Parents often think they are a waste of time, but playing video games can actually develop children’s intelligence.
One study found that those who gamble an average of three or more hours a day performed better on cognitive and memory tests than their peers.
Gaming has long been associated with violence, antisocial behavior and health problems among young people.
However, researchers have found that it may actually be beneficial for children’s brain development.
The teens’ brains were scanned while they completed a series of tests testing their reaction time, problem solving and memory.
The children not only achieved better values, but also showed more activity in the brain regions responsible for the respective function.
dr Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which funded the study, said, “Numerous studies have linked video games to behavioral and mental health problems.
“This study suggests that this popular pastime may also have cognitive benefits worthy of further investigation.”
Researchers found that children ages nine to 10 who played an average of three or more hours a day performed better on cognitive and memory tests (file photo)
It is estimated that more than six out of ten children in the US and UK play video games.
In the study, published today in the journal JAMA Network Open, scientists from the University of Vermont analyzed data from 2,078 American children.
The children were asked how long they played video games each day and then divided into two groups.
A total of 1,278 said they had never played video games, while 800 said they played them for at least three hours a day.
Gaming “can be DEADLY for kids”
They are popular for getting the adrenaline pumping without taking the risk of war.
But action-packed games like Call of Duty can be deadly for kids with heart problems, scientists warn.
Electronic gaming can trigger life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias in children with no history of health problems, a landmark study has found.
Experts say adrenaline rushes from the excitement of gaming can be deadly for some teens with often undiagnosed heart problems.
Researchers at the Heart Center for Children in Sydney, Australia, studied the cases of 22 children who suffered sudden loss of consciousness while playing video games.
They found that multiplayer war games were the most common trigger, leading to an “emotionally charged” state among players.
Some children have died after cardiac arrest with multiple cardiac arrhythmias later diagnosed, putting the surviving children at continued risk if they continue to gamble.
For comparison, the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) says children shouldn’t play for more than two hours a day.
Each child received a functional MRI scan to measure their brain activity.
During the scan, participants lay face up in a long tubular magnet and wore digital glasses that resemble a VR headset.
They completed two tests that were shown to them with the glasses.
In the first task, known as the stop signal task, participants looked for arrows pointing left or right and pressed an appropriate button when they saw them.
They were also instructed not to press anything when shown an arrow pointing up.
The second – known as the “n-back” test – asked children to memorize an image of a building and then press a button when they saw a match for it in a stream of cards shown to them.
In the Arrow test, the reaction times for players were significantly faster than for non-players.
It took non-gamers an average of 307 milliseconds (ms) to stop when shown an up arrow, compared to 299 ms for non-gamers.
It also took them about 550ms to press the right button after seeing a left or right arrow, compared to 515ms in the player group.
In the picture test, it took non-players 1070 ms to press the button saying they had watched a match, while players took 1021 ms.
There are 1,000 milliseconds in a second.
Scans showed that children who played video games had, on average, more activity in the precuneus region of the brain — linked to attention and memory.
They also had more activity in the gyri — which can also be linked to impulse suppression — than those in the non-gaming group.
The researchers said that playing the games can improve attention and impulse control because the games require practicing these skills.
The chart above shows response times between players (orange) and non-players (blue). Graph A shows the time it takes to stop in a test, while Graph B shows the time it takes to perform an action after a specific stimulus is presented. Graph D shows the time it took to explain a match after being shown an image that matched another they had to memorize
The above is the stop signal task test. Above, it shows how the scientists wanted to measure the time that elapsed between the display of a cue – an arrow pointing left or right – and the corresponding button being pressed. In the second test, they measured the time it took children to stop when shown an arrow pointing up
dr Bader Chaarani, a psychiatrist at Vermont University who led the study, said, “Many parents today are concerned about the impact of video games on their children’s health and development.
“As these games continue to spread among young people, it is crucial that we better understand both the positive and negative impacts such games can have.”
He added, “Although we cannot say whether regular video game play results in superior neurocognitive performance, this is an encouraging finding that we need to investigate further in these children as they transition into adolescence and adulthood.”
The study was observational, meaning it couldn’t prove whether the improved intelligence was due to video games or some other factor.
It also didn’t break down games by category — like action or strategy — or whether they were single-player or multiplayer, which could affect results.
Children were recruited for the study from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), which follows children to examine the effects on brain development.
Data was analyzed between October 2019 and October 2020.