A recent study suggests that video gaming could be associated with improved cognitive abilities involving response inhibition and working memory, and with alterations in underlying cortical pathways.
The pastime has grown considerably over the past 20 years, and in tandem, the demographic makeup of gamers has also been rapidly changing. In children aged two to 17 years, a large 2022 survey in the US showed that 71% play video games, an increase of 4% since 2018. Given the substantial brain development that occurs during childhood and adolescence, these trends have led researchers to investigate associations between gaming and cognition and mental health.
Most psychological and behavioural studies suggest detrimental associations of video gaming, linking it to subsequent increases in depression, violence and aggressive behaviour in children after accounting for prior aggression.
However, researchers have been divided with respect to whether playing video games is associated with cognitive skills and brain function. In contrast to the negative associations with mental health, video gaming has been proposed to enhance cognitive flexibility by providing skills that can be transferred to various cognitive tasks relevant for everyday life.
One formulation for this broad transfer is that video gaming shares a number of perceptual and attentional demands (such as multiple object tracking, rapid attentional switches and peripheral vision) with common cognitive tasks and can enhance reaction time (RT), creativity, problem solving and logic.
It has also, previously, been found to be associated with attentional benefits including improvements in bottom-up and top-down attention, optimisation of attentional resources, integration between attentional and sensorimotor areas, and improvements in selective and peripheral visual attention.
Video gamers (VGs) may also benefit from an enhanced visuospatial working memory capacity, according to Boot et al, who found that in a study involving 2 217 children, VGs outperformed non-VGs (NVGs) on various visuospatial working memory tasks, such as multiple object tracking, mental rotation and change detection. Working memory improvements were similarly found after video game training in experimental vs control group research designs.
This finding is consistent with other studies suggesting that even short video game training paradigms can enhance cognitive control–related functions for long durations, such as reading abilities in dyslexic children and, more particularly, working memory.
The recent study, undertaken by Professor Bader Chaarani and colleagues from the University of Vermont and published in JAMA Network Open, found that video gaming improves cognitive abilities that involve response inhibition and working memory, and altering their underlying cortical pathways.
Study details
Association of Video Gaming With Cognitive Performance Among Children
Bader Chaarani, Joseph Ortigara, MS1; DeKang Yuan, MS1; et al
Published in JAMA Network Open on 26 October 2022
Key Points
Question What is the association between video gaming and cognition in children?
Findings As part of the national Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study and after controlling for confounding effects, results of this case-control study of 2217 children showed enhanced cognitive performance in children who played video games vs those who did not. Clear blood oxygen level–dependent signal differences were associated with video gaming in task-related brain regions during inhibition control and working memory.
Meaning These findings suggest that video gaming may be associated with improved cognitive abilities involving response inhibition and working memory and with alterations in underlying cortical pathways.
Abstract
Importance
Although most research has linked video gaming to subsequent increases in aggressive behavior in children after accounting for prior aggression, findings have been divided with respect to video gaming’s association with cognitive skills.
Objective
To examine the association between video gaming and cognition in children using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
Design, Setting, and Participants
In this case-control study, cognitive performance and blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) signal were compared in video gamers (VGs) and non–video gamers (NVGs) during response inhibition and working memory using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a large data set of 9- and 10-year-old children from the ABCD study, with good control of demographic, behavioural, and psychiatric confounding effects. A sample from the baseline assessment of the ABCD 2.0.1 release in 2019 was largely recruited across 21 sites in the US through public, private, and charter elementary schools using a population neuroscience approach to recruitment, aiming to mirror demographic variation in the US population. Children with valid neuroimaging and behavioural data were included. Some exclusions included common MRI contraindications, history of major neurologic disorders, and history of traumatic brain injury.
Exposures
Participants completed a self-reported screen time survey including an item asking children to report the time specifically spent on video gaming. All fMRI tasks were performed by all participants.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Video gaming time, cognitive performance, and BOLD signal assessed with n-back and stop signal tasks on fMRI. Collected data were analysed between October 2019 and October 2020.
Results
A total of 2217 children (mean [SD] age, 9.91 [0.62] years; 1399 [63.1%] female) participated in this study. The final sample used in the stop signal task analyses consisted of 1128 NVGs (0 gaming hours per week) and 679 VGs who played at least 21 hours per week. The final sample used in the n-back analyses consisted of 1278 NVGs who had never played video games (0 hours per week of gaming) and 800 VGs who played at least 21 hours per week. The VGs performed better on both fMRI tasks compared with the NVGs. Nonparametric analyses of fMRI data demonstrated a greater BOLD signal in VGs in the precuneus during inhibitory control. During working memory, a smaller BOLD signal was observed in VGs in parts of the occipital cortex and calcarine sulcus and a larger BOLD signal in the cingulate, middle, and frontal gyri and the precuneus.
Conclusions and Relevance
In this study, compared with NVGs, VGs were found to exhibit better cognitive performance involving response inhibition and working memory as well as altered BOLD signal in key regions of the cortex responsible for visual, attention, and memory processing. The findings are consistent with videogaming improving cognitive abilities that involve response inhibition and working memory and altering their underlying cortical pathways.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK study finds no evidence that violent video games trigger real-life violence
UK takes action on ‘addictive’ computer games and technologies
Online gaming addiction in men affects brain's impulse control
Limiting children’s screen time linked to better cognition