Every brain is made up of neural networks – billions and billions of synaptic connections.

All brains -- both adult brains and young brains -- have the capacity to adapt to different stimuli in different environments in order to make the brain as efficient as possible for each environment.

The array of stimuli in the modern world – think email, flashing web pages, interactive video games – is distinctly different than anything the brain has had to adapt to in the history of human evolution. As a result, our brains are being forced to adapt to a changing at an astronomical pace.

“The fact that it has taken so long for the human brain to evolve such complexity makes the current single-generation, high-tech brain evolution so phenomenal,” wrote Small in his recent book, “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alternation of the Modern Mind.”

“We’re talking about significant brain changes happening over mere decades rather than over millennia.”