Frequent Video Game Players More Effective With Decision-Making Than Non-Gamers

A new study recently revealed that frequent players of video names exhibit superior sensorimotor decision-making skills and improved activity in the brain's key regions compared to non-players.

Researchers from the Georgia State University, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging or FMRI in their research, said their results suggest that video games could be a helpful tool for training in perpetual decision-making, a EurekAlert! report said.

According to Mukesh Dhamala, the study's lead researcher, and associate professor in Georgia State's Department of Physics and Astronomy and the University's Neuroscience Institute, video games are played by the overwhelming majority of youths for longer than three hours each week, although the beneficial impacts on decision-making abilities and the brain are not exactly identified.

Dhamala also said that their work offers some answers to that. He added that video game playing could effectively be applied for training, for instance, decision-making efficiency training and treatment interventions, once the appropriate brain networks are identified.

Video Games Help with Visual Processing

Dhamala was the adviser for the paper's lead author Tim Jordan, who offered a personal example of how such a study could inform the use of video games for training the brain.

Jordan, who obtained a Ph.D. in Physics and astronomy from Georgia State last in 2021, had weak vision in one eye during childhood.

As part of this research, when the lead researcher was about five years of age, he was asked to cover his eye and play video games to strengthen his vision on the weak side.

Jordan has credited video game training with helping him go from being legally blind on one side of the eye to developing a strong capacity for visual processing, enabling him to play lacrosse and paintball. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA.

More Responsive Frequent Video Players

The Georgia State research project reported in the NeuroImage involved 47 college-aged participants, with 26 classified as regular players of video games and 19 as non-players.

The study participants laid an FMRI machine inside, with a mirror that allowed them to immediately see a signal, followed by an exhibition of moving dots.

Participants were then asked to push a button in their right or left hand to specify the direction the dots were moving or resist pressing any of the buttons if there was no directional movement.

As a result, the research showed that video game players were quicker and more precise with their responses.

How Video Game Playing CHanges the Brain to Enhance Task Performance

Analysis of the brain scans showed that the differences were associated with enhanced activity in some brain parts.

As specified in a similar Medical Xpress report, the authors said in their report, that such results specify that video game playing possibly improves several subprocesses of sensation, and perception, as well as mapping to action, to enhance decision-making skills.

Moreover, the findings illuminate how video game playing is changing the brain to enhance task performance, as well as their potential implication for increasing the activity specific to the task.

The study also noted no trade-off between the response's accuracy and speed; the video games were better on both benchmarks.

Lastly, the authors reported that the absence of speed-accuracy trade-off would specify video game playing as a good candidate for cognitive training regarding decision-making.

Related information about the effect of playing video games is shown on TED's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Video Games and Mental Health in Science Times.