Science
According to a new study, using the Internet for just a few days helps older people's cognitive function. Brain scans of adults who have access to the Internet for the first time in their lives showed that, thanks to it, individuals have significantly improved memory functions and become Decision-making departments work more actively.
“The results show that Internet searches are the easiest form of brain exercise that can be used to improve cognitive skills in old age,” says one of The authors of the study are senior researcher Tina Moody (Teena Moody).
A study by psychiatrists and neurologists at the University of California at Los Angeles looked at the brain patterns of elderly people aged 55-78 who rarely use the Internet. Experts asked volunteers to search the Internet for a given topic, while magnetic resonance imaging recorded their brain activity.
After that, the subjects went home, where they were asked to surf the Internet for an hour every day, working with search engines and looking for answers to various questions. A week later, they returned to the lab, where they were tested again.
As a result, during the first test, when the subject's brain was not yet experienced in surfing the Internet, areas related to language, reading and memory were very active. However, during the second test, the middle and lower frontal gyrus also began to work more actively, namely the parts responsible for short-term memory and the process of acceptance solutions.
The brains of regular Internet users have already shown activity in these regions, and researchers were amazed that it took only a few days for inexperienced users to make up for lost time. “We found that the brains of older people with minimal experience of surfing the Internet even in a very short period of time begin to work significantly better, and their functioning is enhanced most important areas,” says Professor of Psychiatry Gary Small.
However, since only 24 people participated in the study, further experiments are needed to confirm the results. Moreover, experts plan to study the impact of the Internet on young brains, as well as find out what type of online activity has the maximum impact on improving cognitive functions.
The impact of technology on brain function is the subject of numerous studies currently underway. For example, Professor Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institute, links social media to loss of concentration in children. She also accused text messages of increasing the number of people suffering from attention deficit disorders, computers making people fat, and video games in a financial crisis.