Playing video games as a child is proven to bring lasting improvement in cognitive ability

A large number of studies have shown that playing video games leads to changes in brain structure, including increasing the size of certain areas, or leading to functional changes, such as activating areas responsible for attention or visuospatial skills. The latest research from the University of Catalonia’s Oberta (UOC) further shows that if people only play video games as a child, cognitive changes can occur. This is one of the conclusions of the paper published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. The study involved 27 people between the ages of 18 and 40, some of whom had never touched video games. 

Dr. Marc Palaus (Dr. Marc Palaus) said: "The rest are avid gamers before puberty. Although they no longer play games now, they perform better in working memory tasks. They also have higher concentration and information acquisition capabilities."

The results show that people who have experience with video games in childhood can benefit from optimizing brain processing and suppressing irrelevant stimuli. Conversely, people who do not play games have slower reaction time, which is consistent with earlier research.

Similarly, "People who play regularly have performed better in handling 3D tasks from the beginning, although after video game training, the two groups showed similar levels and the differences were alleviated."

Combined with transcranial magnetic stimulation, the study lasted one month and the researchers evaluated the participants’ cognitive skills, including working memory, in three stages: before the video game training began, at the end of the training, and fifteen days later. The video game used is Nintendo’s Super Mario 64.