The average American uses the Internet for 26 hours each month — writing e-mails, searching for facts or simply shopping online. But does all this online activity help — or harm — our brains?
To find out, Bottom Line/Health spoke with Gary Small, MD, a leading authority on brain function, who explains that computer use has both positive and negative effects.
“Use it or lose it” has long been the motto for brain health. And according to new research, processing and responding to a shifting influx of information on the computer appears to dramatically increase mental activity.
Important new finding: When 24 adults with and without computer experience had their brain activity measured while they searched the Internet for information, the experienced users’ brains were twice as lively as the others’. The increased activity was most striking in the brain’s prefrontal cortex — the area that weighs complex information and makes decisions.
But the newcomers caught up fast. After spending just an hour a day on Internet searching for five days, their brains were just as active, when retested, as their more experienced counterparts’.
New technology means a world of new opportunities to socialize. For example, so-called “social media” outlets, such as Facebook (www.facebook.com), MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com), make it possible to easily communicate with friends and acquaintances, including many you’ve never actually met.
The more you “socialize” online, the more adept at it you become, as brain circuits engaged by the activity grow stronger. This type of social activity engages the “thinking center” of the brain, as well as areas involved in language and memory functions.
The potential cost: When you spend long hours in front of the computer screen, you have less time for face-to-face conversations, which communicate a far richer stream of information than digital messages can. Facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice and body language convey subtleties of thought and feeling that are otherwise lost.
In fact, face-to-face conversation activates the brain more broadly and deeply than does computer communication — speaking, listening and interpreting nonverbal cues engage neurons in areas such as the anterior cingulate, the insula and parts of the frontal cortex that can weaken from disuse.
Self-defense: Become aware of the hours you spend online and be ready to set limits. Spend more physical time with people you care about — for example, schedule family dinners to reconnect with each other. To engage your brain even more fully, make special note of nonverbal communication when you are with people. For example, what are people saying by the way they stand and gesture?
Today’s computer technology makes multitasking almost inevitable. Streams of information are constantly converging as e-mails and the lure of the Internet compete for our attention. Hopscotching back and forth grows easier with practice. Presumably it strengthens the part of the brain that lets us leave one task and focus on another — an area behind the forehead called the anterior prefrontal cortex.
The potential cost: Getting used to the staccato thinking style of dancing between tasks may make it more difficult to focus attention long enough to think through a problem. Some experts have suggested that symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults — such as distractibility, impulsivity and inability to concentrate — may be due, in some cases, to brain shifts that occur in response to the continual bombardment of information delivered by technology.
You may think that you’re getting more tasks done by multitasking, but in fact the brain is far more efficient when allowed to concentrate on one thing at a time. Studies have shown that mental efficiency declines during multitasking, and tasks take longer to complete than they do when done sequentially.
Self-defense: List your tasks in order of importance, and arrange your schedule accordingly. Set aside times when you focus on paying bills or returning phone calls — and turn off your e-mail if it distracts you.
Also helpful: When possible, take “power naps.” A Harvard study found that a 30-minute nap renews the neural pathways depleted by multitasking and reduces overall fatigue.
Many people have gotten hooked on online shopping, computer games, Internet porn and/or Internet gambling. Even mundane Internet searching — just looking for interesting Web sites — may be seriously habit forming.
The potential cost: Whether they are true addictions — not all experts think so — such activities apparently activate the same “reward circuits” in the brain that drugs and alcohol do.
As with substance abuse, dependence on computer stimulation can become an unhealthy preoccupation that persists even when it puts jobs and personal relationships in jeopardy — and efforts to stop may trigger withdrawal-like discomfort.
Self-defense: Each day, substitute offline diversions that you enjoy, such as hobbies and sports, for computer activities. If certain Web sites prove hard to resist, use a program that filters content. (Have a family member or friend set up the filter and keep the password.)
Helpful: If the lure of toxic technology is truly interfering with your life, seek professional help. Contact the Center for Internet Addiction (814-451-2405, www.netaddiction.com).
Research shows that regular mental stimulation can spur new connections between neurons and improve memory.
Solving crossword puzzles in the newspaper, for example, and learning new subjects may slow brain aging — or even lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Used wisely, your computer also can help promote brain health. For example, there are Web sites that feature games and puzzles specifically designed to challenge the brain at varying levels of difficulty.
My favorite Web sites: www.brainbashers.com (created by a math teacher in England, this free site offers puzzles, riddles, games and optical illusions)… and www.braingle.com (this site will e-mail you a free brain teaser each day and allows you to chat online with other brain teaser enthusiasts).
