iDisorders
A recently published book called “iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us,” focuses on some of the mental health challenges linked to heavy technology use including how social media sites may encourage narcissism or how constantly checking our wireless mobile devices can lead to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
According to the book, iDisorder: changes to your brain’s ability to process information and your ability to relate to the world due to your daily use of media and technology resulting in signs and symptoms of psychological disorders – such as stress, sleeplessness, and a compulsive need to check in with all of your technology.
It also discusses how technology addiction can lead to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and how the volume of medical data that is available online has created some “cyberchondriacs.” Interestingly, it suggests how the constant use of technology may be rewiring our brains. The author cites a study that demonstrates the impact on memory called the “Google effect,” that is, an inability to remember facts brought on by the realization that they are all available in a few keystrokes via Google.
Each chapter also discusses what can be done to combat each techno-disorder and offers parents advice on how to manage their children’s techno-addiction.
Can Videogames Promote Healthier Aging?
A study published in the new journal Games For Health (G4H), explored the requirements for developing digital learning games for older individuals focusing on types of learning games, motivational and social aspects, and preferences on mode of interaction with the various games.
The primary themes why older people would be interested in playing digital games were challenges, socialization, fun, providing learning opportunities, and escape from daily routine. In addition the subjects described themselves as active and participating in many leisure activities, and this level of activity appeared to be related with the contents proposed for digital games, such as physical activity, culture, arts, and other human sciences (history, geography, traveling, foreign languages, music), and daily life skills (cooking, computer use, first aid).
A related article looked at Interactive Videogame Technologies to Support Independence in the Elderly and concluded that several recommendations have been proposed to build upon the use and integration of videogame technology into rehabilitation and training for older adults. In particular, the use of videogames for health requires an appropriate game classification system for development of games that are appropriate for the physical, cognitive, and social requirements of older adults or those living with a disability.
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Hospitals and Social Media
A recent article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research evaluated the use of social media in hospitals, particularly in Western Europe. Data was collected from 12 Western European countries during the following three time periods: April to August 2009, August to December 2010, and April to July 2011.
The study included 873 hospitals of which 732 were general hospitals and 141 were university hospitals. The number of included hospitals per country ranged from 6 in Luxembourg to 347 in Germany. They found hospitals using social media in all countries. The use of social media increased significantly over time, especially for YouTube (from 2% to 19.7%), LinkedIn (20.5% to 31.8%), and Facebook (10% to 67.0%). Differences in social media usage between the included countries were significant.
The authors point out that in health care, patients increasingly use social media to communicate and share information. Hospital organizations should embrace social media as it may contribute to quality improvements in health care. Active use of social media not only speeds up communication and improves information provision for patients; it allows caregivers to engage patients in the delivery of care, and for caregivers and patients to make decisions collaboratively and improve their relationship. In this way, using social media improves patient-centered care. There are also beneficial aspects for the hospital organization itself. Several studies reported that social media can improve communication among staff, facilitate networking, attract visitors to the hospital’s website, build the hospital’s brand, and be used for recruitment for research projects.
Except for the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the group of hospitals that are using social media remains small. Usage of LinkedIn for recruitment of personnel shows that hospitals are aware of the potential of social media. Future research is needed to investigate how social media lead to improved health care.
The United States has approximately 5000 hospitals, around 15.7% of all hospitals in the United States are on Twitter, 20.3% are on Facebook, and 10.9% are on YouTube.
J Med Internet Res 2012;14(3):e61
Computerised Self-help Intervention for Adolescent Depression
According to a study published in BMJ, adolescents suffering from depression can benefit just as much from specialised computer therapy as they do from one-to-one therapy with a clinician.
Researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, set out to assess whether a new innovative computerised cognitive behavioural therapy intervention called SPARX could reduce depressive symptoms as much as usual care can in adolescents who may be reluctant to seek professional help.
SPARX is an interactive 3D fantasy game where a single user undertakes a series of challenges to restore balance in a virtual world dominated by GNATs (Gloomy Negative Automatic Thoughts). It contains seven modules designed to be completed over a four to seven week period. Usual care mostly involved face-to-face counselling by trained clinicians.
