In 2008, Gary Small, a neurologist and professor of psychiatry at UCLA, decided to conduct an experiment in order to examine how the human brain changes in response to Internet use. With the help of a team of researchers, Small used an MRI scanner to “measure the brain’s neural pathways during a common Internet computer task: searching Google” (15). Small was particularly interested in seeing how the brains of computer savvy participants differed from those with minimal computer experience. In order to have a control variable, the researchers also did an MRI scan of the participants while they were reading a book.
In this video clip Gary Small describes his findings and their implications for Internet users. Source: Youtube
The results of the study indicated that while “the brains of computer-savvy and computer-naïve subjects did not show any difference when they were reading a book…the two groups showed distinctly different patterns of neural activation when searching on Google” (16). As depicted in the image below, unlike the computer-naïve subjects, those familiar with the Internet showed brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for organization, planning and decision-making.
 |
| Top (blue): Scans showing brain activity of Internet newbies while performing the reading task (left) and the Internet task (right). Below (red): Brain activity of experienced Internet group while performing the reading task (left) and the Internet task (right). Source: www.news.health.com |
This activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is connected to the decisions that users of interactive websites have to make when confronted with an overwhelming amount of hypertext. According to Nicholas Carr, each time an Internet user comes across a hyperlink they must stop and evaluate whether or not they should click it (126). Unlike a book, where the reader’s only decision is whether or not to turn the page, Internet users must navigate a path through the hypertext, increasing their brain activity.
Surprisingly, after just five days of practice for no longer than an hour a day, Small and his researchers discovered that the computer-naïve participants showed the exact same neural activity in their brain as the computer-savvy subjects. This just goes to show how quickly the human brain is able to adapt and change when confronted with technology. According to Small, “If our brains are so sensitive to just an hour a day of computer exposure, what happens when we spend more time? What about the brains of young people, whose neural circuitry is even more malleable? What happens to their brains when they spend their average eight hours daily with high-tech toys and devices?” (17).
One positive finding to arise out of Gary Small’s research is that because the Internet highly stimulates the brain, and particularly the prefrontal cortex associated with decision making and planning, interactive websites may be a great way to “exercise the brain the way solving a crossword puzzle does” in order to improve memory (125). Small also warns, however, that extensive computer and Internet use, however, can result in “techno-brain burnout,” or cognitive overload.
Return to: 3.0 Disadvantages of Interactive Websites
Next Page: 3.2 Cognitive Overload
Sources
Return to: 3.0 Disadvantages of Interactive Websites
Next Page: 3.2 Cognitive Overload
Sources
Carr, Nicholas G. The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Small, Gary W. iBrain: surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind. New York: Harper, 2009. Print.