Surfing the Net: A Healthy Alternative?

According to a soon-to-be-published article in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, reported on in the New York Times, searching the Internet may be good for your health!

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, are suggesting that searching the Web may improve brain function, especially in the areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

The researches studied a group of Internet users and non-users between the ages of 55 and 76.

According to Dr. Gary Small, director of UCLA’s Memory and Aging Research Center: “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

The researchers noted that compared with reading, the Internet’s wealth of choices requires that people make decisions about what to click on, an activity that engages important cognitive circuits in the brain.