How computer games strengthen the brain

In the late 90s, we edited in our lab At the University of Rochester, studies designed to test the somewhat unusual idea that even the adult brain is capable of growing new cells or rewiring itself in response to new experiences, a biological process called neuroplasticity, or neural plasticity. As part of this research, one of us (Green), who was then an 18-year-old student and laboratory assistant, programmed a computerized psychological test that assesses the subject's ability to find a certain shape against a busy visual background.

Green started testing himself. When he was done, he insisted that there was a bug in the software that he couldn't find. Based on previously published research on these types of tests, his results should have been far from perfect, but he repeatedly managed to achieve flawless scores. His supervisor (Babilia) began to worry because of the delay. "Why don't you stop running the test on yourself and test participants who have not yet tried the task?" a question.

A few days later, Green reported that the freshmen he had recruited also performed perfectly. Bablia, who decided to solve the mystery that very day, asked to perform the test herself. Her performance was far from perfect, matching the expected average. When she asked Green who were the participants he recruited, he replied that they were some of his close friends.

Our team spent some time trying to understand why Green and his friends were so successful in the mission. In the end we were able to isolate one main difference: each of the group members played more than 10 hours a week on the computer game Team Fortress Classic, which then went on the market.

This discovery immediately raised an interesting question: can playing "mindless" in computer games where the main goal is to overcome zombies, aliens, monsters and other evils, really lead to such significant improvements in cognitive skills? What started as a search for a software bug turned into a new research direction: assessing the impact of computer games on both brain and behavior.

When we started these studies, no one put computer games of the type that involve intense shooting at the top of any list of activities that are supposed to improve brain function. But in the 15 years since then, our research and that of other laboratories around the world have shown that such action games can positively change some cognitive aspects.

In the course of research, both we and other teams have discovered that computer games improve a variety of skills. People who played them regularly showed an improved ability to focus on visual details, an ability useful in reading the fine print on contracts or drug leaflets. They also had higher contrast sensitivity, which can help when driving in heavy fog. Gamers who played action games could also more accurately rotate objects in their mind's eye, and thereby better decide how to fit a bulky couch into a loaded delivery truck. It was also easier for them to quickly switch attention between several tasks, for example when conducting a conversation in a restaurant while reading the menu.

The idea of ​​computer games as a means of learning may seem surprising to those who remember the hearing in the US Congress, in the early 90s, where allegations were made of negative effects among children who played games such as Mortal Kombat. The current studies do not support these concerns in the context of cognitive performance, although there is still concern that the games encourage aggression or addiction. Now that researchers have begun to understand how certain video games improve players' cognition, by improving attention and reaction times, they have also begun designing non-violent games for people with brain injuries or cognitive disabilities. In fact, such programs may be more effective than "brain-improving games" that are currently offered on television and the Internet.

Strengthening the brain

The stereotype of players Call Of Duty and other action games is for impulsive people who are easily distracted. Our research contradicts this old-fashioned prejudice: gamers immersed in the fast-paced events of digital fantasy worlds achieve real cognitive benefits.

Most of our research has focused on how action games affect players' attention: the mental processes that lead to finding relevant information in the environment. Studies in the field of attention have been conducted since psychology became a science, in the 19th century. the games Call Of Duty and-Medal of honor have now become a research tool, thanks to their ability to improve attention. The player must intentionally switch between a state of mental focus and monitoring the battlefield for potential enemies, what psychologists call focused attention and distracted attention.

Our research has shown that fighting waves of zombies requires players to ignore distracting information, otherwise they will lose. Players recognize targets better than non-players and are able to avoid distractions from single events that occur during the game. The zombies always come one after the other, and a player who focuses on chasing one and only zombie will be attacked by hordes of others.

In one of the studies, we used a well-known psychological test to demonstrate the players' preferred attention skills in action games. In this test, subjects are exposed to a series of letters, among which are randomly scattered digits. Each item appears on the screen for one hundred thousandths of a second, faster than the blink of an eye. Most of the non-player subjects easily recognized the first digit that appeared, but if another digit came shortly after, they often did not notice it at all. This is a psychological phenomenon called "attention barrier". Some of the experienced gamers, on the other hand, hardly blink, and they recognize every digit that appears.

Brain scans provide further evidence of the benefits of action games. Large areas of the cerebral cortex, whose role is to regulate attention, work in a different way in gamers. These areas include the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which helps in maintaining attention for a long time, the the apical shell, which shifts the attention between different goals, and Belt twisting, an area of ​​the cerebral cortex that serves as a focal point for monitoring one's own behavior.

faster and faster

People who play action games on the computer, such as Burnout and-Grand Theft Auto, gain not only an increased ability to concentrate. As their skills improve, the faster they process the information in the torrent of events in the game. In the eyes of psychologists, the speed of processing information is a key measure of the efficiency of cognitive function, and it seems that action games are an excellent way to shorten reaction times. The player must decide, within a second or so, whether a certain moving object in the game is an enemy or a friend, and if it is an enemy, which weapon to choose, where to aim and when to shoot.

More effective control of attention affects many aspects of neural processing. It ensures that the brain will be able to extract more visual, audio and other information regarding the task at hand, and on the other hand will be able to ignore sources of noise and distractions. At the highest level of cognitive processing, a person can show great flexibility in shifting focused attention between different tasks. All these are not just the results of laboratory experiments: better control of attention helps in adapting to new situations and, in general, accelerates learning processes.

