How computer games affect our brains

Scientists have found that computer games directly affect your brain and can cause certain changes in it. No, during the games you will not be programmed by a secret organization in order to force everything to collapse on a conditional signal. But you will not turn into a superman with incredible intelligence. Everything is more prosaic, but no less interesting.

What is our life? A game!

Almost everyone plays video games today. And do not pretend that you do not belong to these "everyone", we still will not believe it. After all, playing is not necessary to sit at the monitor for a day, fighting with the army of orcs of Vasya’s neighbor on a local network. If you queued a game of chess from a smartphone or sometimes you allow yourself a toy like “Plants vs. Zombies”, then you are also an object of research by scientists.

And scientists say that the average age of a computer game lover in 2016 has grown to 35 years. A large number of studies are also being conducted to find out how this important part of human life affects a person. Recently, a group of scientists gathered and analyzed the results of 116 scientific studies on this topic. They concluded that playing video games can change not only how our brains work, but even their structure.

Better with attention, but worse with self-control.

For example, studies have shown that avid gamers show improvements in several types of attention, such as continuous or selective. This affects the brain: its areas responsible for attention are more effective among gamers and are more easily activated to solve complex problems.

There is also evidence that video games can increase the size and effectiveness of areas of the brain associated with visuospatial orientation. The right hippocampus responsible for this function has been expanded for both experienced players and volunteers as part of training programs through video games.

But not everything is so rosy. Video games can also be highly addictive: this addiction is called an “internet gaming disorder”. Researchers have discovered functional and structural changes in the neural reward system of game addicts. The signals during the game cause them cravings and control neural reactions. In this, the mechanism of gambling addiction is similar to other types of addiction.