Research shows that playing video games can improve cognitive performance

Playing video games can boost your cognitive skills and exercise can play a role in improving your mental health, but not the other way around, a major study has found.

The surprising findings are part of the Brain and Body study, a collaboration between Western University and the Science and Industry Museum for the Manchester Science Festival. A preprint of the work is published on PsyArXiv.

More than 2,000 participants from around the world enrolled in the study, which asked them to complete a lifestyle survey, followed by Creyo’s online brain games that accurately measure various aspects of cognition, such as memory, attention, reasoning and verbal skills.

The research, led by Western’s celebrated neuroscientist Adrian Owen, showed that among around 1,000 people who completed all tasks, playing video games had a positive effect on an individual’s cognition, but did not appear to impact their mental health .

However, practicing more than 150 minutes per week, in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, was found to improve mental well-being but had no effect on cognition.

“Playing video games was associated with improved cognitive skills, but not with better or worse mental health, while more physical activity was associated with better mental health, but not with better or worse cognitive health,” said Owen, professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western’s Schulich. School of Medicine and Dentistry.

According to the study’s results, people who play video games regularly (five or more hours per week for one type of game) had average cognitive performance, just like people who were 13.7 years younger. Individuals who had low video game involvement (less than 5 hours per week across all types of games) performed like people 5.2 years younger.

In terms of mental health, participants who met or exceeded WHO recommendations of 150 minutes of physical activity per week were 12% more likely to report having no symptoms of depression and 9% more likely to report no symptoms of anxiety to have.

The data also suggests that these mental health differences were not driven by the severely depressed or anxious individuals in the study; Instead, physical activity made the biggest difference at the lower end of both scales, where symptoms were mild or absent altogether.

Connection between brain and body

Despite the seemingly obvious examples of a brain-body connection, such as the way being hangry affects the ability to concentrate, stress makes muscles tense, or steady breathing calms the mind, relatively little is understood about how the brain and body influence each other.

Completing the survey helped the Western team better understand how lifestyle is linked to the long-term health of our brains.

“The results of this study can help us all choose activities that promote healthy cognitive aging,” says Owen.

Details of the findings will be presented by Owen at the Science and Industry Museum on October 19 as part of the Manchester Science Festivalwhich runs from October 18 to 27. Visitors to the festival will also have the opportunity to participate in a pilot study to monitor these results. While the online research focused on long-term effects, the Western team will invite festival-goers to help them in a pilot study to investigate short-term improvements in cognition as a result of exercise and gaming.

Owen will also comment on how the brain interacts with sound and light within an artistic commission for the festival from the collective Squidsoup. Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, “State of Mind” is a three-dimensional arrangement of LED lighting within an intriguing and informative soundscape.