How Is Gaming Helping Your Brain?

Ever had an argument with someone about gaming? They were saying it makes you fatter, more aggressive and a hermit; while you, instead, were countering their argument with research on just how animated and smart it was making you – plus you could continue to socialize online with other gamers throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period while tapping into your full list of exclusive casino bonuses.

Unfortunately for your friend, the scientific data is angled very much in your favor – with researchers Adam Eichenbaum, Daphne Bavelier, and C Shawn Green laying out the research in their paper “Video games. Play that can do serious good”, which was published in the American Journal of Play (vol 7, no 1).

Outperform Your Professional Peers

The paper’s introductory paragraph is particularly enlightening. It reads: “The authors review recent research that reveals how today’s video games instantiate naturally and effectively many principles [that] psychologists, neuroscientists and educators believe critical for learning. A large body of research exists showing that the effects of these games are much broader. In fact, some types of commercial games have been proven to enhance basic perceptual and cognitive skills. These effects are significant enough that educators use these games for such practical, real-world purposes as training surgeons and rehabilitating individuals with perceptual or cognitive deficits. Although many individuals may still consider video games nothing more than mindless fun, the authors argue that games serve also as serious tools for good.”

Delving deeper into the training of surgeons, a paragraph on page 17 of their paper is likely to catch your eye. It reads: “In a study of medical training, a team from Beth Israel Medical Center noted that young, inexperienced endoscopic surgeons who were also avid video game players outperformed the most experienced surgeons in their field (Rosser et al. 2007).” Endoscopic surgery apparently shares with video gameplay the use of a hand-held device and guidance via visual feedback. The authors continue: “A large number of studies suggest that video game-playing surgeons outperform their non-playing peers on many measures of surgical performance… In fact, in at least one case, the number of hours per week [that] the surgeon spent playing video games was a better predictor of surgical performance than factors like number of surgeries completed or years of training.”

The article concludes rather astutely that video games have evolved over the years into “effective learning tools” and that action video games – in particular – are able to improve our entire range of perceptual, attentional and cognitive abilities and may, in the years to come, be able to accomplish feats such as allowing an Alzheimer’s patient to fight against the onset of cognitive decay.

Unlock Novel Neural Pathways

According to the American Psychological Association, when certain areas of the brain are engaged in video gaming, axons are stimulated to create new neural pathways – in a process referred to as “axonal sprouting”. And it’s those games that engage multiple cognitive processes, all at the same time, that appear to forge the new neural pathways necessary to facilitate the accomplishment of highly complex tasks. Yes, indeed, even in older adults, the brain’s inherent neuroplasticity means it is able to reorganize itself to get the process right, particularly when dynamically stimulated.

The paper “The Benefits of Playing Video Games”, published in American Psychologist (vol 69, no 1) saw authors Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel and Rutger CME Engels showcasing how shooter games develop an improved capacity to envisage objects in three dimensions; strategic role-playing games improve problem-solving skills and increase creativity; and five to 15 hours of gaming each week empowers gamers to notice details in cluttered settings, to better multitask and to more seamlessly keep track of multiple objects simultaneously.

Ameliorate Many Cerebral Challenges

Could gaming improve, or even treat, certain cognitive disorders, I hear you ask? Yes, indeed say those in the know at Psychology Today. In his piece “The Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games”, Peter Gray explains how gamers with one non-functional eye (amblyopia) were able to improve that eye’s functioning to near-normal levels when playing with that eye alone; the impulsivity of conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder could be largely reduced; elderly subjects could halt their cognitive decline and develop better self-esteem; and dyslexic children could significantly improve on their reading and phonology scores.

The good news, especially for the parents of gamers, is that the majority of the research on playing video games suggests – rather than it being harmful – that the practice offers many positive effects that are becoming increasingly crucial in today’s digital world. These benefits include: improved visual contrast sensitivity (the ability to distinguish between subtle differences in shades of grey, for example); improved spatial attention (the ability to locate, rapidly, a target stimulus within in a chaotic field); improved executive functioning (the ability to decide where mental resources – such as perception, attention, and memory – should ideally be allocated to allow for rapid and efficient problem-solving/decision-making); increased ability to multi-task and/or switch rapidly and without error between two tasks with conflicting demands; and even heightened performance in job-related competencies (the ability of regular gamers to fly and land aerial drones as if they were a trained pilot, for example).

Arguably, the best surgeon or pilot is probably the one with the most “trained eye”. And young gamers appear to be empowered with spatial skills that set them streets ahead of their peers in the dynamic and evolving fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which lead author Isabella Granic believes “has critical implications for education and career development”.

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