Searching Google 'can help delay dementia'

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Searching Google 'can help delay dementia'

Searching the internet with Google can help slow and even reverse the onset of dementia, research has shown. 

Older people can boost their brain activity by performing simple online searches, according to a study that suggests the web could be used in the fight against mental decline.

A team led by Professor Gary Small at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that internet searches were more effective than reading at improving brain function.

Researchers believe that "Googling" is particularly beneficial because it involves a number of simultaneous mental processes, including memory – of the original search term – and the comprehension and analysis of the results.

“Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults,” said Teena Moody, a researcher at UCLA who coauthored the report with Professor Small.

As part of the study, 24 people between the ages of 55 and 78 were asked to carry out a series of online searches while having the flow of blood around their brains monitored by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.

• They were subjected to the same test a fortnight later, having followed a regime of online searching at home.

The results showed that the function improvements detected in the initial scans – in the parts of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and vision – had spread to other areas of the brain responsible for memory and decision making.

The UCLA scientists believe that internet searching and other mental exercises slow dementia by stimulating cells and pathways within the brain.

The research will be presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago on Monday.