It was really necessary to see how using the internet affects the human brain. Researchers from UCLA showed that searching on Google triggers a key center for decision-making and complex reasoning in the brain, leading to possible improvements in brain function. Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA, told the media that the Web is always taking our brain to the next level, exercising it.

The study consisted of two groups of middle-aged participants: half had no experience with the Internet and the other half were used to it. The groups were told to perform Internet searches as well as a simple reading task. An MRI scanning machine recorded brain activity patterns while the participants were performing the task.

This caused the same type of brain activation in both groups, termed the Web-savvy and Web-naive. The Web-savvy showed new regions bursting with activity during the task in frontal and temporal areas of the brain, areas responsible for the control of higher order decision making and complex reasoning. However, this activation only appeared when the group with Internet experience completed the tasks. This study shows that the Internet has a good influence over our brain and can lead to physical evolution, improving the efficiency of the way humans think. After this experiment ended, the ones who hadn’t used the Internet before were given five days to surf the Web. They began to show an increase in activity in those same frontal brain regions responsible for higher order thinking.

Dr. Small told the media that the brain is extraordinarily plastic and it is never too late for it to learn new tasks. Even though technology enhances and sharpens the cognitive abilities of the brain, human interactions and face-to-face contacts are minimized. Teens tend to use the e-mail or the mobile phone instead of a talk face-to-face. It is very important for teens to stay connected with humanity, even if browsing the Web helps our brain.