Internet as exercise for brain

Researchers have found that browsing the Internet can improve cognitive function in the elderly:

"You can teach an old brain new technology tricks," said Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of iBrain. With people who had little Internet experience, "we found that after just a week of practice, there was a much greater extent of activity particularly in the areas of the brain that make decisions, the thinking brain -- which makes sense because, when you're searching online, you're making a lot of decisions," he said. "It's interactive."

This data was presented at the recent Society for Neuroscience conference, and honestly, I'm surprised this type of study wasn't explored years ago. After all, isn't surfing the Internet sort of like doing a giant digital crossword puzzle (seems like we're always encouraging the elderly to do crossword puzzles), with all the clicking and navigating and interpreting and searching? I would argue that the manual dexterity typing and pointing a mouse cursor requires would also be physically and mentally beneficial for the elderly.