Quacks analysing the brains of adults with little Internet experience found that they had changes in their brain activity after just one week online.

The study reveals that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition the elderly. Penned by the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, the study said that regular surfing could help deal with the decay of brain functions. According to the top quack Dr. Gary Small who wrote the report older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function.

The UCLA team worked with 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 78. Prior to the study, half the participants used the Internet daily, while the other half had very little experience. They then performed Web searches while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which recorded the subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced during this activity.

After the initial brain scan, subjects went home and conducted Internet searches for one hour a day for a total of seven days over 14 days. As the boffins expected the first scan of participants with little Internet experience showed brain activity. The regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities were deserted with tumbleweed blowing down the central cortex.

However after two weeks surfing the net everything was fired up especially in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus – areas of the brain known to be important in working memory and decision-making. The boffins thing that searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults.