Page 18 - BBC Focus - August 2017

DISCOVERIES

NE UR O S C I E N C E

“Video games are continually

challenging our skills, making the brain

perform at 100 per cent of its capacity”

Do video games change the brain? Different studies have reached
different conclusions, so Marc Palaus, a neuroscientist at Spain’s
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, reviewed the research

ABOVE: Do computer games Do video games affect behaviour? electroencephalography (EEG), which detect
make you more violent, or
just more cleverer? Video games are likely able to affect the way we whether brain regions increase or reduce in size,
behave in a number of ways. For instance, there’s and how it affects their activity.
concern about whether violence in games makes
young people more violent. It’s not uncommon for Are games bad for the brain?
news outlets to blame games every time a crime The clearest negative impact is the risk of abuse
happens, but how true is that claim? and addiction by people with predisposing
This is controversial even within the scientific personality traits. Video games can affect the
community. Yes, exposure to violence seems to reward circuits, containing the pleasure centres
affect the brain, but studies have also found that of the brain. This in turn could affect other brain
we’re good at distinguishing between real and functions in the frontal lobe, possibly affecting
virtual violence, and aggressive behaviour is the capacity for planning, inhibiting
better explained by other, mainly socio-economic distractions and mental problem-solving.
factors. Numerous studies about the effects of games Games that heavily rely on online multiplayer
on the brain had been published, but all that modes are the most associated with addiction,
information had not been put together until now. due to social interactions being more rewarding
than just playing against the computer.
How did you review the research?
We gathered all scientific articles to date and Can games be good for you?
compared results. In total, we found 116 Since video games usually display increasing PHOTOS: GAMESPRESS, GETTY ILLUSTRATION: DAN BRIGHT
experiments, the first from the 1980s. Many levels of difficulty, they are continually
compared regular video game players with people challenging our skills, making the brain
who had never played; others trained people in a perform at 100 per cent of its capacity, resulting
game for several weeks and studied its effects. in effective cognitive training.
Changes in the brain were measured using Various mental functions seem to benefit from
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or this effect. Of these, attention is the most

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