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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Brain activity was much higher in the subjects who had previous experience with Internet searches. Much of the activity "occurred in the frontal lobe, which is involved in complex reasoning and decision-making," Small said.
The Internet search-experienced subjects also showed more brain activity when they searched on the Internet than when they simply read text.
But the subjects who weren't acquainted with Internet searching picked up the skills and boosted their brain activity after searching an hour a day for five days, Small said.
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It's possible that Internet searching could be good for the brain, he said. "There's a lot of interest in brain fitness and exercising our brains to protect them from future decline. One possibility is that a simple task like searching on the Internet activates our brains and may be protecting them in some way."
Still, "we want to not overdo it with the computer," he said. "It's great that we're working out the frontal lobe of the brain, but it's good to take a break and have conversations with people, work on the part of the brain involved with face-to-face human contact skills."
Paul Sanberg, director of the University of South Florida College of Medicine's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, said it's indeed possible that Internet searches could enhance the brain. "There's evidence that the more the brain is active, the more the brain makes connections," he said. "That keeps it functioning better and provides neuroprotection."
More information
Get an inside look at the brain from Harvard University's Whole Brain Atlas.
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