Cognitive Benefits of Video Gaming

Heather Andersen's blog recently asked an interesting question about video games: "Can certain video games improve brain function and athleticism? I hope to find out." You can find my attempted answer below.

I'm not sure about athleticism (maybe some Wii Fit games would help out?), but there are many studies showing how video games improve particular aspects of brain function, including visual acuity, spatial perception, the ability to pick out objects in a scene, working memory, reasoning, and strategy (more so for pre-adolescent players).

I've cited some articles summarizing studies below. Here are some interesting tidbits:

- Studies from Iowa State University and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York show how regular video game play improved the dexterity, speed, and error efficiency of laproscopic surgeons.
"One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27% faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37% fewer errors than those who didn't"
"The single best predictor of their skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now. Those were better predictors of surgical skills than years of training and number of surgeries performed . . . So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these (surgeries) have you done and the second question is 'Are you a gamer?"

- A pediatric neurologist at UC-Irvine's School of Medicine showed how Tetris expanded portions of the cerebral cortex of test subjects.

- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that World of Warcraft "encouraged scientific thinking, like using systems and models for understanding situations and using math and testing to investigate problems." They found that "86% of test subjects shared knowledge to solve problems in the game and 58% used systematic and evaluative processes."

- National Geographic summarized the findings of researchers at University of Rochester in New York: "Action video gamers may be more attune to surroundings while performing tasks like driving down a residential street, where they may be more likely to pick out a child running after a ball than a non-video gamer"
"action game playing might be a useful tool to rehabilitate visually impaired patients or to train soldiers for combat"
"people who play action video games can process visual information more quickly and can track 30 percent more objects than non video game players."

- Neuroscientists at MIT have called video games "stunningly powerful" for learning.

Articles:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-08-18-video-games-learning_N.htm
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/10/12/how_video_games_are_good_for_the_brain/?page=1
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0528_030528_videogames.html

Here's another article about a video game designed to help teens beat depression in New Zealand. It helped 44% of depressed teens completely recover, compared to 26% of depressed teens who completely recovered via traditional therapy: http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/20/study-playing-a-video-game-helps-teens-beat-depression/

Addressing BYU's study, there are several Pew Research Center studies claiming that multiplayer video games improve social experiences.

Most video game studies generally seem to agree that playing violent video games affects behavior in negative ways, and that excessive game play can lead to (childhood) obesity and other negative consequences, especially in the case of addiction.

Personally, I played video games growing up because they provided cognitive challenges that stretched my abilities, pushed me to improve, and offered emotional rewards (kind of like the feeling you get scoring a touchdown after hours of football practice). It was also fun to get together with friends and play Starcraft, Super Smash Brothers, or Halo. I don't disapprove of adult gaming, but only if you're in a position to handle it. Halo: Reach every other week on a Friday or Saturday night can be a fun, harmless stress reliever.

However, I think the amount of time children play video games should be carefully regulated by parents. Excessive play clearly affects moods, although I'm not sure how. I've noticed that sometimes when I start playing video games, it's hard to stop.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post, Heather!