There has been some speculation about what the web might be doing to our minds (e.g., Gord Hotchkiss on: Are Our Brains Becoming Googlized? and Nicholas Carr  on: Is Google Making Us Stupid?). As a cognitive psychologist who once studied the effects of media on cognition, I am confident that something is happening here. But I am not sure we know yet.

One study, sited in the Gord Hotchkiss post, was conducted at UCLA by Gary Small and some colleagues (see UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function). In this work, participants, ages 55 - 76, performed Web searches and book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, that records the subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced during these activities. 

The report states, “All study participants showed significant brain activity during the book-reading task, demonstrating use of the regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities, which are located in the temporal, parietal, occipital and other areas of the brain.”

It went on, “Internet searches revealed a major difference between the two groups. While all participants demonstrated the same brain activity that was seen during the book-reading task, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, which control decision-making and complex reasoning. In fact, researchers found that during Web searching, volunteers with prior experience registered a twofold increase in brain activation when compared with those with little Internet experience.”

The researches thought this was striking. So I asked a leading neuropsychologist what she thought.  She said well actually, it just showed that those who already knew how to do web searches could move more quickly to performing higher levels tasks that involved decision making activity because they knew what they were doing. The others were likely spending more time reading to try to understand what to do, which is more likely similar to the reading tasks.

In fact, the researches acknowledged this, as Small added that the minimal brain activation found in the less experienced Internet group may be due to participants not quite grasping the strategies needed to successfully engage in an Internet search, which is common while learning a new activity. “The report went on to quote Small, “With more time on the Internet, they may demonstrate the same brain activation patterns as the more experienced group.”

I would suggest that the title of the article should be “UCLA study finds that knowing what you are doing increases brain function.”  However, I would question the conclusion that the findings, demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function. That is, it does not seem to indicate that web work helps any more than engaging in any other complex, problem solving task that you have gained some level of proficiency.  Now I do think there is something here worth looking at and I really wanted to find more conclusive results related to the specifics of web work. I am biased to support positive findings as I believe that media can affect cognition. For example, I remember work in the 70s that showed that seeing film with zooming in features, helped people focus on the details in subsequent unrelated tasks compared to a control group. There is much more in this area.

In the UCLA report, Small indicates that, pursuing activities that keep the mind engaged may help preserve brain health and cognitive ability.”  This sounds right but longitudinal studies are required to be conclusive.  In the meanwhile, I do feel that writing a blog helps me to better understand the content since I have to try to communicate it to others but there is nothing unique about the web here, except that it offers more of these opportunities to communicate to more people.

I hope more research is done here and I am sure it is going on now.  I would be very pleased to hear about more work in this area that demonstrated medium-specific effects.