How Video Games Effect The Brain?

Just like hookup sites, the gaming industry is a behemoth. It generates more than $25 billion in revenue per year, and video games are played by roughly 2 billion people worldwide. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer that plays video games daily or someone who only turns on their console to relax, video games’ brain influences should be radically eminent.

Video gaming can be an escape from reality and can provide an outlet for competitive and social behaviour. Video games brain research shows that gaming has both positive and negative effects on gamers’ mental health. There’s still much research being done about gaming and its relationship with the brain. This article will give you some insight into how video games affect your brain. Read on to learn more.

Surprising Impacts of Video Gaming on Human Brain

Virtual gaming is a great way to wind down and take your mind off of things. It offers more benefits than just an escape from reality. Video games can improve cognitive function in the brain by increasing memory, focus, problem-solving skills, and spatial awareness. That said, let’s take a quick look at a few video games brain benefits that’ll surprise you:

1. Memory Boosting

Whether you’re playing your favourite video game using your computer or console, the navigation will always require some serious concentration and strategy. As a gaming enthusiast, you certainly understand how important it is to engage your brain into remembering your next step or where to pick crucial resources in your particular game.

Operating the virtual world of a gaming environment is quite similar to exploring the real world. Navigating the intriguing gaming world can have a positive impact on your brain and memory. In fact, by balancing multiple goals and tasks while gaming, you’re exercising your hippocampus. Hippocampus is an essential part of your brain responsible for transforming short-memories to long-memories and regulating spatial memory.

Challenging video gaming will improve and keep your hippocampus sturdy when it comes to video games’ brain development. This will enhance your long-term memory and make you better at navigating the real world. A study shows that when a non-gamer plays a complex 3D game (at least 30 minutes per day), their brain will develop, and memory increase over time.

1. Perception and Vision

When a game reaches a complex virtual space with competing stimuli, your brain develops a perceptual template to help you know what’s essential and what’s not. The created perceptual template allows you to evaluate and respond to the situation accordingly. A study shows that action-related gaming can improve your ability to generate perceptual templates.

Some video games can also help improve your ability to differentiate patterns and diverse shades of gray. Another study suggests that if you play about 5.5 hours of high-action games weekly for nine weeks, you’ll achieve a 43% improvement in your contrast sensitivity.

Your brain will gain the ability to process virtual stimuli more efficiently, and this perception improvement can last for months after noticing it initially. Video games’ brain affects the list of valuable real-life benefits you’ll get from your improved perception. For instance, it’ll help you obtain the ability to keep excellent track of someone in a crowd or locate something you’ve dropped in the grass.

1. Mood Improvement

We all know virtual gaming is for fun, but it can also be beneficial to your mood. Studies show that gaming can improve your cognitive function when it comes to video games’ brain activity. This means video gaming can help you feel better and improve your mood. Video game playing has been linked with reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms.

The most challenging and profoundly immersive video games can be therapeutic. They can be a perfect way to give your brain a break from daily life stressors and anxiety. If you’re feeling stressed and play your favorite video game for an hour or two, it’ll help lift your spirits, forget about your worries and enhance your brain function.

1. Learning and Stimulating Your Brain

Generally, your video games’ brain function is actively working and growing when you’re playing. When you stay focused trying to figure out how it works or complete a complex puzzle to reach the next level, you’re creating new bonds in your mind. As you become motivated to beat the game, your brain will be working extra hard, and the more it works, the more you’ll be learning.

Constant learning and brain stimulation are crucial to keeping your brain active and healthy as you age. Additionally, most video games are designed to offer different historical genres. When playing, you’re having fun and learning history at the same time. When you keep enjoying the storylines of these games, you may be motivated to research and learn more about them on your own, which is excellent for your brain.

1. Improve Problem-Solving Capacities

Almost every video gaming genre involves problem-solving, whether finding the easiest escape route or completing a puzzle. Your role-playing in a video game challenges you to solve complicated problems, which puts your brain active at work. These problems can involve memorization, analysis, and a little creativity to solve them.

Obstacles in most video games are typically open-ended with minimal instructions, meaning you’ll have to play with trial and error. Failing to solve a video game puzzle several times in a row and not giving up is an ideal video game brain training. That’ll help you gain the capability to be resilient and persistent when solving some real-life problems.

Bottom Line

This article explores how video games affect the brain. Gaming has gone from being seen as just entertainment to a tool that can be used for therapeutic purposes. That is why it makes sense to explore the trending topic of video games’ brain health.

Research shows that video gaming positively affects your brain activity since it stimulates certain parts of the cortex that are typically associated with attention span and problem-solving skills. Do you spend a portion of your free time playing a video game? Do you notice any positive impact on your brain or memory? What do you think about video games’ brain waves? Feel free to use the comment section below to share your views and ask any questions.

Authors bio

Rebecca Shinn is a freelance writer and dating and relationship expert with a psychology degree. Her field of expertise is relationship, dating, and marriage. The important part of Rebecca’s practice is to help couples with communication skills, problem-solving skills, stress management, or financial skills. Rebecca started writing 2 years ago to inspire and help people to have a better dating life, healthy relationships, or find a way to keep a marriage strong for long years. With all said above, Rebecca is proud to be a mother and a wife so she doesn’t only use her knowledge for helping others but keeping her family strong and happy.