In people who have known smartphones and the internet already in adulthood, the use of devices seems to remove the spectrum of dementia.
We sometimes hear about digital dementia to indicate a form of compromise of certain cognitive faculties – such as memory, capacity for concentration, attention – in response to an intensive use of technology. Now a study on those who met smartphones and other devices already in adulthood makes this concept not so universal.
Based on research, a meta-analysis of previous studies, the over 50s that use more often smartphones, computers and other connected devices would seem more protected by cognitive decline. Even if the reasons are not very clear, the research makes it hope that the brain rot, the rot of the brain from device, which became a word of the year of 2024, does not concern Just everyone brains.
Daily use. The analysis, published on Nature Human Behaviourconcerned 57 previous studies that examined the use of digital technology in 411,430 adults from all over the world (but in particular of Europe and the United States). The average age of the participants at the time of the cognitive test or the diagnosis that the cognitive state ascertained It was 69 years old. In deciding on what criteria to concentrate, researchers from the University of Texas in Austin and Baylor University of Texas have chosen to exclude the use of smartphones and computers for brain training programs or stimulating games from a cognitive point of view, and include only a more common and daily use of devices.
Protective effect. The results suggest that the over 50s that make a frequent use of smartphones and other digital devices they show with less likely a cognitive decline of those who do not use these devices, or in any case experience a slower cognitive decline. For Jared Benge, one of the authors of the study, “the effect seems comparable to other already consolidated protective factors, things such as education and control of blood pressure, which we already know be favorable to brain health”.
Double arrow. To better clarify what the causes of this apparently protective association are, further studies will be needed. However, scientists suspect that there is at stake a two senses. On the one hand, cognitively younger people because they are helped by other factors such as a good level of education or good socio -economic conditions, they could be more likely to use these technologies. On the other, related smartphones and devices could actually give cognitive benefits.
Less alone and more autonomous. For the authors of the analysis, smartphone & co.
They could slow down cognitive decline following three roads. Meanwhile, the interactions with these devices are more complex and participatory than you have, for example, with TV. Then, devices can be a social connection tools with other people and a means to get out of isolation, harmful to cognitive health. Finally, these devices can help remain independent longer. An example? The navigator that allows you to find the road even when memory does Chilecca.
Not for everyone the same. Another Achilles heel of this type of studies is the fact that the searches analyzed are based on Self -seated estimates of the use of technology and no more “scientific” measurements, such as the time spent on the screen. In addition, the study limited itself to observing what happens in people in the third age who started using smartphones and computers in the 2000s.
For example, it did not involve digital natives, people born and raised in a world in which technologies were already widespread, which may have had a completely different cognitive effect from the constant use of the devices. Once again, proof of how our relationship with technology be complex and dependent on many factorsand how it is not useful to anyone looking for “easy” solutions.