The research team carried out a randomised controlled trial in 24 primary healthcare sites across New Zealand. All 187 adolescents were between the ages of 12 and 19, were seeking help for mild to moderate depression and were deemed in need of treatment by primary healthcare clinicians. One group underwent face-to-face treatment as usual and the other took part in SPARX.
Participants were followed up for three months and results were based on several widely used mental health and quality of life scales.
Results showed that SPARX was as effective as usual care in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety by at least a third. In addition significantly more people recovered completely in the SPARX group (31/69 (44%) of those who completed at least four homework modules in the SPARX group compared with 19/83 (26%) in usual care).
The authors conclude that SPARX is an “effective resource for help seeking adolescents with depression at primary healthcare sites. Use of the program resulted in a clinically significant reduction in depression, anxiety, and hopelessness and an improvement in quality of life.” They suggest that it is a potential alternative to usual care and could be used to address unmet demand for treatment. It may also be a cheaper alternative to usual care and be potentially more easily accessible to young people with depression in primary healthcare settings.
Source: BMJ
More than twenty percent of U.S. adults don’t use the Internet
Internet use has increased from 50 percent in June 2000 to nearly 80 percent in August 2011. However, a new study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project, reports that about one out of every five Americans simply don’t utilize the Internet at all.
Within this group, approximately half attributed this fact to the lack of anything useful on the Internet. The most common groups to be without Internet access include households earning less than $30,000 per year, adults that haven’t obtained a high school diploma, senior citizens over the age of 65 and Hispanic adults. Women were also slightly less likely to use the Internet when compared to men.
Common reasons for not having Internet access included: lack of interest, lacking access to a computer, cost of access, difficulty getting it to work properly, the lack of time required to learn the process, blaming age, problems with physically being able to use a computer or concern about computer viruses and spam emails. Of the group that doesn’t have Internet access, only a tenth were interested in learning how to get online in order to use the Internet on a daily basis.
Another roadblock to Internet access cited is the lack of a broadband connection. While broadband use has exploded from four percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2011, that still leaves approximately four out of ten American adults that don’t have a high-speed Internet connection at home. Dial-up access has decreased from 41 percent in 2001 to 3 percent in 2011. Other reasons for not switching yet included unfamiliarity with the benefits of broadband and the lack of availability in certain areas of the country.
Pew Internet & American Life Study
How The Brain Responds to Deceptive Advertising
According to new study by a North Carolina State University researchers, several specific regions of our brains are activated in a two-part process when we are exposed to deceptive advertising.
The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture images of the brain while study participants were shown a series of print advertisements. The fMRI images allowed researchers to determine how consumers’ brains respond to potentially deceptive advertising.
Subjects were not asked to evaluate the advertisements, but to passively review them as we all would experience every day. Participants were exposed to three pre-tested advertisements that were deemed “highly believable,” “moderately deceptive” or “highly deceptive.” The ads were also pre-tested to ensure that they were for products that consumers found equally interesting and desirable – leaving the degree of deception as the only significant variable.
During the first stage, researchers saw increased activity in the precuneus – a part of the brain associated with focusing conscious attention. According to the authors,”the more deceptive an advertisement is, the more you are drawn to it, much as our attention is drawn to potential threats in our environment.” Specifically, in this study, the more deceptive an ad was, the more precuneus activity was observed.
In second stage, researchers saw more activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) regions of the brain. This suggests increased “theory-of-mind” (ToM) reasoning. ToM is a type of processing that allows us to distinguish our wants and needs from those of others, particularly as this applies to intuiting the intentions of other people. In this case, it appears to indicate that participants were trying to determine the truth behind the claims in the potentially deceptive advertisements.
Acccording to the authors, an interesting point is “that the moderately deceptive ads cause more activity during this second stage” Which may be because highly deceptive ads are screened out more quickly and discarded as not meriting further attention.
