Final Exploratory Essay
How
Do Video Games Affect the Brain?
In
2016, studies show that around "sixty-five percent of American households
are home to someone who plays video games regularly" (Entertainment
Software Association). Although video games have become more popular and
continues to be more accessible for the whole world, there are many who if they
could possibly damage the mind of the player. Throughout many years, the media
and society have debated on whether video games are safe for anyone who play
them frequently. Parents worry if these games can harm the brains of their own
children, and could affect their thinking processes. The media also debates
whether these games are suitable for any age, even back when the Columbine
shooting occurred. There are many factors to take in when discussing the topic
of video games, and although some may think it could change the behavior of any
person in a negative way, others believe that they could help advance our brain
functions, help us understand how the brain works as well. Video games have the
possibility of benefiting the brain’s cognitive and executive functions, but
they also can damage the behavioral factors of the brain as well.
The
Brain Function
 |
| Figure 1: Courtesy of Environmental Health Perspectives |
Online gaming has benefited and even
advanced the brain's cognition. The article “Brain Imaging and Behavior” discusses
an experiment where scientists tested on nineteen college students who were
considered "healthy" in gaming standards, and nineteen students with
Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), an unconfirmed disorder which is based on
people who play online games such as World of Warcraft daily, as if it were a
job. The students were put into an internet videogame stimulus to research
specific brain regions in both groups. According to their study, the stimuli
"activated brain regions included the right superior frontal gyrus, right
middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, left insular lobe and right
precuneus" for the healthy group (Liu et al. 62). These brain regions that
were studied are mainly parts of the brain that receive and process the given
information. However, the IGD group showed more activation in the brain regions
than the controlled. IGD gains the information and processes it in a faster
timing, which could help with daily activities such as working and focusing on
studies. Even though the IGD group had more of an advantage through the
statistics, the controlled group did increase its activation as they were using
the stimulus, which has helped their brain regions in the same way it helped
the IGD’s. Although the results only showed how games made specifically for games
could help activate the cognitive functions, other studies show that games of
other genres can have the same verdict.
Many
assume that brain games are the only way that any gamer could get any benefit
from playing, but that is not the case. An article from Plos One demonstrates
an experiment to prove that point by conducting it on the elderly. They focused
their task on proving whether these games can help the cognitive functions of
the brain, and can benefit the life of those who play it. After the tests were
done, the “results suggested that playing the Brain Age did not improve the
global cognitive statuses and the attention” (Nouchi et al. 6). Although both
games did show different results when it comes comparison, they revealed that “both
training games and transfer tasks could share the same brain region, prefrontal
cortex, and that the transfer effect of the brain training game on the
executive functions and processing speed could be mediated by the prefrontal
regions” (Nouchi et al. 6). Both games that were tested on were completely
different from each other, yet they still showed the same results at the end. Even
though they seem different in the eyes of a non-gaming person, these two games
can help the executive functions of our brains.
Not
only do these games help the brain function more advanced than before, but they
could also help practice social issues. An article in the Psychology of Popular
Media Culture conducted experiments with children by giving them video games
that were competitive. The children were interviewed on what the times they
have played games, how long they play games, what games they play, and if they
play competitively. After these results, they understood that these children
were playing competitive games every day, playing games such as Clash of Clans,
Minecraft, Fifa, even Call of Duty. Although these games seem very time
consuming, these children “showed improvements over one
year in conduct problems and peer relationships” (Lobel et al. 7). Even the
violent video games that many parents have worried about helped these children
to communicate with one another, demonstrating teamwork even as young kids. As
the article states, “Team-based competitive play requires cooperation despite
players pursuing competitive, arguably antisocial goals. This allows for
prosocial behaviors amid competition, for example, in games that specifically
enable players to heal or protect their teammates” (Lobel et al. 8). These
types of video games help people of all ages gather up and beat the anti-social
problems one might have. Although it is beneficial, it could also cause a
change in the player’s behavior.
The Behavior
Although competitive video games
have the chance to help with social skills and communication, they can also
cause the players to have aggression. One of the genres that are known to be
competitive are shooters and fighting games, which are known as violent video
games. Jia-Kun Zheng and Qian Zhang conducted an experiment and discusses it in
their article “Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal”.
They tested on different people with different levels of aggression on how
their aggression level would be after playing two violent games. The players
were put into three groups for research purpose, the first being the ones who
have high aggression levels (HA), the second being the one who had moderate
levels (MA), and the last being those who had low levels (LA). According to the
results, the HA were observed to be significantly more aggressive after
exposure to the violent game, whereas children with MA and LA were
nonsignificantly more aggressive in the same game-priming situation” (Zhang et
al. 1755). Those who were already having aggressive emotions before being
tested gained more out of playing these games, which could cause a problem with
the behavioral factors. Although it did not affect those were non-aggressive
from the beginning, it does have an effect. Not only does this cause a change
in behavior.
Constantly playing video game can cause
problems such as stress, depression, and even anxiety. Though it is a form of
entertainment that can be used for free time, most go beyond that time limit,
and face the consequence noted in the article from Journal of Gaming &
Virtual Worlds. They created a public survey for Australian students to take
information on their gaming addiction and rating their addiction using the
Gaming Addiction Scale (GAS), which is a scale that represents the levels of
social anxiety, behavioral inhibition, depression and gaming addiction. After
two months of gathering the information, they realized that the “emerging
adults had higher mean scores on all scales compared to the three other age
categories,” while the “older adults (61 years and above) had the lowest mean
scores on all scales compared to the other three age categories” (Vanzoelen et
al. 240). Though the older adults did not have much of a difference when
playing the games, the level of the young adult’s GAS continued to grow. This
could cause problems of their everyday lives, as they get more addictive to
these games. This is mainly due to the only competitive games that have become
more popular around the world, and is causing many adults and teens to only
focus on their games than their important task, which could lead to them failing
classes or losing their jobs.
Discussion
Although there are many benefits to
playing video games, it could also damage the mind if played too much than
needed. It has helped many to improve their cognitive and executive functions,
which led to them processing and executing the information given to them faster
than before, but if this is not balanced time wise, it could lead to stress and
depression, hurting the brain. There is no right answer when talking about
video games, and maybe there never will be one. Many would consider games as
this trap to take their children away from the education they need, while
others would suggest that it is beneficial for children. As of now there is no
real reason to take away or even encourage the use of video games, but only the
person themselves can decide on their own whether to use it.
Work Cited
Liu,
Jun, et al. “Functional Characteristics of the Brain in College Students with
Internet Gaming
Disorder.” Brain Imaging and Behavior, vol. 10, no. 40, 2016, pp. 60-68.
Lobel,
Adam, et al. “Gaining a Competitive Edge: Longitudinal Associations Between
Children’s
Competitive Video Game Playing, Conduct Problems, Peer Relations, and Prosocial
Behavior.” Psychology of Popular Media
Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-13.
Nouchi,
Rui, et al. “Brain Training Game Improves Executive Functions and Processing Speed
in the Elderly: A Randomized Controlled
Trial.” Plos One, vol. 7, no. 1,
2012, pp. 1-9.
Vanzoelen,
Deborah, et al. “The Role of Social Anxiety, the Behavioural Inhibition System
and
Depression in Online Gaming Addiction in
Adults.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual
Worlds,
vol. 8, no. 3, 2016, pp. 231-245.
Zheng,
Jia-Kun, et al. "Priming Effect of Computer Game Violence on Children’s
Aggression
Levels."
Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, vol. 44, no. 10, 2016,
pp. 1747-1759.
“Essential
Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry.” Entertainment Software
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