October 17, 2008 by Matt Thomas
Scientists at the University of California claim to have proven that surfing the Internet improves brain power. Apparently internet use in your middle age stimulates the brain in such a way that it can counteract the natural slowing of brain function that happens as you get older.
The researchers looked at a group of people ranging in age from 76 at the oldest to 55 at the youngest. Half of the group regularly used the Internet the other half did not. While surfing the Internet under controlled conditions, the regular users alone showed activity in areas of the brain used to control high level reasoning and decision making.
The conclusion was that proper internet use requires difficult choices about which material to look at and how to find it. Regular users had the experience and knowledge to track down the information they actually wanted rather than simply clicking on the top link offered.
This is not a new theory however, it has long been accepted that mental agility tasks like chess or Sudoku can curtail some of the effects that aging has on the brain. It would seem that the University of California study is merely adding Internet use to the list of ‘brain healthy’ activities.
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