Children who logged in three hours or more of video games scored better results on memory and impulse control tests, a study found.
Children who clocked in three or more hours of video game play touted higher levels of activity in regions of the brain tied to working memory and attention, the study, released Monday in the JAMA Network Open journal, concluded. But the link may not be causal, researchers cautioned.
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“While we cannot say whether playing video games regularly caused superior neurocognitive performance, it is an encouraging finding, and one that we must continue to investigate,” Bader Chaarani, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study, explained.
The study analyzed data from the adolescent brain cognitive development study that is tracking roughly 12,000 children coming of age. Researchers assessed a subset of 2,000 who entered the study at the age of 9 or 10 and parsed out children by their reported video game habits.
Three hours was selected as a threshold because it eclipses the recommended two-hours-per-day screen time cap for children by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The researchers think these patterns may stem from practicing tasks related to impulse control and memory while playing video games, which can be cognitively demanding, and that these changes may lead to improved performance,” a press release for the study explained.
“Comparatively low activity in visual areas among children who reported playing video games may reflect that this area of the brain may become more efficient at visual processing as a result of repeated practice through video games,” it added.
Two possibilities offered for the disparity between avid adolescent gamers and their counterparts in the study are that children with stronger performance in those areas could just be more drawn to gaming or that video games can be cognitively demanding and boost brain performance in those areas.
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Some studies have found links between video games and heightened “depression, violence, and aggressive behavior,” but the “study did not find that to be the case,” the press release noted.
“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow said. “Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems. This study suggests that there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”
