Effect of games on brain part-1

Nowadays, brain gaming is a major industry because it is possible to carry an entire library on a portable device, and the selection of such games is vast. Some of them claim to improve general intelligence, while others claim to improve specific cognitive skills like memory, reaction time, concentration, or critical thinking. According to Kietzel et al. (2016), brain games can be quite exciting and engaging. Competing with other players fosters social skills, which is especially important for children. Most brain games employ a user-friendly adjustable interface with relaxing images and sounds. Players, sometimes misled by colourful advertisements, expect such games to dramatically improve their cognitive skills and may even pay a high price for them. However, the effects of brain games may be overstated. According to Kietzel et al. (2016), there is little scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of brain games. Furthermore, the majority of the products in question have never been properly tested in terms of their effect on cognitive functions.Brain games, in my opinion, can be a useful supplement to traditional techniques. For centuries, scientists have studied brain functions in the hopes of discovering more effective ways to improve them. Meditation, puzzle solving, adequate sleep, and outdoor activities are examples of traditional practises that improve memory and cognitive skills. Furthermore, there is a list of foods that are beneficial to a person's brain. Broccoli, nuts, chocolate, and fish are among the foods on the list. In terms of unusual practises, Babcock et al. (2017) claim that students who study simultaneous interpretation have better short-term memory skills than their peers on average. There is no perfect solution for memory and brain training, in my opinion, because each method reveals its best qualities when it complements the other.Overall, cognitive function can be improved through regular comprehensive exercises that are not limited to a single medium.

Video gaming is undoubtedly a popular form of entertainment, with video gamers spending 3 billion hours per week in front of their screens. Scientists have studied how video games affect the brain and behaviour due to their widespread use. Are these effects favourable or unfavourable? We investigate the evidence.At a glance, more than 150 million Americans play video games on a regular basis, or for at least 3 hours per week. The average American gamer is 35 years old, with 72 percent of players being 18 or older. When it comes to video game use by children, 71% of parents believe it has a positive impact on their child's life.Year after year, video game sales increase. The video game industry sold over 24.5 billion games in 2016, up from 23.2 billion in 2015 and 21.4 billion in 2014.Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Grand Theft Auto V were the top three best-selling video games in 2016. These games belong to the first-person shooter or action-adventure genres, which account for 27.5 percent and 22.5 percent of total sales, respectively. The first-person shooter and action genres are frequently accused of inciting violence and addiction.Decades of research into video games and violence have failed to reach scientific consensus. Scientists have been unable to establish a link between video game play and real-world violence.

Brain changes and video games:

A growing body of evidence, however, indicates that video gaming can affect the brain and cause changes in many brain regions.Scientists recently compiled and summarised the findings of 116 scientific studies to determine how video games affect our brains and behaviours. Their review findings were published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience."Games have sometimes been praised or demonised, often without real data backing up those claims. Furthermore, because gaming is a popular activity, everyone appears to have strong feelings about it," says Marc Palaus, the review's first author.Palaus and his colleagues sought to identify trends in how video games affect the structure and activity of the brain by reviewing all previous research. A total of 22 of the studies reviewed looked at structural changes in the brain, while 100 looked at changes in brain functionality and behaviour. According to the findings of the studies, playing video games alters not only how our brains perform but also their structure.Video game use, for example, has been shown to impair attention. According to the studies included in the review, video game players improve in several types of attention, including sustained attention and selective attention.Furthermore, gamers' attention-related brain regions are more efficient than non-gamers', and they require less activation to stay focused on demanding tasks.Evidence also shows that playing video games increases the size and competence of brain regions responsible for visuospatial skills - a person's ability to recognise visual and spatial relationships among objects. The right hippocampus was enlarged in long-term gamers and people who volunteered to follow a video game training plan.Video gaming can be addictive, according to research, a phenomenon known as "Internet gaming disorder."There are functional and structural changes in the neural reward system in gaming addicts - a group of structures associated with pleasure, learning, and motivation.Exposing video game addicts to craving-inducing cues and monitoring their brain responses revealed these changes, which are also seen in other addictive disorders."We concentrated on how the brain reacts to video game exposure, but these effects do not always translate to real-life changes," Palaus explains. The study of the effects of video games is still in its early stages, and scientists are still investigating which aspects of gaming affect which brain regions and how."It is likely that video games have both positive (on attention, visual, and motor skills) and negative (addiction risk) aspects, and it is critical that we embrace this complexity," Palaus adds.