This report examines how digital technologies are impacting human cognition, neurology and behaviour. It is based on interviews with four globally recognised experts spanning the fields of neuroscience and behavioural psychology.

1. Is digital
technology
re-wiring your
brain? Written by:

2. As its scope, scale and influence
extends, the Internet is being
classified by some as an “intellectual
technology”, in the same category
as the printed page, the number, the
clock, the abacus and the typewriter.
These are all tools designed to
magnify our mental powers. But in
magnifying our powers, they also
shape how we think.
It is already accepted by
neuroscientists that the Internet
and digital technology will leave
some physical impression on our
neurological systems. All interaction
causes changes in the brain. Whilst
these changes are particularly
pronounced in childhood, the brain
Digital technologies are having a profound
impact on our neurological systems. They
have the potential to empower or enfeeble
our brains – the choice is ours.
continues to adapt throughout
adulthood, forming new neural
connections and pathways and
destroying old unused ones,
through a process known as
neuroplasticity. “Our brains change
as a function of what we do, what
we’re good at, what we master, and
what we don’t do,” says Michael
Merzenich, professor emeritus and
neuroscientist at the University of
California, San Francisco.
Optimists believe digital technology
could help improve cognitive health
and tackle neurological disease. In
the near future, all individuals will
be able to conduct self-assessments
of their cognitive health, predicts
Written by:
Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive
officer of Sharpbrains.com, a market
research firm that tracks the health
and wellness applications of brain
science. Mr Fernandez believes
such assessments, as well as brain-
training exercises using online tools,
will provide researchers with an
unprecedented amount of data that
can help identify commonalities
in brain and cognitive disorders.
Professor Merzenich believes that
if it is leveraged to achieve the
right ends, such digital technology,
“will lead to a new awakening”
in the diagnosis and treatment
of behavioural and neurological
disorders. As age-related
neurological diseases grow in step

3. with the ageing population globally,
technologies which help monitor and
re-shape brains will become useful
tools.
Online exercises are already
available to improve brain functions
including memory, attention
span and people skills. A 2011
report in the UK by Nominet, a
social technology funder, argued
that brain-training can improve
our ability to convert short-term
impressions and thoughts into
long-term knowledge. The findings
support a 2009 study which argued
that working memories can be
trained and improved through
online exercises. For just 30 minutes
a day, over a period of 19 days,
young adults completed a series
of computer-based brain-training
exercises. These included puzzle-
solving, memorizing to-do lists and
comparing and contrasting symbols
and shapes. In this particular study,
improvements in working memory
and fluid intelligence (the ability to
solve problems in new situations)
were recorded.
Even computer games, criticised by
many for their impact on children,
can improve spatial attention, mental
rotation, motor responses and visual
processing skills. This could have
beneficial applications in the real
world. A study conducted in 2007
found that surgeons who played
video games before performing
laparoscopic surgery (key-hole
surgery) made 37% fewer errors
than those that had not played.
The potential for video games to
influence our cognitive functions,
both negatively and positively, will
only increase as technology becomes
more immersive, realistic and
interactive.
Brain-training tasks can be also
intensified to deal with more
significant neurological dysfunctions.
According to Professor Merzenich,
brain-training can re-establish
the social and learning abilities
of children with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). His
company even has a trial, currently
underway in the US, of a training
programme that aims to correct
chronic schizophrenia.. Beginning
with simple questionnaires, brain-
training can initially help identify
neurological distortions in
individuals. Tailored exercises are
then designed to improve different
functions, to drive the brain in
corrective ways. Continual exercises
are also supposed to be able to help
repair degraded parts of the brain
and correct hormonal imbalances.
If this technology is used on young
children at high -risk of developing
chronic schizophrenia, Professor
Merzenich believes an “illness
that has plagued people from the
beginning of time can probably
be corrected by device-controlled
exercises.” An expansive library
of ‘apps’ is already on the market,
designed to help individuals
cope with a range of cognitive,
neurological and behavioural
disorders, including mood-tracking
apps designed to help people with
anxiety and depression by allowing
them to monitor, track and reference
their emotional experiences.
“Technology empowers you to
do things that are unimaginable
and scale them. It’s like inventing
neuropharmacology without having
to come up with the drug stores,”
says Professor Mezernich.

4. The story is not all rosy, however.
Some neuroscientists are worried
that digital technology and the
internet, while doubtless having
positive neurological impacts, can
also undermine critical mental
functions when used to excess.
China has already declared internet
addiction a clinical disorder and has
built more than 400 rehabilitation
camps for treating young people.
“Internet use disorder” has, since
May 2013, even been included
in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders - the
Digital backlash
official US document for classifying
mental disorders - as a condition
“recommended for further study.”
Leading neuroscientists fear that
the time people spend engaged with
digital and web-based technologies,
is time not spent rehearsing physical
and social skills. As the brain is
plastic, it operates under a “use it or
lose it” principle. Susan Greenfield, a
British scientist and author of Mind
Change, is particularly concerned
by the “quantitative” shift in the
amount of time we spend on
screens. Young Americans spend
on average more than 53 hours per
week consuming entertainment
media. When the use of other
devices, such as mobile phones, is
taken into account, young people
spend on average nearly 11 hours
per day engaged with a screen .
Unlike television, the internet’s
presence is truly ubiquitous and
immersive. Professor Greenfield
argues the mind can be constantly
engaged by a variety of sources

