Our brain is a constantly change organ. It changes throughout our life not only as a result of our growth and aging, also as a consequence of daily activities, from exercise to reading, through sleep and other diverse actions.
Of course, the time we spend in front of the screens is that of a computer or that of our mobile, They also affect our brain. We associate these changes to problems such as the loss of our capacity for attention or the appearance of addictive behaviors associated for example to the use of social networks.
Knowing how our brain interacts with the digital world in the era of social networks is a key step to improve our well -being in this new context, understanding the magnitude of problems as those mentioned above and also trying to find the positive side of these interactions. That is why this is a field of great interest for research.
We said before our brain is an organ that does not stop changing. These changes represent the very essence of learning (and much more). To the ability of the brain to transform and reconfigure, even at the physiological level, in response to external stimuli we call it neuroplasticity. This is explained by Loles Villalobos Tornero, of the Department of Experimental Psychology Cognitive processes and speech therapy of the Complutense University of Madrid, In an article in The conversation.
“We call neuroplasticity to the extraordinary capacity of our thinking body to transform and functionally and physically reconfigure its structure in response to environmental stimuli, behavioral experiences or cognitive demands. In short, to the situations we live. This is mainly possible thanks to the creation and control of the number of neurons, the migration of these nerve cells and the formation of new connections, ”says Villalobos Tornero In your piece.
What our brain does is, to some extent, improve neuronal connections between neurons that tend to activate in unison, which Facilitate synapses Among these, that is, the act of transmitting activity from one neuron to another. These changes, as the expert points out, affect the structure of neural networks.
There are two recurring examples when we talk about neuroplasticity: musicians and taxi drivers. Training markedly specialized in these unions translates into physiological changes in the brains of these people. In a case in rhythmic and harmonic learning, as well as in the skill required to touch an instrument; In the second, in the spatial aspect.
In Your article in The conversationVillalobos Tornero also speaks of the importance of neuroplasticity in another context, that of brain lesions. When a brain injury prevents the brain from continuing to develop a task, the brain reconfigures its activity to be able to develop the same task by resorting to the whole areas of the organ. Such is the adaptive capacity of our brain.
It is not to surprise that yes, that the use of current digital tools, Internet, smartphones and social networks have the ability to change our brain. The question of how and to what extent It is what has been intrigued by experts in brain and cognition for years. To understand how we must still introduce another concept.
The ability of our brain to adapt to new amazing situations, we pointed out. More if we take into account that this organ did not evolve to follow hyperlinks but for tasks such as looking for food and escaping predators. If we want to understand how the brain adapts to something so far from the functions for which it evolved, we must also take into account the idea of the Cortical co -optation.
The Cortical co -optation Something like the “recycling of brain areas” can be seen, which in origin would have evolved to develop certain functions to be able to assimilate new skills, explains Lucia Amoruso, a researcher at the BCBL (Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language).
“A classic example is (The reading and writing). From an evolutionary point of view, human beings are not born with a specific brain module for these skills, ”explains the researcher. “However, throughout development, The “recycling” brain previously specialized in the recognition of objects and faces (…) to allow the acquisition of literacy. ”
For Amoruso, the current brain transformation is similar, with our brain having to adapt to different stimuli, “fast, dynamic and fragmented.”
Decades studying
The year 2010, when social networks were in full explosion, saw the publication of two books on the subject. In a review For the magazine NatureDaphne Bavelier and Shawn Green paid attention to the fact that, despite being both books based on scientific knowledge in the field, their respective authors reached diametrically opposite conclusions.
Studies such as those that have already been showing us, through magnetic resonances, which Our active brain when it sails Online a neuronal network greater than the one in operation when he simply reads. Something that is not at all surprising, after all navigate Internet requires greater activity than more passive reading. Greater neuronal networks are activated is indicative that the footprint in our brain of our virtual activity could be greater than the one left by the “conventional” reading.
Interestingly, neuronal activation in Internet searches was also greater among people with some knowledge of the digital environment, in contrast to people less familiar with the digital environment. Nick Biltton and Nicholas Car, the authors of the books, interpret this same fact in different ways. If for Biltton this is a learning sign; Carr recalled that the use of a greater number of neurons does not necessarily imply an improvement in our brain processes.
Drawing generalizable conclusions in this context is difficult. But more than two decades have passed since 2010 and the number of studies analyzing this topic has expanded. In 2019, a team of researchers published a review of the scientific literature that addressed the issue in order to summarize the “state of science” regarding this issue.
The details of his analysis were Published as an article In the magazine World Psychiatry. In its article, the equipment indicated that high use of the Internet could impact various brain functions. He exemplified this by pointing out that the usual emerging notifications or windows in this context favored “divided attention”, thus reducing our capacity to concentrate.
One of the team’s conclusions was the same as in 2010: more studies on the subject are needed. Our understanding of the human brain is still limitedso expanding our ability to study how this changes is a challenge. Little by little, study by study, we advance in understanding.
Given this ignorance, the question of whether these changes in our brain imply new difficulties for it to develop in the real world (a pessimistic vision of change), or if on the contrary our brain will end up benefiting from such changes (optimistic vision), it is impossible to solve.
Articles like the one of World Psychiatry o Books like Nicholas Carr tend to a pessimistic vision of changes. Amoruso points out that it is still early to get carried away by pessimism: “This pessimistic vision Does not completely capture the complexity of the phenomenon. Instead of considering these changes as inherently negative, we could also highlight their advantages and interpret them as a new challenge for the ability of the brain to reorganize and adapt, in line with its remarkable plasticity. ”
The positive impact of some video games is an example. Amoruso speaks in this sense of exergames (Exercise + Games), Those who combine digital entertainment with physical activity, games with potential to improve our viso -spatial and motor coordination, develop our attention capacity or Help in many other fields.
Image | Jonas Leupe