Andreev, I. L., Nazarova, L. N. Neuropsychological Aspects of the Internet

Abstract: The authors of the article touch upon one of the least studied aspects of the influence of computers on the brain, psyche and consciousness. Internet is a global phenomenon and intellectual benefit of the humankind and contribution of the Internet to the development of the world history and human mind is very significant. Dialectic connection between virtual reality and real virtuality (in the form of the Mobius band) explains the fact that real and virtual worlds are often mixed up or even pathologically shifted (up to being replaced) in the mind of someone who is suffering from of the Internet addiction. All over the world psychiatrists are aware of this global invisible threat of ‘soft’ mental and social degradation of hundred millions of people. The destructive influence of the Internet addiction on brains can be compared to the drug addiction. Therefore psychiatrists aim their efforts at developing effective methods of saving poor prisoners of the World Wide Web from the loss of their human Self. The authors of the present article base themselves upon the original concept of evolutionary classification of mirror neurons of the brain cortex that has no analogies in neither Russian nor foreign literature. This allows to consider the structure of a whole range of pathological influences caused by extreme use of the Internet on the brain and mental health of a user as the subject under review. In terms of mirror neurons of the brain context special attention is paid to the research of a so-called ‘clip consciousness’ that leads not only to deviant behavior which is widely studied in scientific literature but also to the brain injury and dysfunction of the central nervous system, especially in case of children and teenagers. Noteworthy that Internetrelated tendencies towards simplification of everyday vocabulary and refusal from the epistolary genre are rarely discussed only at the phenomenological level and are still out of sight of neuroscientists, first of all, psychologists and psychiatrists. In a word, even when researches touch upon the topic, they do it ‘outside the brain’ even though it is quite possible to study it ‘from the inside’ due to the computer technologies allowing to neuro visualize processes ongoing in the brain tissue.

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