Let's Talk About How Video Games Affect The Human Brain

When I was younger, I was a major fan of video games, I would play it for hours non-stop, I still play till now but not nearly as much as before and also the video games I play now are quite different from the ones I played before. Last week, I got to my friends place, o men, that guy was fully equipped for his games, he had various pads, joysticks, head sets and a room set aside as his game house, before I knew it I was already engrossed with the game spending 3 hours enjoying myself. On my way home I began to wonder, are video games actually good for our brain? Most people would say No but do they actually have any proof backing their claims? And even if they do, does it mean that video games does't have it's positive side? At the end of this article, you guys would have a broader understanding about video games and how it affects our brain.

[Source: Maxpixel. Creative Commons Zero - CCO Licensed]

Video Games

Video Games are becoming one of the most popular form of entertainment to many people around the world, which is why the sales of video games are increasing every year. Kids and adults nowadays spend most of their ideal time playing Video Games rather than playing football or basketball or hockey, etc in their streets, it is therefore important we know how these Video Games do affect our human brain. Neuroscientists and psychologists for decades have been debating on the positive and negative impact of Video Games to it's users and till this very day, there have been no consensus among neuroscientist and psychologists, because some are of the opinion that video games improves the brain based on researches carried out and others are against this opinion. In this article we would be discussing how the video games affects the brain positively.

[Source: Flickr. CCO Licensed]

Video Games And The Brain

Video Games doesn't only change our brain performance, but it also changes the structure of our brain, just like how playing the piano and violin affects the brain, same thing happens when you play video games. When playing video games, individuals tends to concentrate a lot and have this neural reward system i.e a group of neural structures that gives the feeling of learning, ecstasy and motivation, which causes the secretion of dopamine that helps to strengthen the neural circuits which can help to build or improve the brain. Playing video games are just like exercising your body but this time you are exercising your brain instead.

Video Games That Could Improve Your Brain

Whenever individuals are playing video games, they always want to win, be the best, get the highest score and so much more, in doing that they are exercising their brain, or I would say they are doing brain workout(smiles), which would pressure the brain to learn and improve it's cognitive skills which would lead to improvement in individuals' ability to read, learn, remember, reason etc. Research have it that, learning and training on a particular task do change the brain, and that's what video games does, you would learn the particular game, and then train by playing it for hours in order to master the game, which would in turn change the brain.

There are different genre of games, as we have in music. These genre of games come with different cognitive challenges which would change the brain in different ways because they are different from one another. The way you would react to a soft blues song would be different from the way you would react to a EDM (Electronic Dance Music) song, I hope you get me know. I would only give you guys 4 genre of games that affects the brain and they include;

First-Person Shooter Games

This is a video game genre that makes use of guns and other weapons to kill it's opponents from the view point of a protagonist i.e the main character of the game. The protagonist (the gamer's) arm would be shown on the screen carrying gun or other weapon to kill it's opponents. These games requires the player to keep tracks of their enemies and try and aim to shoot them accurately. The process of coordinating his/her eye with his/her hands to aim and shoot their enemies tends to improve the brain. Studies have it that these games tend to improve individuals' cognitive skills such as memory, reasoning, spatial navigation and perception. Examples of popular First-Person Shooter games include; Call of Duty, Overwatch, Nuclear Dawn,Battlefield, Titanfall, etc.

[First-Person Shooter Game - Nuclear Dawn. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Interwave Studios. CC-BY-SA-3.0]

Strategy Games

Strategic Games requires individuals to think, plan, strategize in order to win their opponents. A player must plan many moves and strategize very wisely in order to win his/her opponent. Strategy games are about outthinking your opponent to achieve victory. When playing these games players are required to think and analyze very fast and also should be very flexible enough to change tactics or strategy as your response to your opponents moves. Strategy Games are completely different from Puzzle Games, because the main aim of Strategy Games is to outthink your opponent whereas Puzzle Games don't have opponents. Strategic Games goes a long way to improving your cognitive skills such as working memory and reasoning as it stretches your brain to think and plan for the best moves which sometimes are abstract, in order to achieve victory. Examples of popular Strategy Games include; XCom Enemy Unknown, Online Chess, Civilization, Starcraft, Clash Of Clans(COC) etc. I personally like strategy games, such as Online Chess and especially COC.

[Strategy Games - Clash Of Clans(COC). Source: Flickr. Author: Themeplus. CCO Licensed]

Simulation Games

These genre of games mimic real-life situation i.e these games give the players a real-life experience such as driving of cars, flying of planes, managing of shops, cities, zoos, etc. For instance, these games gives the players the feeling of driving a car, as they would be the ones to steer the cars, to wherever they want, and they can step on the break or acceleration, giving the real-life experience of driving a car. These games teach it's players real-life skills. Even Astronauts ran simulations of their missions in order to get full assurance of a successful mission. These games tends to improve the cognitive skills of players such as reasoning and planning. Examples of popular Simulation Games include; Sim City, Farming Simulator, Flight Gear, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, etc.

