subjects who had essentially no concept of the depth of information that was available in that medium.

I am shocked with this discovery. Shocked, I tell you. We should spend much more on this research - maybe with animals - to determine the extent of this effect. Do you suppose these guys produce a newsletter?

Flash games

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the research also mention something about playing tower defense flash games on the internet?

Prooof That The Internet Makes You Stupid

[giafly]

What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search

I think it's because Internet users needed to use more of their brains, having less to go around. But then I use the Internet too, so what do I know?

Most likely situation

[nawcom]

(from the kitchen) "Honey-sweety-pumpkin, what are you doing so intently? Dinner is almost ready."

"I'm exercising my visual cortex!" *fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap*

Re:Highly interesting

[allcar]

This is typical poor reporting of a scientific study. From the evidence provided in the article, it's possible to provide several explanations of the observed results. Most obviously that younger people use more brain activity than older people when using a search engine. However, they have leapt to the conclusion that the key factor is whether or not the individuals are "internet savvy". Surely it would have been possible to obtain people from all walks of life with differnt levels of internet experience. There's plenty of older folk who have used Google!

Better then TV

[cyberm0nk]

Anything is better then watching Lame TV shows.......