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September 18, 2005
Video games and brain development
So many times, there are discussions about the impact of video games on children, adults and the value change that they have on cultural norms and values.
This is the reason why I really fall in love with the article that I am linking to. The main message is that video games are good for your development. For this, they analyse games ranging from Tetris to Grand Theft Auto III. While the latter is clearly violent, the article also states that violent games only form a small share of the overall video game market.
Let's look at some results of a study:
"James Rosser, director of the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, found that laparoscopic surgeons who played games for more than three hours a week made 37 percent fewer errors than their nongaming peers, thanks to improved hand-eye coordination and depth perception. A recent book published by the Harvard Business School Press looked at studies of three distinct groups of white-collar professionals: hard-core gamers, occasional gamers, and nongamers. The research the authors surveyed contradicts nearly all the received ideas about the impact of games. The gaming population turned out to be consistently more social, more confident, and more comfortable solving problems creatively. They also showed no evidence of reduced attention spans compared with nongamers."
What happens inside the brain? Well, it is the neurotransmitter dopamine that plays an instrumental role in the way the brain handles both reward and exploration. Dopamine is not the reward; it’s what lets you go out and explore in the first place. Without dopamine, you wouldn’t be able to learn properly.
What about additiction, then? Let's say gaming is addictive because it is challenging, and that it is addictive because people actually like to exercise the brain?? Gamers must focus, have patience, develop a willingness to delay gratification, and prioritize scarce resources, something very important in today's environment.
So feel assure that next time you play, you actually learn social skills and exercise the brain. Just don't forget to take the break to exercise the body as well.
Posted by Andreas at September 18, 2005 11:38 AM
Comments
Games have been my hobby for a very long time. I learned things I probably would never have learned in real life like the basics of managing a city. A lot of people try to politicize the issue by highlighting only the violent aspect of games. If you ask me, I play violent games too, but I stay away from violence in real life. We have the power to choose, and to solely blame games for violent behaviour is just a way of finding scapegoat for a problem that runs deeper. In the end it's always about the choices we make.
Posted by: bawangmerah at September 18, 2005 11:11 PM