Video Game can Shrink your Brain
Video Game can Shrink your Brain
By: Arlene Gentallan
What? Is it true, playing video games can actually make your brain smaller? That's a terrifying news. With all the good publications about how playing video game can make you smarter, how come?
A study by Greg West and colleagues at University of Montreal revealed that gamers have less grey matter in their hippocampus compared to non-gamers.
Hippocampus is a part of the brain that consolidate short-term memory into long-term memory. It is also crucial in spatial navigation which enables a person to find his/her way in places they've gone to before.
Researchers found out that about 85% of gamers are using another part of the brain while playing video game, which is the caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus is important in learning, reward motivated action, bodily movement, posture, multilingual fluency, and emotional attacment.
So, instead of using their hippocampus, habitual gamers tend to use their caudate nucleus in playing a game. What you don't use, you loose, leading to the shrinkage of the hippotalamus.
So what if you have lesser grey matter your hippocampus? According to the research, it's long term effect to an individual is not yet known. But it's a fact that lesser grey matter in the hippocampus makes a person vulnerable to develop psychiatric illness like depression and schitzophrenia.
What you play and how you play a game creates a difference.
The study involves 46 women and 51 men who engaged in various video games for a total of 90 hours.
They were categorized as "spatial learners" or "response learners." Those who are "spatial learners" prefers to remember their virtual location in the game by remembering landmarks and objects like trees and rocks. While "response learners" tend to memorize directions such as right and left turns.
After 90 hours of gaming, brain imaging revealed a marked difference. Spatial learners have increased grey matter in their hippocampus, while response learners had lesser.
That's not all. The genre of the game also makes a difference. First-person shooter video game caused shrinkage of the hippocampus.
While, playing 3D games increased grey matter in both spatial and response learners.
"This suggests that 3D-platform games are safer for consumption and can be beneficial to the brains of all players" according to G. West.
"If action video games lead to decreases in grey matter in the hippocampus, caution should be exerted when encouraging their use by children, young adults and older adults to promote cognitive skills such as visual short-term memory and visual attention." according to Greg West.
Funfact about hippocampus:
Did you know that the word hippocampus comes from the Greek word "hippo" which means horse and "kampos" which means sea. It's named like that because it resembles a seahorse.
Resources:
G. West, K. Konishi, M. Diarra, et al. (2017). Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus. Molecular Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2017.155
By: Arlene Gentallan
 |
| Video Game can Shrink your Brain |
What? Is it true, playing video games can actually make your brain smaller? That's a terrifying news. With all the good publications about how playing video game can make you smarter, how come?
A study by Greg West and colleagues at University of Montreal revealed that gamers have less grey matter in their hippocampus compared to non-gamers.
Hippocampus is a part of the brain that consolidate short-term memory into long-term memory. It is also crucial in spatial navigation which enables a person to find his/her way in places they've gone to before.
Researchers found out that about 85% of gamers are using another part of the brain while playing video game, which is the caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus is important in learning, reward motivated action, bodily movement, posture, multilingual fluency, and emotional attacment.
So, instead of using their hippocampus, habitual gamers tend to use their caudate nucleus in playing a game. What you don't use, you loose, leading to the shrinkage of the hippotalamus.
So what if you have lesser grey matter your hippocampus? According to the research, it's long term effect to an individual is not yet known. But it's a fact that lesser grey matter in the hippocampus makes a person vulnerable to develop psychiatric illness like depression and schitzophrenia.
What you play and how you play a game creates a difference.
The study involves 46 women and 51 men who engaged in various video games for a total of 90 hours.
They were categorized as "spatial learners" or "response learners." Those who are "spatial learners" prefers to remember their virtual location in the game by remembering landmarks and objects like trees and rocks. While "response learners" tend to memorize directions such as right and left turns.
After 90 hours of gaming, brain imaging revealed a marked difference. Spatial learners have increased grey matter in their hippocampus, while response learners had lesser.
That's not all. The genre of the game also makes a difference. First-person shooter video game caused shrinkage of the hippocampus.
While, playing 3D games increased grey matter in both spatial and response learners.
"This suggests that 3D-platform games are safer for consumption and can be beneficial to the brains of all players" according to G. West.
"If action video games lead to decreases in grey matter in the hippocampus, caution should be exerted when encouraging their use by children, young adults and older adults to promote cognitive skills such as visual short-term memory and visual attention." according to Greg West.
Funfact about hippocampus:
Did you know that the word hippocampus comes from the Greek word "hippo" which means horse and "kampos" which means sea. It's named like that because it resembles a seahorse.
Resources:
G. West, K. Konishi, M. Diarra, et al. (2017). Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus. Molecular Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2017.155