If the study found that there was greater brain activation when participants were exposed to moderately deceptive ads, does that make us more susceptible to the sales pitch in ads that trigger just a pinch of skepticism? Apparently not. In a follow-up, behavioral component of the study, researchers interfered with the ToM stage, making it more difficult for participants to determine the intention behind the ads. As a result, participants more frequently believed moderately deceptive advertising. This suggests that the second stage is an important step that helps protect consumers by allowing them to better discriminate and screen out deceptive ads.
The researchers hope that by identifying these stages of brain response, it may help future researchers identify underlying neural reasons why some populations are more prone to fall prey to deceptive ads and if these regions of the brain are likely to be affected by aging. For example, it may explain why older adults are more vulnerable to fraud or deceptive advertising. Or how concussive brain injuries, such as those seen in some sports, may affect our long-term discrimination in making good consumer choices?
Boosting Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults Through Online Games
Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that playing the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) actually boosted cognitive functioning for older adults – particularly those adults who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game.
Researchers from NC State’s Gains Through Gaming laboratory first established a baseline by testing the cognitive functioning of study participants, aged 60 to 77. Cognitive abilities including spatial ability, memory and how well participants could focus their attention were evaluated.
An “experimental” group of study participants then played WoW on their home computers for approximately 14 hours over the course of two weeks, before being re-tested. A “control” group of study participants did not play WoW, but were also re-tested after two weeks.
A comparison of the cognitive functioning test scores of participants in the experimental and control groups, the researchers found the group that played WoW saw a much greater increase in cognitive functioning, though the effect varied according to each participant’s baseline score. Interestingly, the participants who scored well on baseline cognitive functioning tests, had no significant improvement after playing WoW, However, significant improvement was seen in both spatial ability and focus for participants who scored low on the initial baseline tests. Pre- and post-game testing showed no change for participants on memory.
Computerized Cognitive Training Restores Neural Activity in Schizophrenia
A new study published in the journal Neuron demonstrates that a specific type of computerized cognitive training can lead to significant neural and behavioral improvements in individuals with schizophrenia. According to the authors, ’schizophrenia patients struggle with ‘reality monitoring. Although there are drugs that reduce the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia, current medications do not improve cognitive deficits.’ In addition, conventional psychotherapy has not proven to be successful in these patients, and there is a pressing need for new therapeutic strategies.
The researchers took a unique approach to enhancing behavior and brain activation in individuals with schizophrenia. They predicted that in order to improve complex cognitive functions in neuropsychiatric illness, lower-level perceptual processes, as well as higher-order working memory and social cognitive impairments must initially be targeted.
Patients with schizophrenia patients who received 80 hours of computerized training (over 16 weeks) exhibited improvements in their ability to perform complex reality-monitoring tasks, which were associated with increased activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The mPFC is a critical brain region that supports successful reality-monitoring processes. The researchers state that “we found that the level of mPFC activation was also linked with better social functioning six months after training. In contrast, patients in a control group who played computer games for 80 hours did not show any improvements, demonstrating that the behavioral and neural improvements were specific to the computerized training patient group.”
Neuron
Volume 73, Issue 4, 23 February 2012, Pages 842–853
Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Doubles Over the Holidays
According a Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, the share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period.
The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January. These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted.
Source:
Pew Internet and American Life Project
World’s First Hackers
One afternoon in June of 1903, a crowd assembled in the Royal Institution’s celebrated lecture theater in London. They came to see a demonstration of an emerging technology – a long-range wireless communication system called the telegraph, developed by the Italian radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
The goal was to showcase publicly for the first time that Morse code messages could be sent wirelessly over long distances. Marconi was 300 miles away in Cornwall, UK and preparing to send a message to London.
Just before the demonstration began, the apparatus in the lecture theater began to tap out a message. At first, it spelled out just one word repeated over and over. Then it changed into a facetious poem accusing Marconi of “diddling the public”. Their demonstration had been hacked – and this was more than 100 years before the mischief playing out on the internet today.
Source: New Scientist
(Thanks Carl for sending)