All That Video Gaming Could Be Boosting an Unexpected Life Skill, New Study Finds

Video gaming can get some bad press when it comes to its effects on our physical and mental health, and it has been known for a long time that sitting still all day isn't good for us.

There are benefits to video gaming.

According to a new study, hours spent in front of a screen playing games each week can increase brain activity and boost cognitive skills needed for decision making.

Video games can be used as a training method to improve decision-making in the brain, according to a study.

"Video games are played by the overwhelming majority of our youth more than three hours every week, but the beneficial effects on decision-making abilities and the brain are not exactly known."

Some answers are provided by our work.

The fMRI was used to measure neural activity in 47 college-age participants made up of 28 people who regularly played video games and 19 people who didn't. People who played mostly real-time games, such as real-time strategy, first-person shooters or team-styled 'arena' or 'royal' battles, were the ones who played the most.

The volunteers were told to press the buttons if they saw a series of dots moving. The fMRI scans showed that regular video game players had increased activity in certain parts of their brains.

The right lingual gyrus, the left thalamus, and the right supplementary motor area are thought to be involved in cognitive processing.

The results show that video game playing could improve decision-making skills by enhancing sensation, perception and mapping to action.

At five years old, Jordan was asked to cover his good eye and play video games with his weaker one in order to strengthen his visual processing.

Jordan went from being legally blind in one eye to being able to see paintball thanks to the training.

It could be used to strengthen sensorimotor decision making as well.

While the link between video gaming and cognitive boost isn't new, with each piece of research we get closer to understanding it and figuring out how we might be able to use the positive impacts of video gaming.

Once the relevant brain networks are identified, video game playing can be used for training.

The research has appeared in a journal.