How mind accepts the impacts of video games
Video gaming is a common type of entertainment, with 3 billion hours spent in front of screens each week by video gamers. Scientists have investigated how video games influence the brain and actions due to their extensive use. Are these results beneficial or harmful? We explore the facts.
Over 150 million people in the United States play video games every week or for at least 3 hours on the surface. The average gamer in the United States is 35 years old, with 72 percent of players being 18 or older. When it comes to children’s video game use, the majority of parents (71%) agree that video games have a positive effect on their child’s life.
Year after year, video game revenues continue to grow. More than 24.5 billion video games were sold in 2016, up from 23.2 billion in 2015 and 21.4 billion in 2014.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Grand Theft Auto V were the top three best-selling video games in 2016. These games fall into two genres: first-person shooter or action-adventure, which account for 27.5 percent and 22.5 percent of overall sales, respectively. The first-person shooter and action styles are often accused of inciting aggression and addiction.
Scientists have been unable to find a consensus after decades of research into video games and crime. Scientists have failed to establish a connection between playing video games and real-world violence.
Brain changes as a result of video games
However, a growing body of evidence indicates that video gaming can affect the brain and cause changes in several brain regions. Scientists recently compiled and analyzed the findings of 116 experimental research to understand better how video games affect our brains and behaviors. Their results were published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
“Games have been celebrated and vilified in the past, with no facts to back up the arguments. Furthermore, since gaming is such a common sport, everybody seems to have strong feelings about it,” says Marc Palaus, the review’s first author.
Palaus and his colleagues wanted to see whether any patterns had arisen on how video games affect the brain’s development and function by reviewing all previous studies. A total of 22 studies looked at structural changes in the brain. In contrast, another 100 looked at changes in brain functioning and behavior.
According to the findings, playing video games alters how our brains function and their structure.
Video game use, for example, has been shown to influence focus. According to the study’s research, video game players excel in many forms of stress, including sustained and selective attention. Furthermore, gamers’ attention-related brain regions are more effective than non-gamers”, needing less stimulation to remain focused on challenging tasks.
Playing video games often increases the size and expertise of parts of the brain responsible for visuospatial abilities or recognizing visual and spatial relationships among objects. The right hippocampus was expanded in long-term players and people who volunteered to adopt a video game training plan.
Researchers have discovered that online games can be addictive, leading to “Internet gaming disorder.”
The neural reward system – a collection of structures correlated with experiencing pleasure, learning, and motivation – has functional and structural changes in gaming addicts. These changes were discovered by exposing video game addicts to game-related signals. These signals trigger cravings and tracking their brain responses – changes that are often seen in other addiction disorders.
“We concentrated on how the brain responds to video game exposure,” Palaus says, “but these findings do not necessarily translate to real-life changes.” The study of the effects of video gaming is still in its early stages. Scientists are still trying to figure out which elements we must accept and how.
“It is important that we accept this difficulty because video games are likely to have both positive (on focus, visual, and motor skills) and negative (on the chance of addiction) aspects,” Palaus continues.
Is it true that brain-training games are beneficial
According to a group of researchers from Florida State University, people should be wary of advertisements that claim that playing brain training games improves brain performance. They’veThey’ve said that science doesn’t back up their arguments.
“Our results and previous research confirm that there is very little proof that these types of games can change your life in a significant way,” says Wally Boot. An authority on age-related cognitive impairment and associate professor of psychology.
People increasingly believe that using brain-training apps can protect them from memory loss and cognitive disorders. Researchers examined whether playing brain-training games enhanced players working memory. So other cognitive abilities such as reasoning, memory, and processing speed – a phenomenon known as “far transition.” “It is possible to train people to become extremely good at tasks. These tasks would include memory tasks, such as memorizing 70, 80, or even 100 digits,” says Neil Charness, a psychology professor and a leading expert on aging and cognition.
“However, these abilities are usually fundamental and do not translate well. Is getting good at crossword puzzles will help me remember where my key is going to help me remember And, most likely, the answer is no.
If your goal is to enhance cognitive performance, Charness suggests that aerobic exercise can be beneficial. According to specific findings, physical exercise, rather than mental activity, strengthens the brain.