A UCLA study has revealed that the use of search engines may actually help stimulate and improve the minds of middle-aged and older people.
The study, which included 24 healthy volunteers ages 55 to 76 with or without previous web search experience, were asked to perform Web searches while their brain activity was recorded. Only those who had previous Web-search experience registered extensive activity in decision-making and complex-reasoning portions of the brain.
However, as with any other test with 24 volunteers only, this one too should be taken with a pinch of salt.