Is digital technology re wiring your brain

Optimists believe digital technology could help improve cognitive health and tackle neurological disease.. Mr Fernandez believes such assessments, as well as brain-training exercises usi

Is dIgItal

technology

re-wIrIng your

As its scope, scale and influence

extends, the Internet is being

classified by some as an “intellectual

technology”, in the same category

as the printed page, the number, the

clock, the abacus and the typewriter

These are all tools designed to

magnify our mental powers But in

magnifying our powers, they also

shape how we think

It is already accepted by

neuroscientists that the Internet

and digital technology will leave

some physical impression on our

neurological systems All interaction

causes changes in the brain Whilst

these changes are particularly

pronounced in childhood, the brain

dIgItal technologIes are havIng a profound Impact on our neurologIcal systems they

have the potentIal to empower or enfeeble our braIns – the choIce Is ours.

continues to adapt throughout adulthood, forming new neural connections and pathways and destroying old unused ones, through a process known as neuroplasticity “Our brains change

as a function of what we do, what we’re good at, what we master, and what we don’t do,” says Michael Merzenich, professor emeritus and neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco

Optimists believe digital technology could help improve cognitive health and tackle neurological disease In the near future, all individuals will

be able to conduct self-assessments

of their cognitive health, predicts

Written by:

Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive officer of Sharpbrains.com, a market research firm that tracks the health and wellness applications of brain science Mr Fernandez believes such assessments, as well as brain-training exercises using online tools, will provide researchers with an unprecedented amount of data that can help identify commonalities

in brain and cognitive disorders Professor Merzenich believes that

if it is leveraged to achieve the right ends, such digital technology,

“will lead to a new awakening”

in the diagnosis and treatment

of behavioural and neurological disorders As age-related neurological diseases grow in step

with the ageing population globally,

technologies which help monitor and

re-shape brains will become useful

tools

Online exercises are already

available to improve brain functions

including memory, attention

span and people skills A 2011

report in the UK by Nominet, a

social technology funder, argued

that brain-training can improve

our ability to convert short-term

impressions and thoughts into

long-term knowledge The findings

support a 2009 study which argued

that working memories can be

trained and improved through

online exercises For just 30 minutes

a day, over a period of 19 days,

young adults completed a series

of computer-based brain-training

exercises These included

puzzle-solving, memorizing to-do lists and

comparing and contrasting symbols

and shapes In this particular study,

improvements in working memory

and fluid intelligence (the ability to

solve problems in new situations)

were recorded

Even computer games, criticised by

many for their impact on children,

can improve spatial attention, mental rotation, motor responses and visual processing skills This could have beneficial applications in the real world A study conducted in 2007 found that surgeons who played video games before performing laparoscopic surgery (key-hole surgery) made 37% fewer errors than those that had not played

The potential for video games to influence our cognitive functions, both negatively and positively, will only increase as technology becomes more immersive, realistic and

interactive

Brain-training tasks can be also intensified to deal with more significant neurological dysfunctions

According to Professor Merzenich, brain-training can re-establish the social and learning abilities

of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) His company even has a trial, currently underway in the US, of a training programme that aims to correct chronic schizophrenia Beginning with simple questionnaires, brain-training can initially help identify

neurological distortions in individuals Tailored exercises are then designed to improve different functions, to drive the brain in corrective ways Continual exercises are also supposed to be able to help repair degraded parts of the brain and correct hormonal imbalances

If this technology is used on young children at high -risk of developing chronic schizophrenia, Professor Merzenich believes an “illness that has plagued people from the beginning of time can probably

be corrected by device-controlled exercises.” An expansive library

of ‘apps’ is already on the market, designed to help individuals cope with a range of cognitive, neurological and behavioural disorders, including mood-tracking apps designed to help people with anxiety and depression by allowing them to monitor, track and reference their emotional experiences

“Technology empowers you to

do things that are unimaginable and scale them It’s like inventing neuropharmacology without having

to come up with the drug stores,” says Professor Mezernich

The story is not all rosy, however

Some neuroscientists are worried

that digital technology and the

internet, while doubtless having

positive neurological impacts, can

also undermine critical mental

functions when used to excess

China has already declared internet

addiction a clinical disorder and has

built more than 400 rehabilitation

camps for treating young people

“Internet use disorder” has, since

May 2013, even been included

in the Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders - the

dIgItal backlash

official US document for classifying mental disorders - as a condition

“recommended for further study.”

