“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.”
If you’ve become accustomed to searching for an answer online that you might know the answer to if you gave your brain a few minutes to ponder it, you might wonder if relying on technology is turning your brain to mush. Fortunately, new research says that might not be the case.
Overreliance on tech and the concerns that it could cause cognitive impairment led to the coining of terms like “digital dementia,” but but research in this area is still in its early stages. The scientific community wants to have a better understanding of how our natural, everyday uses of technology impacts our brains, which led to this new study published in Nature Human Behaviour.
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 57 papers focused on general technology use among adults over 50 and found exposure to everyday digital technologies was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment and cognitive decline with age.
“Our study is a call-to-action that the first generation to use digital tools has found a way to use them for some benefit,” says study author Jared F. Benge, Ph.D., ABPP, a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor with the Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. “But, we encourage people interested in digital brain health to think mindfully about their tech use.”
Keep reading to find out exactly what the researchers did and how you can use their findings to support your own brain health.
What the researchers found
The studies in the meta-analysis included 411,430 adults with an average age of 68. Twenty of the studies followed participants for an average of six years. The researchers looked at how using computers, the Internet, smartphones and/or a combination of digital devices might affect brainpower. They also adjusted for socioeconomic status, a strong social network and other healthy behaviors that could have their own positive influences on brain health.
The good news? Each of the four technology uses in adults was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment, even after controlling for other brain-healthy lifestyle factors. (The study didn’t consider how kids use digital devices so the findings may not be applicable to them.)
Before you use this study as an excuse to spend more time aimlessly scrolling before bedtime, the researchers pinpointed these three possible ways that digital engagement might lead to better cognition:
-
Compensatory behaviors (like learning a new way to solve a daily problem you face)
-
Cognitively complex stimulation (such as discovering something new and interesting)
-
Social connection (i.e. using tech to reach out to someone you know or check in with a group)
What does this mean for future research?
In general, this paper is good news since nearly everyone uses technology, says Paul J. Zak, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and the author of the forthcoming book The Little Book of Happiness. However, he has a few concerns about the findings.
First, because nearly everyone now uses technology, Zak says it is difficult to statistically isolate the effects of the tech on cognitive states. Second, it may be that people with more cognitive reserve tend to use more technology. The authors tried to control for this, but it’s tricky to do. Lastly, Zak notes that not every study in the analysis followed people over a long period of time.
The study authors make it clear that additional work is needed to test causation. “For example, an older adult who is forgetting their password, or having problems swiping, may find technology harder to use, and so they use it less. That’s one direction of the cognition and technology relationship,” says Benge. “But the second direction may be true as well — using technology may provide some benefit to an aging brain.”
Both of these things can be true at the same time, and this is very common with brain health, notes Benge. “We need more studies to understand what factors of cognition might make tech use harder, but also which aspects of tech use might help cognition.”
He also says they are working to gain insights into how using digital devices might protect brain function or reduce dementia risk. “We know that engaging with complex mental activities is good for the brain, but we aren’t sure yet if the brain actually makes increased connections between neurons when learning something new, changes how efficiently networks work when challenged or some other mechanism,” says Benge.
For now, Zak says you can continue to enjoy Netflix and YouTube without feeling bad about it. “People of nearly every age use all types of technology and will continue to do so,” he says. “This paper provides some evidence that this is not bad for your brain. But, nor will it prevent cognitive decline.”
The bottom line
Each generation is using more technology than the one before, so it would be great to know if it’s helping brain health more than hurting it. And even if technology is able to help with cognitive health, depending on how you use it and what you use it for, it could come with other risks, like depression or anxiety. “There’s no easy answer to whether technology is good or bad for the brain,” says Benge. “Findings like this are good opportunities to check in with yourself and consider the tech you are using is providing a benefit to you.”
You Might Also Like
-
67 Best Gifts for Women That’ll Make Her Smile
-
The Best Pillows for Every Type of Sleeper
