9 - This Is Your Brain on Google

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This Is Your Brain on Google
S. Karlin, "This Is Your Brain on Google" IEEE Spectrum, spectrum.ieee.org, March 2009. [Online]. Available: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/this-is-your-brain-on-google. [Accessed: March 16, 2010].

Gary Small, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, has created a brain scan with troubling implications. The scan successfully shows physical evidence of brain degeneration and Alzheimer's in living patients. Up until this scan was devised, brain degeneration in Alzheimer's patients was confirmed in a post-mortem autopsy.

The scan confirmed that Internet searching does stimulate frontal lobe activity, the portion of the brain responsible for decision making, but can also increase the risk of attention deficit disorder, social isolation and Internet addiction.

Quite remarkably, "Technology is not only changing our lives; it's changing our brains," says Small.

In an effort to combat the negative aspects associated with Small's finding, he suggests that the Internet user vary tasks at a reasonable pace. Small says that switching tasks too often slows down the efficiency of the brain over time, but that working on the same task for too long can cause fatigue in the brain. In short, one should not spend all of their time on the computer. "Go outside. Hang out with your friends and colleagues -- in person," says the author.