Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?

December 3rd, 2008 By MALCOLM RITTER , AP Science Writer

(AP) -- What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people? These sound like concerns from worried parents. But they're coming from brain scientists.

---

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

---

Similar stories from PHYSorg:

Researchers produce 'neural fingerprint' of speech recognition

Nov 10, 2008 | 4.2 / 5 (13) | 0

Prof: 'Twilight' film may really bring vampires to life for some

Nov 17, 2008 | 2.2 / 5 (5) | 2

Research suggests children can recover from autism

May 08, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (6) | 2

Survey: Family time eroding as Internet use soars

Jun 15, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0

Multiple sclerosis associated with lower cancer risk

Mar 30, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

• Corban - Dec 03, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  • rate
  Reading hypertext online allows someone to generate similar ideas, and then follow links to them. Certainly, this is faster than normal reading, but is it worse? Isn't this just shortening the cycle for generating new ideas?
  • flag
• gopher65 - Dec 03, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
  • rate
  Corban: I think they're talking about people's tendency to skim while online. They don't fully absorb the information, they just glance at it. I know people who seem to have zero ability to deep read, and it is frustrating to talk to them. If you never learn to *really* read, then you never gain decent reading comprehension, which is a bad thing.
  
  Personally I don't think this will be nearly as big a problem once we get decent screens, and once PADD like e-books start to appear, which natural light screens.
  • flag
• E_L_Earnhardt - Dec 03, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  • rate
  Doctors should not be presented as "Gods" to children! Not one of them could design a single cell!
  • flag
• Mercury_01 - Dec 04, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
  • rate
  Everything we do rewires our brains.
  • flag
• MGraser - Dec 04, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  • rate
  Mercury_01 has a good point, which is why this article has merit. Our brains are most efficient at doing procedures in the way they do it most often. A child has no learning to combat and so learns more easily. As we get older, a new idea that is counter to one we already have has a hard time sticking, depending on how much "rewiring" is necessary. So, if as children we learn to just skim and to interact via gadgets, then that is what is most natural. Behaving otherwise as we get older will be difficult (though not impossible).
  • flag
• General_Haberdashery - Dec 09, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: not rated yet
  • rate
  Following up on that comment, it's really not that hard to rewire your brain. With a small amount of daily effort you could probably gain an enormous set of skills (ones you were previously lacking and not set up to receive easily) within two to five years, not really all that long in the scheme of things.
  
  Summarized:
  While the median reading skills of society may drop, anyone who feels they need to improve their individual skills is not going to lose that ability.
  
  While it's been demonstrated that you can lose this ability due to serious lack of nuturing (google feral children), I think it's unlikely that that's the level of proper stimulation the brain is losing here.
  • flag