Is Technology Changing Our Brains #8 Navigation Skills, Grey Matter and GPS

In 2000, a study found that taxi drivers who acquire The Knowledge – which requires memorizing thousands of London streets – have a greater volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus but less in the anterior hippocampus, making them better at memory tasks involving landmarks but poorer at recalling complex visual information. This provided evidence for plasticity in the adult human brain.

Could our reliance on GPS also be changing the way our brains work? Researchers from McGill University in Canada used MRI scans to compare GPS users with non-GPS users. Those who navigated without GPS had higher activity and a greater volume of grey matter in the hippocampus than those who relied on GPS.

In another study, people who drove a route using sat-nav could not remember scenes from the journey as well as those without sat-nav, and were poorer at retracing their steps from memory alone.

“It’s possible that reliance on technology could cause some brain areas to grow and others to shrink,” says University College London’s Dr Sam Gilbert. “Something similar was shown in the original taxi driver study. But occasional use of sat-nav probably won’t have as strong an effect as learning The Knowledge and relying on it as part of your job.”

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 34 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Yes, technology may change our brains when it comes to navigation

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #7 Better Multitasker at a Cost

Our ‘always-on’ culture has been dubbed ‘infomania’ by psychologist Dr Glenn Wilson, who tested the IQs of subjects in either a quiet room or one with mobiles ringing and emails arriving. The technological distractions diminished IQ by 10 points.

Similarly, a US study found that students who instant messaged with friends during a reading task took between 22% and 59% longer to complete their task, even accounting for the additional time spent messaging.

Brain-imaging reveals that multitasking uses different brain regions to focusing on one task. Learning while focusing on one task uses the hippocampus, which store ideas and creates rich and flexible memories. This area allows us to compare old ideas with incoming data to put what we learn into context, effectively leading to deeper understanding. Multitasking, on the other hand, uses the striatum – a brain region that stores procedures and skills. New information acquired using the striatum is less flexible and can’t be generalized in the same way. This suggest that knowledge acquired while multitasking is less deeply embedded in our memories.

Researchers from University College London recently linked frequent multitasking to smaller grey matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is the brain region that is involved in empathy and decision-making. However, it is unclear whether having a smaller ACC makes you more likely to multitask, or whether it’s multitasking that causes the ACC to shrink.

But some experts say technology has made us all more skilful at multitasking. Hong Kong researchers report multitaskers are better at multisensory integration, while a 2016 study from Microsoft found our ability to multitask has “improved drastically” since the turn of the millennium.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 33 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Technology may make us more adept multitaskers, but perhaps at a cost

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #6 Deep Reading vs. Skim, Scan and Click!

When we read, we construct a mental representation of the text in our minds, much as we do when we look at terrain and create a mental map in our heads. But experts warn that we read text on screens differently, preferring to skim, scan and click hyperlinks, rather than ‘deep reading’ in the old-fashioned sense.

Norwegian experts tested the theory by dividing students of comparable reading skills into a paper group and LCD monitor group. In a follow-up reading comprehension test, the group who’d read texts on computers performed a little worse than the traditional readers. And a Swedish study in which volunteers completed a reading test reported similar findings: those who took the test on a computer scored lower, and reported higher stress levels, than those who took the same test on paper.

Prof Ziming Liu, of the School of Information at San Jose State University in California, believes digital screen readers engage in greater use of shortcuts such as browsing for keywords. His research also reveals that screen users are more likely to read a document only once and expand less time on in-depth reading.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 33 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: More research needed, but technology may make us less thorough

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #5 Bedtime and Sleeping Patterns

We now spend more time on our devices than we do sleeping. According to an August 2015 Ofcom survey, we engage in media or communication activities such as texting or gaming, for 8 hours and 41 minutes daily, and sleep for 8 hours and 21 minutes.

Technology keeps us up for two reasons. First, we are stimulated by the content. Second, the LED screen emits blue light, which prevents the brain from producing the sleep hormone melatonin. The blue light is in a bandwidth one sees in everyday sunlight, explains health education expert Dr Aric Sigman. “The blue light from your phone or tablet informs your pineal gland that its morning and it should shut down production of melatonin.”

In the journal Preventive Medicine (2016) researchers found a strong association between social media use and sleep disturbance, and warned of a link between sleep deprivation and depression. Sleep deprivation has also been associated with obesity and poor academic performance.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 32 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Screen use at bedtime will change your sleeping patterns

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #4 Hello, Social Skills Bro

“Throughout the world – in caves, huts and houses – it was almost a reflex to turn your face to a returning parents,” explains health education expert Dr Aric Sigman. But, he says, kids are now so glued to their screens they no longer look up.