Leading neuroscientists fear that the time people spend engaged with digital and web-based technologies,

is time not spent rehearsing physical and social skills As the brain is plastic, it operates under a “use it or lose it” principle Susan Greenfield, a British scientist and author of Mind Change, is particularly concerned

by the “quantitative” shift in the

amount of time we spend on screens Young Americans spend

on average more than 53 hours per week consuming entertainment media When the use of other devices, such as mobile phones, is taken into account, young people spend on average nearly 11 hours per day engaged with a screen

Unlike television, the internet’s presence is truly ubiquitous and immersive Professor Greenfield argues the mind can be constantly engaged by a variety of sources

from mobile phones to laptops and

iPads, all vying for our attention An

environment in which people are

intensively staring at screens and

only using their hands and fingers

is unnatural, preventing the brain

from making an accurate model of

the real world and of the body This

degree of physical inertia marks a,

“radical change in the way the brain

is engaging with the body … and

there will be substantial neurological

and medical consequences in

future years,” says Professor

Merzernich The consequences

could be more severe for younger

people, particularly those growing

up using digital technologies from

an early age (a group referred to as

‘digital natives’ or the ‘millennials’)

Young brains are more susceptible

to their external environment and

this generation is spending the

longest amounts of time plugged in

to screens

Concerned neuroscientists point

to studies that show outdoor

activity is essential to healthy

brain development In a seminal

experiment in the 1940s, the psychologist, Donald Hebb, compared the problem-solving capabilities of rats confined to the laboratory with rats that had been freed Within a matter

of weeks the “free-range” rats outperformed their counterparts in captivity across all problem-solving exercises This concept, known as

“environmental enrichment” asserts that exposure to new, challenging environments can lead to positive differences in the composition of the brain including; increased brain weight, increased neuron cell size and the increased thickness of the brain’s cortex

A further area of concern is the impact on concentration The internet and digital sphere is full

of applications that compete for our attention These distractions, Nicholas Carr believes, make the internet an “interruption system”

Human brains are unable to process the vast quantities and various sources of information, degrading the way that we learn and think The

brain has three different types of memory; short term, long-term and

‘working memory’, with the latter converting new information into long-term memories This process

is slow and requires the careful gestation of incoming information

As Carr describes, “imagine filling

a bathtub with a thimble; that’s the challenge involved in transferring information from working memory into long-term memory.”

Unlike a book, which provides one continuous stream of information, the internet offers the mind many streams which can overfill the small thimble, causing what is known as

“cognitive overload” The internet also delivers a particularly rich form

of media, known as “hypermedia”, which is full of audio and visual signals, including hypertext links, images, sounds and moving pictures With these factors combined, minds struggle to convert information into long term memories

Both the negative and positive

arguments are hard to prove

empirically Brain-scanning

technology is not yet developed

enough to provide scientists with a

detailed enough picture of neural

activity As Susan Greenfield notes,

“brain scans are like old Victorian

photographs that show static

buildings but exclude any people

or animals, which would have been

moving too fast for the exposure

time.”

Current experiments also lack the

sophistication to separate out cause

and effect Many studies lump

together internet use with watching

TV and playing games, for instance

“They fail to control for social and

educational factors that correlate

with media use, and they provide

only a single snapshot of evidence …

they are purely correlational,” says

Christian Jarrett, a neuroscientist

and author of the book “Great Myths

of the Brain”

There is no single experiment that can be conducted which will lay the matter to rest And given the brain’s sensitivity to external conditions it becomes nearly impossible to prove

a causal relationship As Christian Jarrett quips, “yes, the internet will change your brain but so will deciding on whether or not to have a cup of tea.”

Don Tapscott, adjunct professor

of management at the Joseph L

Rotman School of Management

at the University of Toronto and a leading authority on innovation, believes the headlines concerning the young generation and digital technology stem from ignorance and fear This is a unique time in history, in which children are more advanced than their parents in

the operation and design of digital technologies, he argued, dismissing claims that the Internet is breeding

an increasingly narcissistic youth culture

Neuroscientists can recognise the great potential that digital technology offers in the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders and strengthening of cognitive functions like spatial awareness and memory But at the same time, they see the damage that excessive use

of screen-based digital technologies can inflict These technologies will have a very uneven impact across the human race, as Professor Merzenich predicts: “In some ways we’re driving the mind to new heights, and in other ways we’re carrying it into the dumpster.”

everythIng In moderatIon

Is digital technology re-wiring your brain? was written by Tom Upchurch,

contributing author at The Economist Intelligence Unit It examines how

digital technologies are impacting human cognition, neurology and behaviour The report is based upon interviews with four globally recognised experts, spanning the fields of neuroscience and behavioural psychology The Economist Intelligence Unit would like to thank the following individuals for sharing their insights and expertise in the production of this report:

baroness Susan Greenfield, Senior Research Fellow, Lincoln College Oxford

Christian Jarrett, Author, Wired magazine, and Author, Great Myths of The Brain

Michael M Merzenich, Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist, University of California & Chief Scientific Officer, BrainHQ

Don tapscott, Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and Author of Grown Up Digital

about thIs

report