[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/files/articles/internet_brain.JPG[/img]
[release][b]Your grandma might think that the Internet is rotting your brain, but it's possible if she did a little face-time with Google that she could stay sharper in the noggin herself. In a new study, Internet novices who were instructed to search the web showed increased activity in areas of the brain associated with making decisions and memory in just two weeks, according to a poster presented today at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference.
The work comes from a UCLA research team including Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry, and builds off of a previous study we covered in the June issue of Popular Science. He had previously shown that people who already are using the Internet more have more activity in areas of the brain related to complex reasoning, but that study couldn't define what was cause and effect (maybe people with better complex reasoning skills are more drawn to the Internet).
The new study shows that having people use the Internet can actually change their brain function. The experiment involved 24 adults, between 55 and 78 years old. Half had scant experience on the 'net. The other, web-savvy half served as a control group. Participants underwent fMRI scans of their brains while searching the Internet, before and after a two-week Internet training period, when the participants searched the Internet for an hour a day for seven days total. When the naive group was scanned again while using the web, areas of the brain involved in decision making and working memory (things you quickly hold in your head, like a new telephone number you're about to dial) showed more activity.
"The Internet may be a form of brain exercise,” Small told Popsci.com. "Whether [the brain changes] translate to other aspects of life, we don’t know yet, but it’s certainly a possibility.”[/b][/release]
[url=http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-10/internet-makes-elders-smarter]Sauce[/url]
Hmm I wonder the same can be said for Youtube commenters
I've learned a lot from the internet.
Like there are people that like to pretend they're animals.
Pretty awesome stuff, yet I doubt it applies to everyone who uses it. Since not everyone looks up random information whenever they want to, but instead look up stupid videos that have humor that died out long ago.
I think that increased brain growth takes up the space of where one would process things such as common sense
All i know about the internet is that there are women willing to take their clothes off, and eat shit for my entertainment.
Now get them to make a report on the OIFY and 4chans /b/ section.
I done told you book lernins aint never did nuttin.
Facepunch will set you free!
It's true. I learned a lot from Facepunch. Like spelling a lot instead of alot, and what a shitload of sexual terms mean.
Bring back the smartness system and maybe we can reach Mars by 2020.
I learned how to make molotovs and smoke bombs. Lord knows I'm gonna use those in the future.
[QUOTE=Levithan II;17922362]Bring back the smartness system and maybe we can reach Mars by 2020.[/QUOTE]
Agreed
[QUOTE=metalhead121;17922399]I learned how to make molotovs and smoke bombs. Lord knows I'm gonna use those in the future.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://foci.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/usa-patriot1.jpg[/img]
Son.
Of course having access to the worlds information is going to make you smarter.
I have learned much about the reproductive systems
of more than humans
oh jeez
[QUOTE=ssa gib A;17922360][b]It's true. I learned a lot from Facepunch. Like spelling a lot instead of alot,[/b] and what a shitload of sexual terms mean.[/QUOTE]
.
I'd like to thank Wikipedia and the mindless hours of reading. :eng101:
[quote]The experiment involved 24 adults, between 55 and 78 years old.[/quote]
They tested the wrong age group.
[QUOTE=Benie;17922521]They tested the wrong age group.[/QUOTE]
It would be a lot harder to find people at lower age who have almost no internet experience.
[QUOTE=Latias;17922446][img]http://foci.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/usa-patriot1.jpg[/img]
Son.[/QUOTE]
I'm an Anarchist. Sorry.
The internet made me a crazy son of a bitch.
Perhaps crazy is intelligence.
I must be one smart man:sax:
The Internet thought me how to make babies, excessively.
Even though I am a genius from using the internet so much I can't understand what the picture is supposed to show
[QUOTE=TH89;17922689]Even though I am a genius from using the internet so much I can't understand what the picture is supposed to show[/QUOTE]
Activity in different parts of the brain.
its a walnut son
The first scan showed many parts needing to be used. Second one is the brain using less to get the same thing done.
[QUOTE=RedStar;17922293]I've learned a lot from the internet.
Like there are people that like to pretend they're animals.[/QUOTE]
And that there is a such thing as robot sex orgies in Japan.
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