Usually, video games are usually presented to the media associated with the supposed negative effects. While excessive gaming can be detrimental for some people, who may spend time for exercise and social activities spending more hours on the computer or console or even disrupting sleep, for several years researchers have found that video games also have the capacity to generate a series of cognitive benefits.
Positive aspects
People who play video games frequently show superior sensorimotor decision-making skills and increased activity in key brain regions compared to non-gamers, concludes the study led by researchers at Georgia State University and published in the journal Neuroimaging Reports. .
The authors, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) in the study, said the findings suggest that video games could be a useful tool for perceptual decision-making training.
“The overwhelming majority of our young people play video games more than three hours a week , but the beneficial effects on decision-making ability and the brain are not exactly known,” explained Mukesh Dhamala, leader of the study. “Our work provides some answers in this regard. Video games can be used effectively for training, for example, decision-making efficiency training and therapeutic interventions, once the relevant brain networks are identified.”
If played in moderation, there are advantages
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural activity in 47 college-age participants, made up of 28 people who played video games regularly and 19 people who did not . Those who played predominantly participated in highly active real-time games, such as real-time strategy, first-person shooters, or ‘arena’ or ‘real’ battles. They found that video game players were faster and more accurate with their responses.
“These results indicate that playing video games potentially enhances several of the sensing, perceiving, and mapping-to-action threads to improve decision-making skills,” the authors write. “These findings begin to illuminate how video games alter the brain to improve task performance and its potential implications for increasing task-specific activity .”
Perhaps another of the most interesting aspects of the study is that the brain imaging data indicated that the players also had different brain responses to the task.
“This study demonstrated that video game players have improved performance on decision-making tasks and that these differences correlate with specific changes in the activities of nodes and networks in and across the lingual gyrus, the supplementary motor area and the thalamus. These results indicate that playing video games potentially enhances several of the threads of sensation, perception, and mapping to action to improve decision-making skills.”
Although the link between video games and cognitive impulses is not new, with each investigation we get closer to understanding it and discovering how we could use all the positive things that video games can bring us.
“This study leads not only to a potential method of cognitive training, but also to understanding how training will affect the brain,” the experts conclude.
Referencia: Timothy Jordan, Mukesh Dhamala. Video game players have improved decision-making abilities and enhanced brain activities. Neuroimage: Reports, 2022; 2 (3): 100112 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynirp.2022.100112
