Revealed — internet use improves memory

After all, the digital age has some benefits you would appreciate. A new study published inThe Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Medical Sciences showed that learning about the digital world, engaging, planning and executing simple digital tasks like web browsing and sending emails, can improve your memory.

The researchers looked at the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to follow 6,442 participants in Britain between the ages of 50 and 89 for eight years. The data measures delayed recall from a 10-word-list learning task across five separate measurement points. Higher wealth, education and digital literacy improved delayed recall, while people with functional impairment, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depressive symptoms or no digital literacy showed decline.

According to the researchers,  digital literacy increases cognitive skills and brain reserves and even leads to the employment of efficient cognitive networks to delay cognitive decline. ’Countries where policy interventions regarding improvement in DL (digital literacy) are implemented may expect lower incidence rates for dementia over the coming decades,’ the authors of the study wrote.

Source: IANS

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