Internet Searches: Exercise for Your Brain

Using the Internet to find information can stimulate key areas of the brain associated with memory and decision-making.

UCLA scientists found that for middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience, benefits could be attained in just one week of Web surfing. In the future, the scientists hope to also study the impact of Internet use on younger adults.

"Naives" with minimal prior Internet search experience (top), and "Savvies" with a lot of Web search experience (bottom). Shown: patterns of activity for first brain scans (left) and second brain scans (right). During the second brain scans, after Internet training, both Naives and Savvies have similar brain patterns.

Scientists studied adults ages 55 to 78, comparing people with very little prior Internet experience with participants who used the Internet daily. Participants performed Internet searches while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which track brain activity by measuring cerebral blood flow.

After the first scan, study participants conducted Internet searches at home for one hour a day (a total of seven days) over two weeks. They used the Internet to answer questions about topics. A second brain scan was performed using the same Internet simulation task with different topics. The second brain scan of participants who had little Internet experience prior to the study showed new triggering of parts of the brain important in working memory and decision-making.

“The results suggest that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults,” said Teena D. Moody, the study’s first author.

(Image via UCLA)