万花筒 2008ks1021&23 多用搜索引擎提高记忆力（在线收听）

Did you know that the Internet could be a good exercise for the brain? A new study from UCLA finds it when middle age and senior age adults perform Internet searches, it activates many different areas of the brain including those involved with memory, decision making and reasoning. Joining us today is the lead author of a study looking at this-- Dr. Gary Smalls  and he’s also the author of the book iBrain, Surviving the technological alternation of the modern mind. Welcome Dr. Smalls.

Thank you! It’s great to be here.

So, in my parents’ house, I have to tell you how it works. My mom and dad might sit up and at some point there is a discussion, hey you are on the Internet, quit surfing Internet. Can I, now tell my parents, it’s ok for dad to surf the Internet, it’s good for his brain?

Well, we don’t see any harm in it, and this first study to see what the brain looks like when it searches on the Internet showed very dramatic results compared to just reading a book text page, there was much greater activation and particularly in the front part of the brain that controls complex reasoning and decision making.

That’s interesting, so it’s kind of, it can be crossword puzzle sounds like.

Well, it’s… it’s probably different from crossword puzzles but similar. One thing about when we are searching on the web is we are constantly deciding should you go for this site or that other site, whereas if we're just reading a book page, the decision is should I turn the page when I finish the last sentence. And there's something about that decision making process, something about the interaction that is activating a much greater extent of brain neural circuits.

That’s interesting. Now what about ages where you’re looking at this kind of, I saw your study was relatively small, it seemed to be 24  people on the stuff that I've read. Uh, what ages are we looking at and when does this become potentially neuro-preventive for people?

We don’t know whether it’s neuro-preventive and we don’t know about the age effects, but one thing I focus on in iBrain, in my new book, is the digital divide between young people, digital natives who are getting this technology 24-7 born into it, and the older generation the digital immigrants who come to it more reluctantly later in life, and how do we bridge that so called brain gap by upgrading the text skills of older people and helping younger people with their face-to-face human contact skills.

It’s fascinating, we just have time for one last question, kind of common, but I’ve been fascinated how able people in their 60s and 70s are really incorporating this new technology into their daily lives in Internet searching etc. It's really been amazing to me to see how quickly that’s happened.

Well I encourage boomers and seniors to get involved in the technology to have fun with it and enjoy it, and it’s a great way to reach out to people who are not nearby, the communication ability is…(Absolutely) really spectacular.

Absolutely, sorry we are out of time, but thanks so much for coming to see us Dr. Smalls, love to hear what you had to say. 

Thank you!