Who has not ever enjoyed playing Pac-Man, breaking records in Tetris or annihilating zombies in Resident Evil? Statistics tell us that a good part of us have done it or do it today.And it is estimated that in Spain there are about nine million regular players. Up to 70 percent of players, according to the GFK-Emer study, dedicate between 1 and 4 hours a week to this activity that has recently acquired great cultural, social and commercial value. This has been accompanied by a series oftechnological advances that have favored the creation of gameswhose content is more realistic and complex, and that can allow us to play in real time with other people from countries and ages very different from ours.
“Video games make you more aggressive and isolate you from society.” This is a statement to which much research has been devoted around the world and especially in the golden age of video games back in the 80’s. However,not all are bad reviews for one of the favorite leisure activities of the human being. Gamers outperform the rest in some capacities, according to various studies from the University of Rochester in New York. They seem to be quicker in their responses, better manage their attention resources, integrate visual information faster, better track moving objects in the environment, and may even mentally represent problems more appropriately. Evenpositive effects have been observed on the performance of some professionals such as pilots and the military, or in activities as everyday as driving a vehicle.
Not all games are the same
But not all games are the same. What the experts point out is that each game can work on a different aspect of cognition. Thus, it seems that action and strategy games such as World of Warcraft, Rise of Nations or Medal of Honor are the ones that most often have these necessary characteristics. They involve speed, they have a great visual, movement and thought load, they need good management of peripheral vision and what happens in them is, most of the time, unpredictable .
These findings have not fallen on deaf ears. So much so that games specifically oriented to the development of our cognitive abilities have been developed. These initiatives are sometimes presented in the form of consoles, as in the case of Nintendo’s Big Brain Academy for Wii, and in others they may appear as online portals, such as Unobrain, a pioneering Brain Fitness portal in the Spanish-speaking world.
Much remains to be learned about the way videogames affect us and there will surely be surprises. For now, let’s enjoy knowing that, in addition to having fun, we may be benefiting our brain.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
