A large number of studies have shown that playing video games leads to changes in brain structure, including increasing the size of certain areas, or leading to functional changes, such as activating areas responsible for attention or visuospatial skills. The latest research from the University of Catalonia’s Oberta (UOC) further shows that if people only play video games as a child, cognitive changes can occur. This is one of the conclusions of the paper published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. The study involved 27 people between the ages of 18 and 40, some of whom had never touched video games. 

Dr. Marc Palaus (Dr. Marc Palaus) said: "The rest are avid gamers before puberty. Although they no longer play games now, they perform better in working memory tasks. They also have higher concentration and information acquisition capabilities."

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The results show that people who have experience with video games in childhood can benefit from optimizing brain processing and suppressing irrelevant stimuli. Conversely, people who do not play games have slower reaction time, which is consistent with earlier research.

Similarly, "People who play regularly have performed better in handling 3D tasks from the beginning, although after video game training, the two groups showed similar levels and the differences were alleviated."

Combined with transcranial magnetic stimulation, the study lasted one month and the researchers evaluated the participants’ cognitive skills, including working memory, in three stages: before the video game training began, at the end of the training, and fifteen days later. The video game used is Nintendo’s Super Mario 64.

During the experiment, participants were also subjected to 10 transcranial magnetic stimulation-non-invasive brain stimulation through the skin that can temporarily change the pattern of brain activity.

Palaus explained: "Using electromagnetic waves, when applied to the surface of the skull, they can generate electric currents in the underlying nerve group and change its activity."

Researchers hoped to find a way to combine video games with transcranial stimulation to improve cognitive performance, but the results are not satisfactory.

Palaus said: "Our goal is to achieve lasting improvement. Under normal circumstances, the effect of this stimulation can last from a few milliseconds to tens of minutes. We hope to improve the performance of certain brain functions for longer and strengthen cognitive ability."

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In this project, the video game used is a 3-D action-adventure type, but other types of video games can also affect cognitive function.

According to Palaus, the biggest thing that games have in common is that they contain elements that make people want to play, and gradually become more and more difficult, and present continuous challenges. "These two things are making it attractive and motivating enough, which in turn requires constant and intensive use of our brain resources."

"Video game is the secret to enhance our cognitive abilities and imperceptibly help us to improve." However, he emphasized that this broader gain will only have a limited impact, just like most cognitive trainings.