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In comparison to children who had never played video games, those youngsters who said they played video games for three hours or more each day on average outperformed those who had never played video games on tests of working memory and impulse control. This study, which was just published in JAMA Network Open, examined information from the continuing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study(link is external), funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and other National Institutes of Health organizations.
Nora Volkow, M.D., the director of NIDA, stated that “this study adds to our growing understanding of the links between playing video games and brain development.” Many research have connected video games to issues with behavior and mental health. This study raises the possibility that this well-liked activity has cognitive advantages as well, which need further study.
The neurological mechanisms underpinning the links between video gaming and cognitive behavior have been the subject of numerous studies, however they are not fully understood. This topic has only been covered in a few neuroimaging studies, and the sample sizes for those studies were modest, with less than 80 people. Researchers at the University of Vermont, Burlington, examined data gathered when kids between the ages of 9 and 10 were enrolled in the ABCD study to close this knowledge gap.
A large study cohort of about 2,000 participants’ survey, cognitive, and brain imaging data were analyzed by the research team. These kids were split into two groups. One group claimed he did not play any video games at all, while the other claimed he did so for at least three hours each day. This cutoff point was chosen since it surpasses the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations for screen usage (link is external).
They also noticed that the differences in brain activity between the two groups matched the disparities in cognitive function. compared to kids who did not play the game at all, showed increased brain activity in regions of the brain related to attention and memory. Additionally, children who played video games for more than three hours per day had less activity in the visual regions of the brain and higher activity in frontal brain regions linked to more cognitively demanding tasks.
Researchers assessed the child’s performance on her two tasks for each group, which revealed their capacity to restrain impulsive behavior and recall knowledge, as well as the child’s brain activity during the tasks. Children who reported playing video games for more than three hours a day performed both cognitive tasks faster and more accurately than kids who did not play at all, according to research.