Gaming grows your brain

A new study has found a positive link between the amount of time playing video games and the thickness of certain areas of the brain.

The study, which was posted on Plos One, also found that frequent video game playing contributed to improvements in cognitive function – such as learning and problem solving.

“In magnetic resonance imaging scans of 152 14-year old adolescents, FreeSurfer was used to estimate cortical thickness. Cortical thickness across the whole cortical surface was correlated with self-reported duration of video gaming (hours per week). A robust positive association between cortical thickness and video gaming duration was observed in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left frontal eye fields (FEFs),” an abstract from the study read.

The DLPFC is involved in decision making and strategic planning, and the FEFs are important for eye movement and allocating visuo-spatial attention. Both of these areas are therefore extensively involved in processes important for playing video games. The team didn’t find any cortical thinning in association with video gaming.

The scientists suggested a continuation of this research could consider the specific genres of game played, as this was not taken into account in this particular study.

Who knows, perhaps playing Call of Duty may enlarge these areas of the brain to a greater extent than FIFA.