Video Games May Not Rot Kids’ Brains After All

Kids who played video games showed better cognitive performance than non-gamers, a case-control study found.

Among 2,217 children ages 9 and 10, those who played video games for at least 21 hours a week performed better on response inhibition tasks and working memory versus those who never played video games, reported Bader Chaarani, PhD, of University of Vermont in Burlington, and colleagues.

Gamers had a significantly quicker stop signal reaction time (SSRT; mean 299.03 vs 307.22 ms, P=0.006). They also had nearly 40 ms shorter reaction time for the “correct go” measure versus kids who didn’t play video games.

These tasks measured kids’ ability to control impulsive behavior, the group explained in JAMA Network Open.

Children who played video games also performed significantly better on the n-back tasks — the standard for measuring executive working memory. While non-gamers averaged around 1,050 ms of reaction time in correctly identifying if the current stimulus is the same as the one presented two trials prior, gamers averaged around 1,025 ms. The difference on that test was significant when calculated as a z-transformed hit rate minus the z-transformed false alarm rate (P=0.001).

“While we cannot say whether playing video games regularly caused superior neurocognitive performance, it is an encouraging finding, and one that we must continue to investigate in these children as they transition into adolescence and young adulthood,” Chaarani said in a statement.

“Many parents today are concerned about the effects of video games on their children’s health and development,” he added, “and as these games continue to proliferate among young people, it is crucial that we better understand both the positive and negative impact that such games may have.”

While completing inhibition and memory tasks in the study, brain functioning was also measured via functional MRI (fMRI). During certain tasks, there were different areas of the brain that were activated for both groups.

For example, during one of the stop signal tasks, there was a significantly greater blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the bilateral precuneus among gamers compared with non-gamers. And during one of the memory tasks, video gamers showed a significantly greater BOLD signal in bilateral parts of the dorsal posterior cingulate gyrus, subparietal cortex, middle and superior frontal gyri, and precuneus.

These differences in the patterns of cerebral cortical BOLD fMRI activation could suggest “differing methods of cerebral function,” according to an accompanying commentary by Kirk M. Welker, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

But that being said, Welker pointed out how the very nature of fMRI studies — which typically involve performing these tasks on small display screens pushing buttons on small handheld devices while wearing goggles within the scanner — may favor individuals more familiar with video games.

“Much more testing certainly needs to be performed on the brains of video gamers without the use of video screens,” he suggested. “By doing so, we may come to understand whether the positive or negative cognitive effects of these games have implications beyond the realm of interacting with gaming consoles.”

Beyond cognition, the researchers found that kids who played video games scored consistently higher on each of the 12 behavioral and psychiatric measures on the Child Behavior Checklist. These included social problems, thought problems, attention, rule-breaking behavior, aggressive behavior, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and stress.

But while video gamers had higher raw scores across the board for all these measures, none were significantly or clinically different when compared with non-gamers.

Participants in the analysis came from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a nationally representative sample of children recruited through public, private, and charter schools.

Of the 2,217 children involved in the study, 679 played video games for an average of 25.5 hours per week and 1,128 averaged zero hours per week. The gamer group was 45% female, while the non-video-gaming group was 75% female. Average IQ scores and BMI were similar between the groups. Video gamers spent a significantly longer amount of time watching television each week (29 vs 11 hours).

“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” added National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow, MD, in a statement. “Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems. This study suggests that there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”