Scientific study proves the benefits of playing games! Unlike what many parents might imagine, video games they are not bad creations to make the minds of children and adults strange. On the contrary: in addition to having great potential for fun, recent research has revealed that there are also a range of scientific benefits to playing video games – from increasing brain matter to even relieving pain.
To get an idea, through a 2015 study in Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California recruited 69 participants, and asked a third of them to play Super Mario World 3D for two weeks, a third to play Angry Birds and the rest not to play at all.
“Because of their immersive experiences and enriched 3D virtual environments, the same video games that have been played for decades by children and adults can benefit our brains with significant stimulation,” wrote the researchers.
Also, people who played Super Mario ended up doing better in memory tracking tasks, while others showed no improvement pre- and post-game. “Video game players, specifically the more complex 3D games, performed better,” they concluded.
A review of the literature published in 2012 in American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that in 38 studies examined, video games improved the health outcomes of 195 patients on all fronts, including ailments. psychological and physicists.
Also, in 2010, scientists presented research at the American Pain Society conference, which found evidence that video games, especially virtual reality games, are effective in reducing anxiety or pain caused by chronic illnesses or medical procedures.
“The focus is on the game, not pain or the medical procedure, while the virtual reality experience involves vision and other senses,” says Jeffrey Gold of the University of Southern California.
Another 2013 study investigated the fact that gambling action games could help dyslexic children ages 7-13 read faster without loss of accuracy. The results were equal to or better than traditional reading treatments, which can be more time-consuming and not as fun. The researchers believe that the fast pace of these games helped children to increase their attention, although this hypothesis has not yet been tested.
Finally, another study published in 2014 in Molecular Psychiatry by researchers from the Institute Max Planck in Germany showed that people played Super Mario 64 had an increase in the size of brain regions.
Specifically in the parts of the brain responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation, strategic planning, and fine motor skills. When researchers analyzed 24 participants who had played the game for 30 minutes daily for two months under an MRI machine they found that they had increased gray matter in the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and cerebellum, compared to a control group that hadn't played any games.
With Additional Information: ScienceAlert
