Internet and keeping our brains stimulated

While excessive computer use can lead to conditions such as attention deficit disorder, depression anxiety and proneness to violence, recent research has shown that internet is not all that bad after all! The web may in fact be teaching our brains, subtly rewiring the way we respond, think and behave.

The book ‘iBrain – Surviving the Technological Alterations of the Modern Mind’ by Dr Gary Small provides new insight through research undertaken at UCLA, and reveals that an hour of internet use every day may boost brain function. “We learn to react more swiftly to visual stimuli, improve our ability to sift through large amounts of information, and decide what is important and what isn’t”. This training is most evident when we scan our emails, quickly deciding and deleting what is spam, while focussing on those that are important.

“If you never use computers, then start”, Professor Small recommends. “As we found, even an hour a day can vastly improve yor information processing skills, even in people aged 55 – 60”.

Internet Search boosts decision-making skills. The rapid spurt of directed concentration for internet research enhances our ability to focus our attention, analyse information and make instant decisions. Web surfers typically spend two seconds or less on any particular website before moving on to the next. In her study, Professor Briggs found that internet users shifted information accurately, despite operating at high speed, stopping only at sites that contained relevant information. She found that within 5 days of regular use, novices showed improved activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, that control our ability to make decisions and integrate complex information, indiating that the brain could learn and improve in short time.

General browsing however encourages use of continuous partial attention and multitasking, which can impair cognition and can cause irritability. Hopping from one subject to the next on the web without a specific goal, may lead to computer fatigue, as this person might be simultaneously clicking on websites, replying to e-mails or speaking on the phone.

Playing computer games may improve multitasking skills, memory and peripheral vision, but can also lead to anti-social behaviour. Hightened stress levels due to increased levels of adrenaline and stress hormones have been highlighted earlier. But not all games are equal; specialized ones such as Nintendo’s Brain Age and Brain Fitness Program have been specifically designed to enhance memory and cognition, and can stave off age related diseases and Alzheimer’s.

Use of emoticons exercises brain centers linked with emotion and social connection and can be particulary useful to those who use computers for long periods. Use of ‘smileys’ stimulate the part of the brain that is activated by one-to-one emotion contact, and can offset feelings of emotional isolation often seen during excessive computer use.

Benefiting most from computers and technology is however all to do with balance. “If you work all day at a computer, make sure you mix with real people in the evening, rather than using social networking sites or playing computer games,” says Dr Small. And if you never use computers, then start, even if you are a 60 plus.