5. from mobile phones to laptops and
iPads, all vying for our attention. An
environment in which people are
intensively staring at screens and
only using their hands and fingers
is unnatural, preventing the brain
from making an accurate model of
the real world and of the body. This
degree of physical inertia marks a,
“radical change in the way the brain
is engaging with the body … and
there will be substantial neurological
and medical consequences in
future years,” says Professor
Merzernich. The consequences
could be more severe for younger
people, particularly those growing
up using digital technologies from
an early age (a group referred to as
‘digital natives’ or the ‘millennials’).
Young brains are more susceptible
to their external environment and
this generation is spending the
longest amounts of time plugged in
to screens.
Concerned neuroscientists point
to studies that show outdoor
activity is essential to healthy
brain development. In a seminal
experiment in the 1940s, the
psychologist, Donald Hebb,
compared the problem-solving
capabilities of rats confined to
the laboratory with rats that
had been freed. Within a matter
of weeks the “free-range” rats
outperformed their counterparts in
captivity across all problem-solving
exercises . This concept, known as
“environmental enrichment” asserts
that exposure to new, challenging
environments can lead to positive
differences in the composition of
the brain including; increased brain
weight, increased neuron cell size
and the increased thickness of the
brain’s cortex.
A further area of concern is the
impact on concentration. The
internet and digital sphere is full
of applications that compete for
our attention. These distractions,
Nicholas Carr believes, make the
internet an “interruption system”.
Human brains are unable to process
the vast quantities and various
sources of information, degrading
the way that we learn and think. The
brain has three different types of
memory; short term, long-term and
‘working memory’, with the latter
converting new information into
long-term memories. This process
is slow and requires the careful
gestation of incoming information.
As Carr describes, “imagine filling
a bathtub with a thimble; that’s the
challenge involved in transferring
information from working memory
into long-term memory.”
Unlike a book, which provides one
continuous stream of information,
the internet offers the mind many
streams which can overfill the small
thimble, causing what is known as
“cognitive overload”. The internet
also delivers a particularly rich form
of media, known as “hypermedia”,
which is full of audio and visual
signals, including hypertext links,
images, sounds and moving pictures.
With these factors combined, minds
struggle to convert information into
long term memories.

6. Both the negative and positive
arguments are hard to prove
empirically. Brain-scanning
technology is not yet developed
enough to provide scientists with a
detailed enough picture of neural
activity. As Susan Greenfield notes,
“brain scans are like old Victorian
photographs that show static
buildings but exclude any people
or animals, which would have been
moving too fast for the exposure
time.”
Current experiments also lack the
sophistication to separate out cause
and effect. Many studies lump
together internet use with watching
TV and playing games, for instance.
“They fail to control for social and
educational factors that correlate
with media use, and they provide
only a single snapshot of evidence …
they are purely correlational,” says
Christian Jarrett, a neuroscientist
and author of the book “Great Myths
of the Brain”.
There is no single experiment that
can be conducted which will lay the
matter to rest. And given the brain’s
sensitivity to external conditions it
becomes nearly impossible to prove
a causal relationship. As Christian
Jarrett quips, “yes, the internet
will change your brain but so will
deciding on whether or not to have a
cup of tea.”
Don Tapscott, adjunct professor
of management at the Joseph L.
Rotman School of Management
at the University of Toronto and a
leading authority on innovation,
believes the headlines concerning
the young generation and digital
technology stem from ignorance
and fear. This is a unique time in
history, in which children are more
advanced than their parents in
the operation and design of digital
technologies, he argued, dismissing
claims that the Internet is breeding
an increasingly narcissistic youth
culture.
Neuroscientists can recognise
the great potential that digital
technology offers in the diagnosis
and treatment of brain disorders
and strengthening of cognitive
functions like spatial awareness and
memory. But at the same time, they
see the damage that excessive use
of screen-based digital technologies
can inflict. These technologies will
have a very uneven impact across
the human race, as Professor
Merzenich predicts: “In some ways
we’re driving the mind to new
heights, and in other ways we’re
carrying it into the dumpster.”
Everything in moderation

7. Is digital technology re-wiring your brain? was written by Tom Upchurch,
contributing author at The Economist Intelligence Unit. It examines how
digital technologies are impacting human cognition, neurology and behaviour.
The report is based upon interviews with four globally recognised experts,
spanning the fields of neuroscience and behavioural psychology. The Economist
Intelligence Unit would like to thank the following individuals for sharing their
insights and expertise in the production of this report:
Baroness Susan Greenfield, Senior Research Fellow, Lincoln College Oxford
Christian Jarrett, Author, Wired magazine, and Author, Great Myths of The
Brain
Michael M. Merzenich, Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist, University of
California & Chief Scientific Officer, BrainHQ
Don Tapscott, Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of
Management, University of Toronto and Author of Grown Up Digital
About this
report