About This Video

Is our increasing reliance on Google rotting our brains and turning us in to lazy halfwits? Or could search engine technology actually be exercising our brains in ways don’t fully understand yet? Neuroscientist Gary Small explains how the brain treats Google like any other repeatedly used tool—it physically changes to strengthen the ability to use the tool. Google may also be making our brains more malleable and better equipped to learn new skills.

Recorded June 2010; Posted September 2010