Googling fights dimentia, suggest studies

Older adults with little Internet experience showed increased activity in key brain regions after googling the Internet for an hour a day for two weeks.

"It's not so much the Internet itself as it is the seeking of new information and keeping your brain stimulated with new things," said study team member Susan Bookheimer, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

There were 24 volunteers between the ages of 55 to 78. Half of the volunteers had very little experience with the Internet and the other half was familiar.

After the experiment was performed, brain scans were taken. Scans showed increased activity in novices' middle frontal gyri and inferior gyri and they became equal to the volunteers with experience with the web.

It's not clear whether the brain improvements are temporary, but it seems keeping the brain active with new things, and searching the web is less likely to bore user after prolonged use, like playing puzzles or a new hobby.