I love those Bing commercials that pose the question: “What has search overload done to us?” It’s a totally valid question, and the commercials present realistic scenarios, even though they are likely a bit exaggerated for TV. With so much information immediately available at the click of a mouse or the touch of an iPhone, I do wonder when is too much of a good thing too much?  When will our heads explode from all the multitasking and multiple window-opening madness?

Well, along comes an article that affirms surfing the web may actually slow the progression of dementia. Finally, a good cause for what can become a toxic trap!

Jonathan Leake, Science Writer for the U.K.’s Times-Online, reports what researchers determined: “by using brain scans, they found the internet stimulated the mind more strongly than reading, and the effects continued long after an internet session had ended.”

Side note: The article is complemented by a fabulous photo of 104-year-old Ivy Bean, who has proudly snatched the title of the U.K.’s oldest “Tweeter” (a user of the social networking site Twitter). Incidentally, Ivy Bean has challenged me to become a savvier Tweeter…

According to Teena Moody, a UCLA researcher who co-authored the report with Dr. Gary Small, also from UCLA, “Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults.”

The research was presented in Chicago in mid-October, at the annual meeting for the Society of Neuroscience. Small and Moody assert that brains are similar to muscles so the whole “use it or lose it” idea really comes into play here; the more they are exercised, the healthier they become. Therefore, these leading researchers believe that activities such as internet use, along with reading and socializing, can slow or reverse normal age-related declines. In Small’s opinion, “our most striking finding was that internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading.”

Not everyone agrees with Small and Moody. While many neuroscientists support the pros of brain exercise, others question the advantage of spending far too much time on the internet (I would surmise that these same researchers enjoy the aforementioned bing commercials too).

As with other lifestyle factors associated with the prevention of dementia (healthy diet, physical exercise, social interaction – all the things that foster good health at any age), hours of web surfing does not guarantee that dementia will never come knocking at your door. I truly believe in the “everything in moderation” principle, and I do think that excessive Googling and Binging and Tweeting is unhealthy. But it’s nice to know that a bit of browsing may help in some way.

- Michelle Seitzer