“They’re going to melt your brain,” “You’re too close to the TV,” “You should stop that nonsense.” These and similar phrases represent the classic resistance of many parents to video games as a form of entertainment for the little ones, but things have changed completely over the years. In fact, quite a few studies suggest cognitive and spatial reasoning advantages. One of the most recent was published by a group of researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, which also involves the effects of the so-called transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Despised and minimized by supposed experts in various fields, video games now have a very different profile. The spectacular growth of e-sports (and the millions of dollars changing hands in their tournaments) definitely helped in that process, but there are quality and access issues we cannot deny. The gaming world wants more people participating, not fewer, and there are options for all tastes, from small casual titles to increasingly large and complex MMOs.
One of the most recurring criticisms (and why not “traditional”) is that video games affect intelligence and cognitive development, but there are studies pointing in exactly the opposite direction. One of them was published in mid-June by Marc Palaus, Raquel Viejo-Sobera, Diego Redolar-Ripoll and Elena M. Marrón from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, under the title “Cognitive Enhancement via Neuromodulation and Video Games: Synergistic Effects?”, and recently appeared in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The study brought together 27 participants under 40 years old, some with experience playing video games in childhood, others without. First, they underwent a basic assessment of cognitive skills. Then, each of them trained for ten days playing Super Mario 64. During that period, several participants received transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive treatment that aims to optimize cognitive functioning. After the ten days, all participants were re-evaluated, and 15 days later, the tests were repeated a third and final time.
The main objective was to confirm lasting improvements in cognitive function among participants who received the magnetic treatment, but they discovered that its impact was null. However, participants who accumulated experience with video games as children responded much better to the initial cognitive assessment. At the same time, the training phase notably optimized the results of those without experience, and in the second session, their results were already similar to those of the other group.
https://old.neoteo.com/como-se-veria-un-videojuego-en-segunda-persona/The researchers conclude that the combination of video game training with transcranial magnetic stimulation shows no increase in cognitive performance. Instead, results suggest that early experience with video games produces improvements in certain cognitive functions and maintains them in the long term. Of course, the results are exploratory and further studies are likely needed, but this work helps define the limits of external stimulation of healthy brains, and the potential benefits of video games.
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Source: My Modern Met
