SETTING: Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.

Writing in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, they said they finally tested it in nine Alzheimer's patients and seven healthy volunteers.

"This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain — that it may keep it active and healthy," said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.