Secret of eternal youth
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.