It started with a high school typing course. Wanda Woods enrolled because her father advised that typing proficiency would lead to jobs. Sure enough, the federal Environmental Protection Agency hired her as an after-school worker while she was still a junior. Her supervisor \u201csat me down and put me on a machine called a word processor,\u201d Woods, now 67, recalled. \u201cIt was big and bulky and used magnetic cards to store information. I thought, \u2018I kinda like this.\u2019\u201d Decades later, she was still liking it. In 2012 \u2014 the first year that more than half of Americans 65 and older were internet users \u2014 she started a computer training business. Now she is an instructor with Senior Planet in Denver, an AARP-supported effort to help older people learn and stay abreast of technology. Woods has no plans to retire. Staying involved with tech \u201ckeeps me in the know, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Some neuroscientists researching the effects of technology on older adults are inclined to agree. The first cohort of seniors to have contended \u2014 not always enthusiastically \u2014 with a digital society has reached the age when cognitive impairment becomes more common. Given decades of alarms about technology\u2019s threats to our brains and well-being \u2014 sometimes called \u201cdigital dementia\u201d \u2014 one might expect to start seeing negative effects. The opposite appears true. \u201cAmong the digital pioneer generation, use of everyday digital technology has been associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia,\u201d said Michael Scullin, a cognitive neuroscientist at Baylor University.<\/p>\n
\nScullin and Jared Benge, a neuropsychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, were co-authors of a recent analysis investigating the effects of technology use on people over 50 (average age: 69). They found that those who used computers, smartphones, the internet, or a mix did better on cognitive tests, with lower rates of cognitive impairment or dementia diagnoses, than those who avoided technology or used it less often. \u201cNormally, you see a lot of variability across studies,\u201d Scullin said. But in this analysis of 57 studies involving more than 411,000 seniors, published in Nature Human Behavior, almost 90% of the studies found that technology had a protective cognitive effect.<\/p>\n
Much of the apprehension about technology and cognition arose from research on children, sometimes focused on adolescents, whose brains are still developing. \u201cThere\u2019s pretty compelling data that difficulties can emerge with attention or mental health or behavioral problems\u201d when young people are overexposed to screens and digital devices, Scullin said. Older adults\u2019 brains are also malleable, but less so. And those who began grappling with technology in midlife had already learned \u201cfoundational abilities and skills,\u201d Scullin said. Then, to participate in a swiftly evolving society, they had to learn a whole lot more.<\/p>\n
Years of online brain-training experiments lasting a few weeks or months have produced varying results. Often, they improve a person\u2019s ability to perform the task in question without enhancing other skills. \u201cI tend to be pretty skeptical\u201d of their benefit, said Walter Boot, a psychologist at the Center on Aging and Behavioral Research at Weill Cornell Medicine. \u201cCognition is really hard to change.\u201d The new analysis, however, reflects \u201ctechnology use in the wild,\u201d he said, with adults \u201chaving to adapt to a rapidly changing technological environment\u201d over several decades. He found the study\u2019s conclusions \u201cplausible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Analyses like this can\u2019t determine causality. Does technology improve older people\u2019s cognition, or do people with low cognitive ability avoid technology? Is tech adoption just a proxy for enough wealth to buy a laptop? \u201cWe still don\u2019t know if it\u2019s chicken or egg,\u201d Doraiswamy said. Yet when Scullin and Benge accounted for health, education, socioeconomic status, and other demographic variables, they still found significantly higher cognitive ability among older digital technology users. What might explain the apparent connection? \u201cThese devices represent complex new challenges,\u201d Scullin said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t give up on them, if you push through the frustration, you\u2019re engaging in the same challenges that studies have shown to be cognitively beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Digital technology may also protect brain health by fostering social connections, known to help stave off cognitive decline. Or its reminders and prompts could partially compensate for memory loss, as Scullin and Benge found in a smartphone study, while apps help preserve functional abilities like shopping and banking. Numerous studies have shown that while the number of people with dementia is increasing as the population ages, the proportion of older adults who develop dementia has been falling in the United States and several European countries. Researchers have attributed the decline to a variety of factors, including reduced smoking, higher education levels, and better blood pressure treatments. Possibly, Doraiswamy said, engaging with technology has been part of the pattern.<\/p>\n
Q: What are the benefits of technology use for older adults?
\nA: Technology use has been associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults.
\nQ: How does technology use affect cognitive health?
\nA: Technology use can provide complex new challenges that engage older adults cognitively, potentially improving cognitive ability.
\nQ: Can technology substitute for other brain-healthy activities?
\nA: No, technology cannot substitute for other brain-healthy activities like exercising and eating sensibly.
\nQ: Is there a risk of overexposure to technology for older adults?
\nA: Yes, more is not necessarily better, and overexposure to technology can lead to negative effects such as social isolation.
\nQ: Will the benefits of technology use extend to subsequent generations?
\nA: It is unclear whether the benefits of technology use will extend to subsequent generations, as the technology is constantly evolving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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