Web Surfers Have More Brain Power?

Haven't these deadheads thought of the possibility that people who take up web surfing might tend to have more complex minds to start with??

People who spend time surfing the web may be building brain power at the same time. A new study from the University of California, Los Angeles reveals middle-aged and older adults who use the Internet may trigger centers in their brain responsible for decision-making and reasoning.

Researchers performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan as experienced and non-experienced participants searched the Web and performed book-reading tasks. Both exercises activated the brain in both groups, but there were some major differences. Web-savvy participants who searched the Web activated areas in their brain responsible for decision-making and reasoning. They also showed twice the amount of brain activity than those with little Internet experience.

Compared with simple reading, the Internet's abundance of choices forces people to make decisions about what to click to find out more information. "A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older," Gary Small, M.D., principal investigator and a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, was quoted as saying.

Researchers say you may want to add surfing the web to the list of other brain teasers, such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function," Dr. Small explained. "The study results are encouraging that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults."

FROM: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, published online October 14, 2008

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Study Shows Dad Involvement Means Higher IQ, More Success for Kids

Sorry to upset a good cause but what about the possibility that high IQ fathers might be more likely to take an interest in their children and that the high IQ of the children concerned is simply due to its being genetically transmitted? IQ is HIGHLY heritable genetically

Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Executive Director of Fathers & Families, has an interesting new piece on an English study which found that father involvement has a large, positive effect on children's intellignce and success. Holstein writes:

Published in the summer of 2008, this study looked at all the children born in Britain in a single week in March, 1958. When the children were eleven years old (1969), the mothers were asked, "How involved is the father in the management of the child?" In the same year, the children took an IQ test. Finally, the researchers looked at the children's upward social mobility at age 42 (year 2000).The researchers found some very interesting results:

The fathers' involvement in 1969 was "equal to mother" in 62 percent of the cases;

Children with high father involvement had significantly higher IQs at age 11 than those with low father involvement;

By age 42, children with high father involvement had shown substantially more upward mobility than those with low father involvement;

Fathers tended to be slightly more involved with sons than daughters, but when they did engage equally with daughters, the positive effect was just as great as for sons.

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