During the book-reading session, all members of both groups registered brain activity in the regions of the brain associated with language, reading, memory, and visual abilities in their functional MRI data.

Get this: when members of both groups were asked to do internet searches, both registered the same brain activity pattern as when they were doing book-reading tasks. However, the web-savvy participants also registered in the fMRI brain activities associated with decision-making and complex reasoning.

The scientists from UCLA found out that the web-savvy participants showed a remarkably greater brain activity (21,782 voxels) against those with little internet experience (8,646 voxels). A voxel is the unit of brain activity measured by the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

As shown in the above photo, red shows brain activity while reading a book (left); the image on the right displays activity while engaging in an Internet search. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

While we have already reported on the benefits of brain-exercising crossword puzzles, memory consolidating deep sleep, brain-boosting iMusic, and computer games, this discovery (which will be published on the next issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry) presents a significant change in the way we view net-surfing.