SEOs Help Develop the Human Brain

Posted • February 10, 2009 • Comments Off

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According to a study at UCLA searching the internet increases brain function. As part of our job as a SEO is to help make content easier to find. We also help in the development of content directed towards specific information. This content is designed to be not only user friendly but search friendly as well. It is therefore my contention that we are also responsible, at least in some way, for a portion of the internet searches. Therefore it must follow that we must also be included in the credit for any benefits derived from our efforts.

Search Increases Brain Functions

UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function

UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults,” said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA who holds UCLA’s Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging. “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

Study participants performed Web searches and book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which recorded the subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced during these activities. This type of scan tracks the intensity of cell responses in the brain by measuring the level of cerebral blood flow during cognitive tasks.

“Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading — but only in those with prior Internet experience,” said Small, who is also the director of UCLA’s Memory and Aging Research Center.

Internet Search Rewiring our Brains

In another Related story from UCLA Research shows that Internet is rewiring our brains

“We know that technology is changing our lives. It’s also changing our brains,” Small said during a recent Open Mind lecture for the Friends of the Semel Institute, a group that supports the institute’s work in researching and developing treatment for illnesses of the mind and brain. Small’s talk centered around his recently published book, “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.”

The human brain is malleable, always changing in response to the environment, Small said. “A young person’s brain, which is still developing, is particularly sensitive. … It’s also the kind of brain that is most exposed to the new technology.”

“A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults,” Small said, “demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older.”

I know SEOs can’t take credit for the internet or all of its searches but at least us white hats are responsible for helping make the searches easier and more relevant.

Late,
Gary Pool

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