You don't need to be a biohacker who spends $2 million a year to improve brain function.
According to a Canadian study, someone can turn back their brain age by 10 years simply by turning off the internet on their phone for two weeks.
In a study of 400 people — students and working-age adults — researchers asked participants to download an app that blocked internet access on their phones, but they could still make calls and send messages.
Participants completed surveys before and after the experiment to measure brain function and mental well-being.
The results showed that their sustained attention — the ability to focus on one subject — improved so much that it became equivalent to that of someone 10 years younger.
Ninety percent of people also reported improvements in their mental health, to a greater extent than would be expected from using antidepressants for two weeks.
Participants also reported improvements in personal well-being and life satisfaction.
The researchers explained that this change in the brain was influenced by the way people began to spend their time, spending less time online and more time socializing face-to-face, exercising, and being in nature.
Also, during the study period, screen time was halved — dropping from an average of 5 hours and 14 minutes to 2 hours and 41 minutes per day in one of the study groups.
In the study published in the journal PNAS Nexus, the team from the University of British Columbia highlighted:
"Despite the many benefits that mobile internet offers, reducing constant connection to the digital world can bring very positive effects" - tGazetaExpress reports the study.
"Our results provide evidence that blocking mobile internet for two weeks can lead to significant improvements in well-being, mental health and the ability to maintain attention," they added.
In the experiment, participants were divided into two groups. The first group downloaded an app that blocked all internet access for two weeks, while the other group used their phone normally during this period and then blocked the internet for the next two weeks.
The analysis showed that in the group that initially blocked the internet, average screen time fell from 314 minutes to 161 minutes per day, a reduction of almost 50%. When they regained access to the internet, this time increased to 265 minutes, but remained 15% lower than at the start of the study.
For the other group, screen time initially didn't change significantly, but when they blocked the internet for the last two weeks, it dropped by 41%.
About 90% of U.S. adults own a smartphone and spend an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes a day on it. However, almost half of Americans — and 80% of young people under 30 — express concerns about excessive use.
Young people often feel disconnected from real people due to excessive time spent online, while many schools in the US and Britain have banned mobile phones in the classroom, reporting improvements in behaviour and academic achievement.
The researchers pointed out that humans evolved in a world where information and social contact were limited, so the overload of stimuli from the internet can make it difficult to control thoughts and behaviors.
In the future, the researchers plan to conduct experiments that block only specific applications, such as social networks, to see if the effects will be similar.
The study was funded by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest foundation in Silicon Valley, which has received large donations from Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. /Express newspaper/
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