Google is good for your noodle

FAR FROM FRAZZLING the brain, it seems spending inordinate amounts of time in front of a computer may actually help keep your mind fit and agile, possibly even preventing the onset of dementia.

At least, this is what a new UCLA study on the effects of technology on the brain is claiming. Although psychiatrist and director of UCLA's Memory & Aging Research Centre, Gary Small says it’s too soon to tell if Google searches could eradicate Alzheimers, he also says the "study shows that when your brain is on Google, your neural circuitry changes extensively".

The study was carried out on 24 neurologically normal volunteers aged between 55 and 76 with similar educational backgrounds who were given two tasks. Half were familiar with Internet searching, half were not. All were told to read text on screen, turning pages by the click of a button as they progressed, and all were made to carry out Internet searches.

While the subjects were busy reading and Googling away, their brains were monitored by a special MRI machine. Results showed that while reading text on-screen stimulated regions of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and vision, Internet searching lit them up too, and then some. Areas associated with complex reasoning and decision making were especially stimulated by online search.

Small reckoned his research was plugging an important gap by focusing on the older, so called 'digital immigrant' age group, with the study concluding there was a clear association between routine Internet searching and neural circuitry activation in middle-aged and older adults.

Boffins hope that future studies will elaborate further on the positive and negative effects of internet searching on the aging human brain. µ

L'Inq
San Francisco Chronicle