My Brain On Video Games

Daphne Bavelier(2012) express that the two main advantages are of eyesight and attention. Firstly, a lab shows that the people who play action video games have better eyesight than the people who don’t play. This can be shown when they observe the small things or distinguish different levels of color. Secondly, they have a great speed to find the things or catch the small details.

Would you believe that our generation is the dumbest? With technology controlling this generation, this doesn’t consider our generation to be dumb it would make us people to be lazy about their education and not even try at all. Others would look at the bad side of our generation but the best way would be looking at the good side of our generation. This generation has created many technologies to help us going and can excess to anything. Writer Mark Bauerlein said “Young Americans have much more access and education than their parents did.” Children of this generation has much more high knowledge level than their parents because the technology has improved throughout the years.

The impact video games have on the brain can differ by the opinions of others. Some may argue that it is a disadvantage and others may say it is the total opposite, an advantage. I will be exploring the viewpoints on both ends of the spectrum. Looking into documented research on the topic, I will be discussing the benefits of gaming, why people correlate excessive playing time to negative behaviors, and the long term effects that video games cause to the brain.

Bavelier and Green have suggested the effects of video games have not been readily determined. (Bavelier, & Green, P.763, 2011). Han and Renshaw, have determined through

"The Truth About Video Games And The Brain: What Research Tells Us".Scientific Learning. N.p., 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

Video games are a enormous part in the world today. “More than 150 million people in the United States play video games regularly or for at least three hours per week. The number of sales has increased and in 2016, 24.5 billion games were sold, up from 23.2 billion in 2015.” “This Type of Video Game May Actually Harm Your Brain.” written by Mahita Gajanan is my positive article and “How Video Games Affect the Brain.” written by Hannah Nichols is my negative article. In this essay I am going to talk about video games and their impact on the brain (Nichols).

Firstly, studies have shown that grey matter in the brain increased when playing video games. It has been estimated that the average person will spend about 10,000 hours playing video games until age twenty-one; there is evidence that shows that only 10–20 hours of engagement in video games can improve performance on our attention span, and also improve tasks that require executive control. (Kühn, Gleich and Lorenz) In cross-sectional study done on males, they found an increase in grey matter in the entorhinal cortex, and the occipital cortex. They predicted that grey matter volume in the entorhinal cortex would be higher in players that were more interested in certain video games. Forty-eight participants were recruited by means of newspaper and internet

During a study conducted in August 2016 by Li Li, Rongrong Chen, and Jin Chen, gamers and non-gamers were being compared on several different tasks which has shown that video games improve hand-eye coordination in young adults. During their study, Li and Chen had taken several participants that were actively involved with action video games such as first-person shooters and driving games. During the first task, participants were tested by playing a driving game and keeping the car inside a straight lane with various crosswinds blowing the car along the way. As a result, active gamers had a quicker and more accurate response straightening the car during the effect of the crosswinds compared to non-gamers. For the second task, both gamers and non-gamer participants were given the same concept for the last task, except the participants had to keep a dot in the middle of the screen as it moved around, as a result, gamers were more accurate over the non-gamers. For the final task, non-gamers were separated into two groups, the first group were given an action video game to play, while the second group were given strategy games, and as a result of the study, Li, Rongrong Chen, and Jin Chen found that those who played action video games improved their hand-eye coordination when repeating the same dot task

Parents might blame their children’s memory and attention problems on video games. And they can be right, but only if a child spends too much time over playing. The same can be said about watching television. Too much of anything is bad for us, and therefore video games should not be blamed for attention problems. In fact, one study from a Current Biology journal shows that "dyslexic children trained on action video games show significant improvements on basic measures of both attention and reading ability," which shows that action games can increase our attention to details and even be used as a treatment for dyslexic children (R282).

First of all, the effects of the video game on a person depends on what type of game it is. Some of the most popular games are Call of Duty, and GTA 5. According to npr.org, “ People who played action video games that involve first-person shooters, such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, experienced shrinkage in a brain region called the hippocampus, according to a study published Tuesday in Molecular Psychiatry.” (Columbus) Even if it has a negative effect, it also has positive outcomes. Games are also rated by a

When playing video games, the coordination and concentration can physically, socially, and mentally benefit the user. Research today shows that certain video games can reduce fat and therefore promote weight loss. Other sources state that doctors have instructed parents to let their children play video games to help control focus. It is found that video games can improve hand eye

Video games are typically used as a scapegoat for several reasons, such as causing violence and obesity. Many parents usually consider them a waste of time and others classify video games with being lazy and unproductive. Unfortunately, video game prejudice is nothing new; parents often blame video games for the failing grades that their child received and/or talking back. Although no strong evidence exists to prove these theories, numerous studies have pointed to improvement in cognitive skills, such as vision and hand-eye coordination, for those that play high action video games. Therefore, playing action filled video games may be beneficial to those with vision problems and people with certain diseases that can cause cognitive issues such as poor hand-eye coordination. However, the previously mentioned individuals may be unaware of the studies that have shown the benefits that may be the result of playing high action video games such as Call of Duty or Battlefield. As a result, one can argue that playing high action video games improve vision and hand-eye coordination.

The effects of video games on the brain was a topic chosen to explain the negative effects of gaming on a person’s overall health. The research on the effects of video games on the brain was captivating and made me want to learn more about the negative effects due to extended periods of gaming. Research from scholarly articles, written by different credible sources associated in this field, denotes that video gaming can cause negative when played. Evidence includes how gaming can affect people(a) how video games affect a person’s overall health, (b) how to negate the negative effects of video games, and (c) how video games can affect your overall education. Focusing on these points help support the claim that video gaming can negatively affect the brain.

In today’s society, the concerns for the effects of video games have acquired quite a terrible reputation. Worried parents around the world assume video games make their children do poorly in school, and create violent, desensitized, antisocial children. The increase in violent games, usually get the blame for aggressive behavior, shootings and violence in schools and young individuals. Most beliefs about video games effect on the brain and emotions are very common misconceptions. I strongly believe that video games are an essential tool to learning and gaining much-needed skills. When people look at the studies that have been done on video games and the brain, it will be apparent that some myths about video games have been blown out of proportion. It has come to my attention that there are studies that prove the negative effects of video games may only last the duration of game play. Kids can improve in general knowledge with educational video games like Leap Frog. Video games can train specific areas of the brain as well as increase brain flexibility and memory. Gaming actually has more beneficial effects than negative effects. Video games are excellent educational implement used in elementary schools. It is extremely helpful in brain development and helping kids with trouble reading improve. Memory retention can be improved and increased with the use of strategic, thinking games. Video games, as funny as it might sound, even promote

Playing video games is among one of the favorite pastimes of many people around the world. Some play games to kill time with simple tasks found most commonly on the phone, while others play them to challenge their mind in the form of complex puzzles or to practice management skills, some play them to experience a sense of adventure that they just can’t find anywhere else, and many use them as a way to communicate or have fun with friends both near and far. Whatever the reason someone may have for playing video games, they may not think that games can have an effect on their brains. Some would say that playing video games can lead to negative effects such as harming the player’s cognitive skills or causing them to become much more violent than normal. Others would argue that playing video games quickens the minds of their players, leading to higher mental performance or an increased attention to detail. Thanks to this hotly debated controversy many studies have been conducted over the past years in order to settle the debate once and for all. So what effect can playing video games have on the cognitive skills of their players, and are these effects positive, negative, or somewhere in the middle?