A team of researchers at the University of California Los Angeles have recently revealed that Internet searches could improve one’s brain activity and also prevent the brain from ageing.

Middle-aged and older adults who have had previous Web-using experiences can really benefit from web browsing, due to the fact that this activity stimulates the centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning, scientists state.

The UCLA team’s study looked at twenty-four „neurologically normal” people aged between 55 years old and 76 years old, half of whom had used the Internet before.

Researchers monitored their brain activity while they read books or searched the Web via a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and found that while reading, parts of the brain that control language, reading, memory and visual abilities were significantly put to use.

Nevertheless, while browsing the Internet, the volunteers for the study also showed increased activity in the regions in charge of making decisions and complex reasoning.

Compared to those who had no experience in using the Internet, the web-literate persons were reported to had registered higher brain activity while performing searches than while reading, which included engaging the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, meaning that almost twice as much of the brain was used when they browsed the Web.

Generally, the mainstay ways to prevent reduced cell activity and consequently, brain atrophy are doing crossword puzzles, learning something new or taking up hobbies that entail developing skills that haven’t been used before.

The results of the study conducted by the UCLA team are scheduled to be published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.