Is digital technology re-wiring your brain? Written by: 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 As its scope, scale and influence continues to adapt throughout Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive extends, the Internet is being adulthood, forming new neural officer of Sharpbrains.com, a market classified by some as an “intellectual connections and pathways and research firm that tracks the health technology”, in the same category destroying old unused ones, and wellness applications of brain as the printed page, the number, the through a process known as science Mr Fernandez believes clock, the abacus and the typewriter neuroplasticity “Our brains change such assessments, as well as brain- These are all tools designed to as a function of what we do, what training exercises using online tools, magnify our mental powers But in we’re good at, what we master, and will provide researchers with an magnifying our powers, they also what we don’t do,” says Michael unprecedented amount of data that shape how we think Merzenich, professor emeritus and can help identify commonalities neuroscientist at the University of in brain and cognitive disorders California, San Francisco Professor Merzenich believes that It is already accepted by neuroscientists that the Internet if it is leveraged to achieve the and digital technology will leave Optimists believe digital technology right ends, such digital technology, some physical impression on our could help improve cognitive health “will lead to a new awakening” neurological systems All interaction and tackle neurological disease In in the diagnosis and treatment causes changes in the brain Whilst the near future, all individuals will of behavioural and neurological these changes are particularly be able to conduct self-assessments disorders As age-related pronounced in childhood, the brain of their cognitive health, predicts neurological diseases grow in step Written by: with the ageing population globally, can improve spatial attention, mental neurological distortions in technologies which help monitor and rotation, motor responses and visual individuals Tailored exercises are re-shape brains will become useful processing skills This could have then designed to improve different tools beneficial applications in the real functions, to drive the brain in world A study conducted in 2007 corrective ways Continual exercises Online exercises are already found that surgeons who played are also supposed to be able to help available to improve brain functions video games before performing repair degraded parts of the brain including memory, attention laparoscopic surgery (key-hole and correct hormonal imbalances span and people skills A 2011 surgery) made 37% fewer errors report in the UK by Nominet, a than those that had not played If this technology is used on young social technology funder, argued The potential for video games to children at high -risk of developing that brain-training can improve influence our cognitive functions, chronic schizophrenia, Professor our ability to convert short-term both negatively and positively, will Merzenich believes an “illness impressions and thoughts into long-term knowledge The findings only increase as technology becomes that has plagued people from the beginning of time can probably more immersive, realistic and support a 2009 study which argued interactive be corrected by device-controlled that working memories can be exercises.” An expansive library trained and improved through of ‘apps’ is already on the market, online exercises For just 30 minutes designed to help individuals a day, over a period of 19 days, Brain-training tasks can be also cope with a range of cognitive, young adults completed a series intensified to deal with more neurological and behavioural of computer-based brain-training exercises These included puzzle- significant neurological dysfunctions disorders, including mood-tracking According to Professor Merzenich, apps designed to help people with solving, memorizing to-do lists and brain-training can re-establish anxiety and depression by allowing comparing and contrasting symbols the social and learning abilities them to monitor, track and reference and shapes In this particular study, of children with attention deficit their emotional experiences improvements in working memory hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) His “Technology empowers you to and fluid intelligence (the ability to company even has a trial, currently things that are unimaginable solve problems in new situations) underway in the US, of a training and scale them It’s like inventing were recorded programme that aims to correct neuropharmacology without having chronic schizophrenia Beginning to come up with the drug stores,” Even computer games, criticised by with simple questionnaires, brain- says Professor Mezernich many for their impact on children, training can initially help identify Digital backlash The story is not all rosy, however official US document for classifying amount of time we spend on Some neuroscientists are worried mental disorders - as a condition screens Young Americans spend that digital technology and the “recommended for further study.” on average more than 53 hours per week consuming entertainment internet, while doubtless having positive neurological impacts, can Leading neuroscientists fear that media When the use of other also undermine critical mental the time people spend engaged with devices, such as mobile phones, is functions when used to excess digital and web-based technologies, taken into account, young people China has already declared internet is time not spent rehearsing physical spend on average nearly 11 hours addiction a clinical disorder and has and social skills As the brain is per day engaged with a screen built more than 400 rehabilitation plastic, it operates under a “use it or camps for treating young people lose it” principle Susan Greenfield, a Unlike television, the internet’s “Internet use disorder” has, since British scientist and author of Mind presence is truly ubiquitous and May 2013, even been included Change, is particularly concerned immersive Professor Greenfield in the Diagnostic and Statistical by the “quantitative” shift in the argues the mind can be constantly Manual of Mental Disorders - the engaged by a variety of sources from mobile phones to laptops and experiment in the 1940s, the brain has three different types of iPads, all vying for our attention An psychologist, Donald Hebb, memory; short term, long-term and environment in which people are compared the problem-solving ‘working memory’, with the latter intensively staring at screens and capabilities of rats confined to converting new information into only using their hands and fingers the laboratory with rats that long-term memories This process is unnatural, preventing the brain had been freed Within a matter is slow and requires the careful from making an accurate model of of weeks the “free-range” rats gestation of incoming information the real world and of the body This outperformed their counterparts in As Carr describes, “imagine filling degree of physical inertia marks a, captivity across all problem-solving a bathtub with a thimble; that’s the “radical change in the way the brain exercises This concept, known as challenge involved in transferring is engaging with the body … and “environmental enrichment” asserts information from working memory there will be substantial neurological that exposure to new, challenging into long-term memory.” and medical consequences in environments can lead to positive future years,” says Professor differences in the composition of Unlike a book, which provides one Merzernich The consequences the brain including; increased brain continuous stream of information, could be more severe for younger weight, increased neuron cell size the internet offers the mind many people, particularly those growing and the increased thickness of the streams which can overfill the small up using digital technologies from brain’s cortex thimble, causing what is known as “cognitive overload” The internet an early age (a group referred to as ‘digital natives’ or the ‘millennials’) A further area of concern is the also delivers a particularly rich form Young brains are more susceptible impact on concentration The of media, known as “hypermedia”, to their external environment and internet and digital sphere is full which is full of audio and visual this generation is spending the of applications that compete for signals, including hypertext links, longest amounts of time plugged in our attention These distractions, images, sounds and moving pictures to screens Nicholas Carr believes, make the With these factors combined, minds internet an “interruption system” struggle to convert information into Concerned neuroscientists point Human brains are unable to process long term memories to studies that show outdoor the vast quantities and various activity is essential to healthy sources of information, degrading brain development In a seminal the way that we learn and think The Everything in moderation Both the negative and positive and author of the book “Great Myths the operation and design of digital arguments are hard to prove of the Brain” technologies, he argued, dismissing claims that the Internet is breeding empirically Brain-scanning technology is not yet developed There is no single experiment that an increasingly narcissistic youth enough to provide scientists with a can be conducted which will lay the culture detailed enough picture of neural matter to rest And given the brain’s activity As Susan Greenfield notes, sensitivity to external conditions it “brain scans are like old Victorian becomes nearly impossible to prove photographs that show static a causal relationship As Christian Neuroscientists can recognise buildings but exclude any people Jarrett quips, “yes, the internet the great potential that digital or animals, which would have been will change your brain but so will technology offers in the diagnosis moving too fast for the exposure deciding on whether or not to have a and treatment of brain disorders time.” cup of tea.” and strengthening of cognitive Current experiments also lack the Don Tapscott, adjunct professor memory But at the same time, they sophistication to separate out cause of management at the Joseph L see the damage that excessive use and effect Many studies lump Rotman School of Management of screen-based digital technologies together internet use with watching at the University of Toronto and a can inflict These technologies will TV and playing games, for instance leading authority on innovation, have a very uneven impact across “They fail to control for social and believes the headlines concerning the human race, as Professor educational factors that correlate the young generation and digital Merzenich predicts: “In some ways with media use, and they provide technology stem from ignorance we’re driving the mind to new only a single snapshot of evidence … and fear This is a unique time in heights, and in other ways we’re they are purely correlational,” says history, in which children are more carrying it into the dumpster.” Christian Jarrett, a neuroscientist advanced than their parents in functions like spatial awareness and About this report 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 ... and fear This is a unique time in heights, and in other ways we re they are purely correlational,” says history, in which children are more carrying it into the dumpster.” Christian Jarrett, a neuroscientist... Christian Jarrett, a neuroscientist advanced than their parents in functions like spatial awareness and About this report Is digital technology re- wiring your brain? was written by Tom Upchurch,... arguments are hard to prove of the Brain technologies, he argued, dismissing claims that the Internet is breeding empirically Brain- scanning technology is not yet developed There is no single