Video games: more developed abilities in players than in non-players

Mukesh Dhamala and Timothy Jordana from the Georgia State University (USA) conducted this study with 47 college-aged participants, 28 of whom gambled regularly and 19 did not gamble.

Participants lay inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine equipped with a mirror that allowed them to see a cue immediately followed by a display of moving dots. They had to press a button with their right or left hand to indicate the direction the dots were moving, or not press if there was no directional movement.

Video gamers were faster and more accurate. Brain images showed that this better performance was correlated with increased activity in certain parts of the brain.

There was no trade-off between speed and response accuracy, with players performing better on both measures.

“These results indicate that video games can enhance several of the perception and action-matching subprocesses to improve decision-making abilities.“, conclude the authors.

For more information, see the links below.

Psychomedia with sources: Georgia State University, Neuroimage: Reports.
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