Writing in Britain's Daily Mail, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, Oxford University Alzheimer's researcher and author of the book "ID: The Quest For Identity In The 21st Century", says modern technology, including violent video games, multichannel television and the Internet, is altering the way our brains work.
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"The human brain....is under threat from the outside world," Greenfield wrote.
"The crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals."
Greenfield points to a future in which neuro-chip technology would be used in devices that would enhance our muscle power and senses beyond the norm, and people would consume cocktails of drugs to control moods and performance.
"Already, an electronic chip is being developed that could allow a paralyzed patient to move a robotic limb just by thinking about it," she said.
Mood-enhancing drugs are already with us, Greenfield says, as increasing numbers of people are taking Prozac for depression, Paxil as an antidote for shyness, and Ritalin is frequently given to children to improve concentration.
"But what if there were still more pills to enhance or "correct" a range of other specific mental functions?" Greenfield asks.
"What would such aspirations to be "perfect" or "better" do to our notions of identity, and what would it do to those who could not get their hands on the pills? Would some finally have become more equal than others, as George Orwell always feared?"
While she acknowledges the benefits of technological progress, Greenfield warns of the dangers as well.
"One vital fact I have learned is that the brain is not the unchanging organ that we might imagine. It not only goes on developing, changing and, in some tragic cases, eventually deteriorating with age, it is also substantially shaped by what we do to it and by the experience of daily life," Greenfield wrote.
"When I say 'shaped', I'm not talking figuratively or metaphorically; I'm talking literally. At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli."
In other words, the brain's development is impacted in significant ways by our surrounding environment, from early childhood through early adulthood, and even beyond.
Greenfield said the rapid pace of technological change and its effect on our outside environment is what motivated her to write her book.
"This will affect our brains over the next 100 years in ways we might never have imagined," she said.
Our modern brains are having to simultaneously adapt to new technological advancements and other intrusions as well, such as prescription and illegal drugs like Prozac, Ritalin, cannabis and heroin.
"Electronic devices and pharmaceutical drugs all have an impact on the micro- cellular structure and complex biochemistry of our brains. And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behavior and our characteristics. In short, the modern world could well be altering our human identity." Greenfield said.
To illustrate the malleability of the human brain, Greenfield cites a startling Harvard Medical School study involving volunteers who could not play the piano. The participants were divided into three groups: the first group was given intensive piano practice for five days, the second was taken into an identical room with an identical piano but had nothing to do with the piano, and the third group was taken into an identical room with an identical piano and were told that to just imagine they were practicing piano exercises for the next five days.
The resulting brain scans were extraordinary. As expected, the brains of those who only sat in the same room as the piano had not changed at all. Equally unsurprising was the results that those who had performed the piano exercises saw marked structural changes in the area of the brain associated with finger movement.
But what was truly shocking was that the group who had merely imagined doing the piano exercises saw remarkable changes in brain structure that were almost as pronounced as those that had actually taken the piano lessons.
"The power of imagination is not a metaphor, it seems; it's real, and has a physical basis in your brain," said Greenfield.
Unfortunately, neuroscientists have yet to explain how the changes the Harvard study reported at the micro-cellular level translate into changes in character, personality or behavior.
But according to Greenfield, we don't need to know that to realize that changes in brain structure and our higher thoughts and feelings are incontrovertibly linked.
"What worries me is that if something as innocuous as imagining a piano lesson can bring about a visible physical change in brain structure, and therefore some presumably minor change in the way the aspiring player performs, what changes might long stints playing violent computer games bring about?" Greenfield said.
"That eternal teenage protest of 'it's only a game, Mum' certainly begins to ring alarmingly hollow."
Greenfield says video games have already produced changes in behavior.
"Attention spans are shorter, personal communication skills are reduced and there's a marked reduction in the ability to think abstractly," she said.
Referring to Web sites such as Facebook, Bebo and YouTube, Greenfield says the boundaries of our individuality are already weakening, as many younger people view the world as if something hasn't truly happened until it has been posted to one of these sites.
"Add that to the huge amount of personal information now stored on the internet - births, marriages, telephone numbers, credit ratings, holiday pictures - and it's sometimes difficult to know where the boundaries of our individuality actually lie," she said.
Greenfield worries the boundaries may yet weaken further as neuro-chip technology becomes more ubiquitous. The technology would make possible an interface between the human body and the electronic world, taking advantage of the discovery that silicon chips and nerve cells can easily co-exist.
"One of my colleagues recently suggested that someone could be fitted with a cochlear implant (devices that convert sound waves into electronic impulses and enable the deaf to hear) and a skull-mounted micro- chip that converts brain waves into words (a prototype is under research). Then, if both devices were connected to a wireless network, we really would have arrived at the point which science fiction writers have been getting excited about for years. Mind reading!"
Her colleague was joking, Greenfield said, but for how long this remains a joke is not clear.
"Today's technology is already producing a marked shift in the way we think and behave, particularly among the young," she said, adding that technology and pharmaceutical companies are finding an increasing number of ways to have a direct influence on the human brain.
But part of what Greenfield is speaking about relates to simple fun and pleasure, something she says is becoming the "sole be-all and end-all of many lives, especially among the young."
"We could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment, and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world," she said.
"Throw in circumstantial evidence that links a sharp rise in diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the associated three-fold increase in Ritalin prescriptions over the past ten years with the boom in computer games and you have an immensely worrying scenario," she said.
Greenfield worries about the trend, and says the heaviest players of certain video games can mimic behavior typically seen in addicts. And as with alcoholics or drug addicts who become trapped in the moment of pleasure, eventually they must come down.
"I'm certainly not saying all video games are addictive (as yet, there is not enough research to back that up), and I genuinely welcome the new generation of "brain-training" computer games aimed at keeping the little grey cells active for longer. As my Alzheimer's research has shown me, when it comes to higher brain function, it's clear that there is some truth in the adage "use it or lose it"."
Greenfield isn't entirely pessimistic about the future, however. She says there are potential advantages that come along with our growing understanding of the plasticity of the human brain.
"What if we could create an environment that would allow the brain to develop in a way that was seen to be of universal benefit?" she asked.
While not convinced technology will ever truly manipulate the brain in ways that make us more clever or happy, Greenfield nevertheless says there could come a day when outside stimuli is used to harness the brain's creativity to boost our individuality, instead of diminishing it.
"I am optimistic and excited by what future research will reveal into the workings of the human brain, and the extraordinary process by which it is translated into a uniquely individual mind. But I'm also concerned that we seem to be so oblivious to the dangers that are already upon us."
This article gives only confusion.
First start with danger of electronic device than without explaining it move to promote increase of human potential by external stimulus and chipping.
Last remark contradict what was promoting.
Feel like matrix itself revel the plan of what's to come.