A study which is due to appear in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry shows that surfing the Web could be beneficial for the brain. The study was made at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In order to study what brains look like when people are searching the Internet, the study’s leader, UCLA professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Dr. Gary Small, decided to look at middle-aged and older people, because more of them aren't familiar with computers. 24 people aged 55 to 76 were recruited for the experiment. Half of them had experience with computer searches, while the other half did not.

The volunteers carried out Web searches and performed book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. During the MRI they were given search tasks such as finding out how to choose a car or looking up the benefits of eating chocolate or drinking coffee. They had buttons and keyboards to conduct a simulated online search.

"The bottom line is, when older people read a simulated book page, we see areas of the brain activated that you'd expect, the visual cortex, and areas that control language and reading," Small said. "When they search on the Internet, they use the same areas, but there was much greater activation particularly in the front part, which controls decision-making and complex reasoning. But it was only for the people who had previous experience with the Internet."

Moreover there are a lot of researchers and computer games companies that believe that "mental workouts" can improve concentration and help prevent dementia and memory loss.