One experiment demonstrated how playing video games has the potential to increase hippocampal grey matter in young adolescents. Hippocampal grey matter, more specifically, is crucial for the maintenance of healthy cognition. There, synapses produce a response to the certain stimuli. This grey matter serves to move motor sensory stimuli to nerve cells in the nervous system. Grey matter helps process information in the brain, by more specifically processing signals that are generated by other sensory organs in the body or other areas which contain grey matter. In the context of playing video games, dopamine is released in the brain’s striatum, invoking senses of pleasure and addiction.įor the sake of this post, I’ll be emphasising my focus on experiments regarding grey matter. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when learning and activates sensations of reward. Games that require more logical thinking, such as Tetris, display an increased use of the prefrontal cortex, where decision-making is controlled. Examples of these types of games include Space Invaders and Halo. These same video games have the ability to physically improve one’s peripheral vision as well as hand-eye coordination. Other action focused video games have the ability to increase brain activity in the premotor and parietal cortex, where motor skills, quick thinking, and control of sensory movements are required.
More broadly speaking, games that require team efforts help develop collaboration abilities. Cognitively, all video games are proven to improve one’s problem solving ability as well as reasoning capabilities.ĭifferent types of video games develop different skills as well as activate different parts of the brain. When overviewing the positive effects of videogames on the brain there are some main areas of the brain to focus upon: premotor and parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex, dopamine and grey matter.
Video games have both positive and negative effects on the brain, as they can be used for education purposes or can have more drastic consequences. Our brain interprets these artists’ creations in many ways, both presenting itself as beneficial, yet also damaging to the brain. Videogames prove to be an art form that can solely exist in the digital space and demonstrates a collision of art and science. Technology has expanded the canvas upon an artist’s ability to express their stories.
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