![]() People are increasingly under the impression that brain-training apps will safeguard them against memory loss or cognitive disorders. “Our findings and previous studies confirm there’s very little evidence these types of games can improve your life in a meaningful way,” says Wally Boot, associate professor of psychology, an expert on age-related cognitive decline. Share on Pinterest Playing brain-training games did not improve cognitive abilities in older adults. “It’s likely that video games have both positive (on attention, visual and motor skills) and negative aspects (risk of addiction), and it is essential we embrace this complexity,” Palaus continues. The research into the effects of video gaming is still in its infancy and scientists are still scrutinizing what aspects of gaming impact what brain regions and how. “We focused on how the brain reacts to video game exposure, but these effects do not always translate to real-life changes,” notes Palaus. Exposing video game addicts to game-related cues that cause cravings, and monitoring their brain responses, highlighted these changes – changes that are also seen in other addictive disorders. In gaming addicts, there are functional and structural alterations in the neural reward system – a group of structures associated with feeling pleasure, learning, and motivation. Researchers have discovered that video gaming can be addictive – a phenomenon known as “Internet gaming disorder.” In long-term gamers and individuals who had volunteered to follow a video game training plan, the right hippocampus was enlarged. Furthermore, the regions of the brain that play a role in attention are more efficient in gamers compared with non-gamers, and they require less activation to stay focused on demanding tasks.Įvidence also demonstrates that playing video games increases the size and competence of parts of the brain responsible for visuospatial skills – a person’s ability to identify visual and spatial relationships among objects. ![]() The studies included in the review show that video game players display improvements in several types of attention, including sustained attention and selective attention. Results of the studies indicate that playing video games not only changes how our brains perform but also their structure.įor example, video game use is known to affect attention. A total of 22 of the reviewed studies explored structural changes in the brain and 100 studies analyzed changes in brain functionality and behavior. Moreover, gaming is a popular activity, so everyone seems to have strong opinions on the topic,” says Marc Palaus, first author of the review.īy looking at all research to date, Palaus and team aimed to observe whether any trends had emerged with regard to how video games impact the structure and activity of the brain. “Games have sometimes been praised or demonized, often without real data backing up those claims. The findings of their review were published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Scientists have recently collected and summarized results from 116 scientific studies to determine how video games can influence our brains and behaviors. ![]() Share on Pinterest Game addicts have functional and structural changes in the neural reward system. Scientists have been unable to find a causal link between playing video games and acts of violence in the real world. First-person shooter and action genres often stand accused of stirring aggression and causing violence and addiction.ĭecades of research examining video gaming and violence have failed to reach consensus among scientists. These games fall into the first-person shooter or action-adventure genres – the top two genres, accounting for 27.5 percent and 22.5 percent of sales, respectively. The top three best-selling video games of 2016 were Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Grand Theft Auto V. In 2016, the video game industry sold more than 24.5 billion games – up from 23.2 billion in 2015, and 21.4 billion in 2014. Video game sales continue to increase year on year. For video game use by children, most parents – 71 percent – indicate that video games have a positive influence on their child’s life. The average American gamer is a 35-year-old adult, with 72 percent of gamers aged 18 or older. Share on Pinterest There is increasing research focused on the impact of video gaming on the brain.Īt a glance, more than 150 million people in the United States play video games regularly, or for at least 3 hours per week.
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