Media release

From: Springer Nature

Widespread use of digital technology may be associated with lower rates of cognitive decline and cognitive impairment in adults aged over 50 years, according to a meta-analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings appear to contradict the hypothesis that everyday use of technology weakens cognitive ability.

The use of digital technology is now widespread, and the first generation of people who grew up with this technology is now approaching an age at which symptoms of dementia commonly emerge. The digital dementia hypothesis predicts that a lifetime of digital technology use worsens cognitive abilities. However, other accounts suggest that regular use of this technology leads to better-than-expected cognitive performance, as the technology can facilitate behaviours that preserve cognition.

Jared Benge and Michael Scullin analysed 57 published studies that researched the use of digital technology in 411,430 adults from around the world with an average age of 68.7 years — all studies included either a cognitive diagnosis or test. They found no evidence for the digital dementia hypothesis. Instead, the use of digital technology — defined by the researchers as using a computer, a smartphone, the Internet or some combination of the three — was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment in the adult populations of these studies. Importantly, the researchers found through analysis of these studies that this outcome could not be explained by demographic, socioeconomic, health, or other lifestyle factors in isolation. Benge and Scullin also found evidence of technology leading to a reduced risk of cognitive decline in longitudinal studies, which on average featured a follow-up period of 6.2 years.

The authors note that these results do not provide an explanation of the causal mechanisms that underlie the association between digital technology use and cognitive health.