[Simulation Game - Flight Gear. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Maxtremus. General Public License]

Action Role-Playing Games

These genre of games are also know as Action RPG or ARPG. The players of these games controls a fictional character that is on quest or mission in a fictional or imaginary world. These games are different from First-Person Shoot games, as the pace of the game is much slower and the players require more analysis to be able to carry out the mission/quest. Players of these games make use of their inductive reasoning skills to go past challenges in these games whereby improving their cognitive skills such as reasoning skill, thinking skill, attention skill and processing skill. Examples of popular ARPG include; Witcher, Mass Effect, Middle Earth, Diablo, etc

[Action Role-Playing Game -Witcher. Source: Flickr. Author: BagoGames. CCO Licensed]

How Video Games Do Affect The Brain

Now you already know the games that could affect your brain, now let's know how these games actually improve the brain. I would classify their improvement of the brain into a different categories for better understanding.

Improvement In The Brain's Reading Ability

Video Games helps to improve the brain of children suffering from Dyslexia. What is Dyslexia in the first place, well dyslexia is a neurological disorder which makes it very difficult for children to read, spell, write or even communicate properly. Research studies have it that, video games could help children with this neurological disorder because when children play video games their attention span tends to increase and this is a vital element for reading. Video Games helps to improve the reading comprehension skills of children. First-Person Shooter games and ARPG can help children improve their reading comprehension skills.

Improvement In The Brain's Cognitive Flexibility

What is Cognitive Flexibility? Cognitive Flexibility is the ability of an individual is shift his/her attention or thoughts among different tasks in response to changes. In other words, cognitive flexibility is the ability of an individual to quickly adapt to new situations i.e having the ability of thinking of all possible outcomes or alternatives in a given situation. Studies have it that video games players tends to have better cognitive flexibility than non-video games players, because when playing strategy games, players tends to have think fast and act on the response of their opponents, thereby increasing the brain's cognitive flexibility because players are constantly responding to their opponents moves in fast pace. For instance, when a player is playing in a blitz online chess tournament on Lichess (Opensoure app), he reacts quickly to every move from his/her opponent makes, in his/her quick reaction he/she thinks very fast on the best move to make, hereby increasing the brain's cognitive flexibility.

[Online Chess Game. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Rhododendrites. CC-BY-SA-3.0]

Improvement In Hand-Eye Coordination

Eye-Hand Coordination which involves the ability to use your eyes and hands simultaneous when carrying out your activities. For example, when you are playing a musical instrumental, let's say piano while reading the music, I hope you get what hand-eye coordination means now. Studies have it that, video games goes a long way in improving `hand-eye coordination, as medical surgeons who play video games perform better in theaters, making less mistakes when compared to surgeons who don't play video games when performing laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery involves assistance of camera in performing surgery through a small surgical incisions. And also the reason for the brilliant performance by this current generation of pilots have been associated with the playing of video games.

[Laparoscopic Surgery. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain]

Improvement In Visual Attention

Visual Attention means the ability of an individual to selectively filter visual information such as relevant and irrelevant information i.e it is the ability of an individual to observe his/her environment properly and target what is relevant to him/her, so that he/she can be very aware of any potential hazard around them. For instance, noticing traffic light, navigating properly through space, noticing a something new such as bars, shops, or let's imagine two separate individuals plan on meeting their friends in a restaurant, the individual with a better visual attention would be the first to notice his friend, because he/she has a better ability to selectively filter the visual information in front of him/her. Research studies at the University of Geneva by Professor Daphne Bavelier have shown that individuals that play video games have better visual attention than individuals that doesn't play video games. Based on theory, fast action games makes players to constantly switch their attention quickly from one part of the screen to another and yet still staying alert for any unforeseen events in the environment. For instance, imagine playing Call of Duty, you would be noticing enemies from different edges in the screen and shooting them and yet you must be still be vigilant in order not to be cut unaware by the enemies. By playing fast action games, players are challenging their brain to have a better visual attention skill. I know some of you guys would be wondering why video game players have better vision when they are mostly on their screens, and it is believed that too much screen time makes eye sight worse. Well, that's not the case with playing video games because when an individual is playing a fast action video game such an individual is constantly challenging his/her eye sight by looking for relevant information in the game. In other words, playing fast action video games is like training your eye sight to be better, sharper and more vigilant and that is why latest research have it that, the military are planning on including video games as part of their training in order to improve their visual attention.

[Fast Action Game - Call of Duty. Source: Flickr. Author: BagoGames. CCO Licensed]

Improvement In The Brain's Grey Matter

The brain's grey matter helps to process information which involves muscle control and sensory perception. Studies have shown that playing 3D-platform video games like Super Mario 64, have improved the grey matter in our hippocampus (involved in spatial and episodic memory), cerebellum (involved in motor control and balance) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (involved with planning and decision making). As a result of this, researchers now believe that 3D-platform video games can actually help the old people from cognitive impairment and also prevent them from Alzheimers disease. It is also believed that, because video games increases the volume of hippocampus which is responsible for memory, that it could be used as therapeutic tool for mental disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Schizophrenia Bipolar Disorder and more. According to Professor Gazzaley

I'm intrigued with the idea that in the future a psychiatrist or neurologist might pull out their pad and instead of writing down a drug, writes down a tablet game times two months, and uses that as a therapy, as a digital medicine. Source.

Conclusion

Playing Video Games can affect your brain positively but you should keep in mind that video games are just like wine, when you over play it, it could affect you negatively. So there should be moderation in playing video games in order for it to affect the brain positively.

Till Next Time !!!

Thanks For Reading

References

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