6 scientific benefits of playing video games

Not only can playing a video game be a whole lot of fun, but recent research has revealed there’s also a range of scientific benefits to gaming – everything from increasing brain matter to pain relief.

Here are six of the best benefits to tell your friends next time you blow off drinks to game:

1. 3D video games could increase memory capacity: In a 2015 study in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from the University of California, Irvine recruited 69 participants, and asked a third to play Super Mario 3D World for two weeks, a third to play Angry Birds, and the rest to play nothing.
“Because of their engaging experiences and enriching 3D virtual environments, the same video games that have been played for decades by children and adults alike may actually provide our brain with meaningful stimulation,” the researchers wrote.
The people who played Mario ended up doing better on follow-up memory tasks, while the others showed no improvement pre- and post-gaming.

2. Gaming could be good for pain relief: This one is the best excuse for playing video games on your next sick day – a 2012 literature review published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that in the 38 studies examined, video games improved the health outcomes of 195 patients on every front, including psychological and physical therapy.

3. There’s evidence games help dyslexic kids improve their reading: Video games can help kids, too! A 2013 study published in Cell investigated the effect that playing action games, like ‘Rayman Raving Rabbids’, could help dyslexic children aged 7 to 13 year read faster, with no loss in accuracy.The results were equal or better to traditional reading treatments, which can be more time consuming and not as fun.

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4. Tetris could help limit trauma: Trusty old Tetris might be good for more than just time wasting if this new study is anything to go by. Last year, 37 patients that arrived at a hospital emergency department in Oxford, UK, to be treated for a traffic accident were randomly selected to play 20 minutes of Tetris. Another 34 patients didn’t get given the game, but were asked to log their regular activity instead – including things such as texting, crosswords, and reading.
The Tetris players had significantly less flashbacks to the traumatic traffic event than those that didn’t – about 62 percent less on average.

5. Some research shows that video games might actually make you smarter: A study published in PLoS ONE in 2013 goes as far as saying that your cognition might be enhanced when you start up your Xbox or PlayStation. The researchers took five groups of non-gamers, and made them play a phone game for one hour a day over four weeks.
They found that all video games, both action and non-action games, improved cognitive function in the participants – measured by tests such as short term memory tasks.

6. Gaming is linked to an increase in brain matter: And finally – a 2014 study published in Molecular Psychiatry by researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany from the found that playing Super Mario 64 caused an increase in the size of brain regions. Specifically the bits of the brain responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation, strategic planning, and fine motor skills.

 

 

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