Page 28 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

Science
Discoveries

“Video games

are continually

challenging our

skills, making

the brain perform

at 100 per cent

of its capacity”

N E U RO S CI E N C E

ABOVE: Do video games change the brain? Different studies have reached
Do computer
games make you different conclusions, so Marc Palaus, a neuroscientist at Spain’s
more violent, or
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, reviewed the research
just more cleverer?

Do video games affect behaviour? games on the brain had been published, but all that information
Video games are likely able to affect the way we had not been put together until now.
behave in a number of ways. For instance, there’s
concern about whether violence in games makes How did you review the research?
young people more violent. It’s not uncommon We gathered all scientific articles to date and compared results.
for news outlets to blame games every time In total, we found 116 experiments, the first from the 1980s. Many PHOTOS: GAMESPRESS, GETTY ILLUSTRATION: DAN BRIGHT
a crime happens, but how true is that claim? compared regular video game players with people who had never
This is controversial even within the scientific played; others trained people in a game for several weeks and
community. Yes, exposure to violence seems to studied its effects. Changes in the brain were measured using
affect the brain, but studies have also found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or electroencephalography
we’re good at distinguishing between real and (EEG), which detect whether brain regions increase or reduce
virtual violence, and aggressive behaviour is in size, and how this affects their activity.
better explained by other, mainly socio-economic
28 factors. Numerous studies about the effects of Are games bad for the brain?
OCTOBER 2017