Surfers' Brain Scans

Good news, silver surfers: the University of California in Los Angeles has published a study of brain scans of 24 volunteers aged between 55 and 76 which demonstrates that surfing the Internet increases brain activity. On the left is the brain scan of a silver surfer when reading a book. On the right is the brain scan of of a silver surfer when searching the Internet. Googling stimulates centres in the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning. Half the 24 subjects were new to the Internet; the other half experienced surfers. The experienced surfers showed more brain activity on the scans when searching the Internet than the newbies. The sample is small - only 24 subjects -, but the results are interesting. Click the title link for the long-winded version.