Technology and the brain

Click here for an overview of this topic mapped on Prezi.

Experience changes the brain

Source: Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself

"Each time the plastic brain acquires culture and uses it repeatedly, there is an opportunity cost: the brain loses some neural structure in the process, because plasticity is competitive" (Norman Doidge).

Change and innovation are often met with a mixture of caution and enthusiasm. However, a healthy skepticism about the effects of technology on culture and society may alert us to the possible negative impact of technology on the brain without preventing us from acknowledging that technology-derived brain changes are not inherently bad, and may in some ways be beneficial.

Plasticity is competitive, but it is also neutral, so brain change is not inherently positive nor negative. Similarly, environment, including the signature activities of our culture, influences and directs brain development. However, environment may enable healthy brain development or do the opposite. Technology and electronic media are a large and essential part of our environment and the various ways we use and relate to everyday technologies undoubtedly change our brain for better or for worse.

    Television and the young brain

We know that in infancy and early childhood, normal brain development depends on a stimulating environment, particularly through interaction between the children and the people around them. During this critical period, the brain is so plastic - i.e., changeable - that learning is effortless, requiring only exposure to new stimuli. The result is rapid formative growth. Watching television is a signature activity among cultures around the world, and most of us have probably heard television facetiously referred to as a substitute babysitter or preschool teacher because young children watch a lot of TV. What is the effect of television on the young brain?

Research shows a correlation between early exposure to television and brain problems. Watching a lot of TV between one and three years of age may relate to difficulties paying attention and controlling impulses later in childhood.

Attention deficit traits (ADT) have reportedly often been misdiagnosed as attention deficit disorder (ADD) because they appear similar to the symptoms of ADD. However, ADD is genetic and ADT is not. Modern neuroscience has linked the increase in ADT to the extensive TV viewing by toddlers, to the proliferation of electronic media and consequent changes to the brain. A plastic brain is changeable and vulnerable. A young brain is particularly vulnerable to environmental influences during its critical periods of formation, during which the signature activities of the culture shape the brain.

Although television is not by definition harmful, caregivers today need to balance the benefits of "educational television" with the effects of extensive television viewing on the extremely vulnerable brains of infants and young children - particularly on their ability later in life to focus and pay attention.

    Rewired brains

It's not only the brains of toddlers that are vulnerable. Neuroscientists have shown that acquiring a new set of signature activities reorganizes the brain and reshapes the mind. In some cases change may be the result of conscious effort. However, it is more likely that we are not consciously aware of the "opportunity cost" as well as the gain in the competitive process of additive and subtractive plasticity. Electronic media change our brain structurally and functionally as we acquire new skills, abilities and behaviours at the expense of others.

Electronic media activate the "orienting response" by incorporating a variety of noises, cuts and edits, zooms and pans, and a faster-than-life pace to compel our attention. Video games offer incremental challenges and regular rewards that trigger dopamine, resulting in the experience of pleasure and euphoria. The patterns of behaviour and the conditions that lead to addiction are evident, and individuals often recognize their obsessive attachment to their mobiles and their addiction to video games. Less obvious is the extent to which electronic media have rewired their brains.

When students have difficulty paying attention in their relatively slow-paced and comparatively boring classrooms, brains rewired by electronic media are among the usual suspects. While this is at least partly true, the driving force of technology and the fast pace of innovation compel us to better understand our world and our tools and to evaluate the impact of signature activities on our brains and our environment. As we create the tools that change our environment, we are also restructuring our brains, changing how our brains work, and reshaping our minds.