BOOSTING GREY MATTER | Surfing helps the elderly stave off dementia
Internet Stimulates The Mind More Strongly Than Reading: Study
Jonathan Leake | October 19 2009 | Times of India Bangalore
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Googling is good for grandparents. Internet use can boost the brain activity of the elderly, potentially slowing or even reversing the age-related declines that can end in dementia, researchers have found.
Internet Stimulates The Mind More Strongly Than Reading: Study
Jonathan Leake | October 19 2009 | Times of India Bangalore
.
Googling is good for grandparents. Internet use can boost the brain activity of the elderly, potentially slowing or even reversing the age-related declines that can end in dementia, researchers have found.
Using brain scans, they found the internet stimulated the mind more strongly than reading , and the effects continued long after an internet session had ended. We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing internet searches for even a relatively short time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function, said Gary Small, professor of neuroscience at University of California , Los Angeles (UCLA).
Small and his colleagues worked with 24 men and women aged between 55 and 78. They were asked to conduct a series of internet searches while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures changes in blood flow around the brain to work out which parts are the most and least active.
After the initial scan, participants went home and used the internet to carry out specified tasks for an hour a day at least seven times over the next fortnight. Then they had another brain scan. Small and his colleagues found the impacts began immediately, with the first scan showing brain activity in regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision. By the second scan, the activated areas had spread to the frontal gyrus, an area important in working memory and decision-making .
Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise for older adults, said Teena Moody, a UCLA researcher who co-wrote the report. Moody says internet searching challenges the brain more than reading as people need to perform several tasks at once, like holding information in memory while assessing data on screen and extracting the parts they want from graphics. SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON
Small and his colleagues worked with 24 men and women aged between 55 and 78. They were asked to conduct a series of internet searches while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures changes in blood flow around the brain to work out which parts are the most and least active.
After the initial scan, participants went home and used the internet to carry out specified tasks for an hour a day at least seven times over the next fortnight. Then they had another brain scan. Small and his colleagues found the impacts began immediately, with the first scan showing brain activity in regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision. By the second scan, the activated areas had spread to the frontal gyrus, an area important in working memory and decision-making .
Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise for older adults, said Teena Moody, a UCLA researcher who co-wrote the report. Moody says internet searching challenges the brain more than reading as people need to perform several tasks at once, like holding information in memory while assessing data on screen and extracting the parts they want from graphics. SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON
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