Though some parents might be glad of the respite that screen-time provides, research suggests that excessive screen use seems to damage our ability to interpret faces. “They [excessive internet users] find it more difficult to read faces in experiments,” explains Sigman.

In one study, children showed a significant improvement in reading facial emotions after spending 5 days away from all devices. In another experiment, Chinese psychologists scanned the brains of ‘normal’ versus ‘excessive’ internet users, while they viewed images of faces and objects. The internet junkies showered smaller brain wave responses to faces than their peers.

Sigman’s view is that technology use itself isn’t damaging – just like sweets, it’s simply a case of ensuring children don’t consume too much, too often. Prof Mizuko Ito of the University of California, meanwhile, believes that a reasonable serving of new media can actually be beneficial for the development of youngster’s brains.

“Young people who are taking advantage of online tools like search, forums, open educational resources and complex games are learning at a more accelerated rate, and in specialties that they would never have had access to in earlier eras,” she argues.

However, she adds that for disengaged kids in distressed circumstances, digital media can be a distraction from positive learning and social engagement. “It’s not the availability of media that determines this, but whether they have life opportunities, positive peer influences and caring adults who support and guide them to positive media engagements.”

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 32 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: New media is just a place to ‘hang out’, but for the socially disengaged there are risks

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #3 Bad Memory, Maybe

With phone numbers, routes and facts just a touch away, we’re becoming less reliant on our memory – and German neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer warns this ‘cognitive offloading’ could be leading to a kind of ‘digital dementia.’

Studies on internet and gaming addicts has uncovered atrophy (shirking) in the brain’s grey matter, says the University of Bedfordshire’s Prof James Barnes. Overdosing on technology seems to cause the frontal lobe – a brain area that governs functions such as planning and organizing – to suffer in particular. However, he adds that more research is needed on ‘real’ as opposed to ‘addicted’ internet users.

Digital offloading may also make memories less vivid. A US study asked museum visitors to photograph exhibits and just look at others. The next day their memory was tested. Visitors were worse at recognizing objects they had photographed, and worse at recalling details about the objects they’d photographed.

But Dr Sam Gilbert, of University College London, says there are also positives. “Research shows that when you save information to an external store like a computer, this can help you to store new memories. Your mind is no longer cluttered with information that you don’t need.”

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 31 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Short-term changes are likely but more research is needed on long-term impact

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #2 Moody Media-Users

Scientists have been reporting strong links between heavy internet use and depression, with a particular focus on social media. This came as no surprise to health education expert Dr Aric Sigman, who says high exposure to social media can leave people feeling inadequate. “There is a relationship between the amount of time you spend on social media and increased body dissatisfaction. High consumption of idealized images seems to activate neural networks in the brain like the amygdala, associated with fear and anxiety.”

Sigman cited a study in which girls who instant messaged their mothers released the stress hormone cortisol, rather than the feel-good hormone oxytocin associated with face-to-face interaction. “We may be hard-wired to need a certain amount of contact with people we care about. A deficit in human contact may result in health problems.”

Facebook, it seems, might not be giving us enough facetime.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 31 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Technology can affect mood, but it depends how we use it

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Is Technology Changing Our Brains #1 May I Have Your Attention Please!

Phones buzzing with text messages, Facebook notifications and news alerts continually tempt the world to distraction. Many experts believe that this incessant bombardment, and the need for instant answers, has eroded our ability to focus.

A 2015 study by Microsoft surveyed 2,000 Canadians and used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to watch the brain activity of a further 112 people. Their analysis found that the average human attention span had dropped from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just eight seconds. Goldfish are thought to possess an impressive nine-second attention span.

This wasn’t just a company chasing a catchy headline. The research in the area is mostly anecdotal, but a number of surveys do back up the idea that attention spans are shrinking. In a 2012 Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,000 teachers in the US and Puerto Rico, 87% reported that their students had short attention spans and were easily distracted. The same year, UK poll from the learning company Pearson reached the same conclusion. Of 400 UK English teachers questioned, and 2,000 parents of preschool and primary-aged children, 7 out of 10 said that children’s attention spans were shorter than they used to be.

Meanwhile in the US, the Centers for Decease Control and Prevention has reported that 11% of school-age children have, at some point, been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Before 1990, the figure was less than 5%.

These studies shine a spotlight on our diminishing attention spans, with modern technology in the crosshairs as the culprit. More research is needed if we’re to be sure of a causal relationship, but experts feel certain they’ll find one. “I am personally convinced that technology has led to a decreased ability to focus and wait, and an increased need for immediate information,” says neuroscientist Prof Russell Poldrack, of Stanford University.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 30 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: Yes, the information age has shortened our attention span

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