In order for us to make a clear statement about the effects of these games, we had to demonstrate unequivocally that the benefit from the computer games was real, meaning that the players' improved attention and reaction times were due to the action of the game. After all, apparently it is also possible that these games simply attract people with extraordinary attention, and then such people will excel both in the game and in cognitive function.

In experiments designed to show a true causal relationship, scientists recruit a group of people who have almost never played computer games. They pass preliminary tests of cognitive skills, and then the group is divided into two at random. The experimental group plays an action game, while the control group engages in social games, or another game that is not an action game. Each team is required to play one hour a day, five days a week, over several weeks. A few days after this training period, the participants again pass the same psychological tests they passed before. The results consistently show that the cognitive abilities of the participants in the group that played action games improved more than the cognitive abilities of the control group.

Such controlled studies allow researchers to rule out other factors that may explain the improvements obtained in each group, for example, the possibility that simply repeating the psychological test leads to an improvement in the results. These studies also showed that not all computer games have the same effect. Action games that emphasize attention, cognitive flexibility and speed resulted in clear improvements. Games that are not action games, and that do not rely on these cognitive processes, did not result in a significant improvement. Also, the positive findings do not encourage a lot of sitting in front of the computer: there is no need for long hours of gaming every day, because our subjects showed cognitive improvement after short daily periods of gaming.

There are also other types of computer games that also result in similar cognitive improvements, such as action role-playing games (such asMass Effect) and real-time strategy games (StarCraft). Ironically, the games specifically marketed as "games to improve the brain" hardly help people with cognitive disabilities or those who wish to improve their normal mental abilities. The first generations of these games consisted mostly of sterile psychological laboratory tasks supplemented with game graphics and appealing sound effects, and they did not show any generalizable cognitive benefit. Being able to get better and better at the specific task of such a game will not help the player plan a better route in the supermarket, or remember where they put the car keys.

The action games were never designed to be a means of learning, but they essentially contain important learning principles. Among other things, they are fun, a pedagogical prerequisite of great importance, which many tend to neglect.

The structure of the games also includes careful progression and construction of the game level. The number of enemies increases as the game progresses. The players remain captivated and receive the training they need to master the skills necessary for the game, and what is especially important, the games require the players to practice a high level of attention control, and to switch during the game between tasks of focused attention and between tasks of distributed attention.

The games create a rich environment where new challenges constantly emerge, which take the players out of their "comfort zone" again and again. Finally, the games also reward the players on different scales of time: at the level of seconds (victory over one enemy), of minutes (successful completion of a single mission), of hours (completion of a chapter or operation), days (victory of the entire game) - And all of these encourage planning for different time frames. The games therefore provide a rewarding experience, which promotes learning that can be applied in different situations in the real world: a better perception of details in science and math lessons, or quick braking of the car when a child bursts into the road following a bullet.

really strengthen the brain

The researchers began to draw conclusions from the studies on commercial computer games, and apply them to a new generation of therapeutic games, which are not at all similar to the boring psychological tests. There is a growing number of companies, including Posit Science, Pearl Therapeutics and-Akili Interactive (Full disclosure: Babelia is a consultant-founder at Akili), which tries to use computer games as clinical tools, whether for diagnosis and assessment or for actual treatment. For example, Akili is developing a therapeutic game, derived from a research-based game called NeuroRacer, to improve attention and reduce distraction. This game and others are intended for clinical populations such as children with attention deficit disorders, or adults showing first signs of cognitive decline. It will take time for such games to receive official recognition. To be incorporated into clinical treatments, they and their cognitive promises must be tested by independent bodies, such as regulatory bodies or the wider scientific community.

Action games do provide a basis for the development of therapeutic games, but they have some weaknesses that must be taken into account. First, the game should be tailored to the patient's needs. Regular action games may benefit healthy subjects, but many people with attention deficit disorder rarely improve. The reason for this is that most players create a mental model of the development of events in the game, and this model allows them to guess what will happen next. Those with attention disorders, on the other hand, play more reactively, and have difficulty seeing ahead. Game developers are now trying to find ways to restructure the traditional action game format to encourage players with attention deficit disorder to take a more active role in strategically planning future moves.

A similar overhaul would be essential in games that aim to improve the reaction speed of older people, for example so that they can drive a car better. It is not enough to download a game like Medal of Honor: Seniors can't keep up with most of the action games young people play, and such commercial games often don't cater to them. There is a need for games adapted to this population, with a moderate pace, that will be challenging but not impossible.

A more relaxed level of play is also required in games designed to improve vision in those suffering fromAmblyopia (lazy eye), which are also in the crosshairs of the game developers. And one more thing: to make computer games therapeutic, the violent nature of many of them needs to be moderated. It makes sense for a racing game to stop when the driver veers off the road, but body parts flying through the air following the accident are completely unnecessary. The transition from shooting zombies to actual treatment requires the intervention of scientists from the fields of learning, psychology and neuroscience who will join graphic artists, game producers and designers to create attractive content.

The initial inspiration of our research team from the game Team Fortress Classic, holds additional possibilities that have not yet been explored. It may be possible to add brainwave monitoring sensors to games that are adapted for dyslexic children or people with head injuries that will allow automatic adjustment of the level of play. A careful adaptation of the content and the skills needed in the game to the player's cognitive abilities and weaknesses is just as important as the technological aspect. For the next generation of brain-enhancing games to succeed, they must be sensitive to the needs of many different groups of players.