In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute have found that playing video games can be beneficial for the brain. The study showed that daily gaming can train certain areas of the brain so intensively that they actually grow in size. The areas responsible for fine motor skills, memory formation, spatial orientation, and strategic thinking were all found to be affected positively. This discovery could have significant implications for the treatment of mental health disorders, as video games could be used as a therapeutic tool.
To investigate the effects of video games on the brain, the researchers had a group of adults play Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day over a two-month period. Another group acted as a control and did not play any video games during this time. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure the structure of the brain before and after the study. The results showed that the group who played video games had larger and better-trained areas of the brain, particularly in the right hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and parts of the cerebellum. These areas are responsible for fine motor skills, memory formation, spatial orientation, and strategic thinking.
The researchers also found that the more fun the participants had while playing the game, the more pronounced the changes in their brains were. This suggests that video games could be used as a fun and engaging way to train specific areas of the brain. The researchers believe that video games could be used as a therapeutic tool for mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease. Patients may be more willing to accept video games as a form of therapy than other medical interventions. The researchers plan to conduct further studies to investigate the effects of video games on patients with mental health disorders.
