Believe it or not, a lot of scientific research has gone into finding out if video games are good for you. After all, video games are classed as being a sport. If you are finding it hard to wrap your head around this then you should know that there are numerous benefits to playing video games. Some of them can be found below.
Exercising your Brain
Recent studies have been done and they have all found that playing video games can help you to improve your quality of life, especially if you are disabled or even if you are mentally ill. The main study was conducted at the Max Planck Institute and they found that playing video games actually increased your brain’s grey matter. This is, in other words, the size of your brain. It also helps you to refine any learned or hard-wired skills that you might have too. Playing video games ultimately impacts the regions of the brain that are responsible for your spatial orientation, fine motor skills, memory and more. If you play video games for around 30 minutes a day then you can really improve your life! If you are stuck as to what games there are to play then you can find plenty of them over at 5StarPokies.
Study Specifics
Scientists wanted to find out how video games affect the brain. To do this, they chose two groups of adults. The first group played Super Mario for around 30 minutes a day, for a total of two months. The second group didn’t play any kind of video game at all. Scientists then used MRI scans to try and measure the size of the brain before the start of the study and after. The results found that there were some major differences in the structure of the brain. Those who played video games had a volumetric increase in the brain. Simone Kuhn who is the senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute found that other studies have found that specific parts of the brain can easily be trained by using video games and that the study that they did supports it.
How is the Brain Impacted by Video Games?
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain which is responsible for anything to do with decision making. It’s also responsible for social behaviour and personality as well. Games like Super Mario require you to think ahead and it also forces you to work out how you need to interact with objects that are in a virtual world as well. The right part of the hippocampus really does play a huge part in how the brain processes information. Scientists saw a huge increase in growth here as well and this is because players are having to navigate the Super Mario world. Lastly, the cerebellum was also impacted. This is the part of the brain that controls muscular activity. It’s no surprise that this part of the brain grew as well because it helps you to process and respond to whatever is happening around you. In the study, people had to use a gamepad in order to navigate the world and they had to make a change at a moment’s notice, whether it’s pressing the jump button at the right time or whether it’s to move out of the way of an oncoming enemy. The results were far more pronounced in those who have dedicated a lot of their time to gaming or who had a very strong desire to try and beat a certain level of the game.
Brain Games
Okay, so if a game like Super Mario is able to give you significant benefits, surely games that are intended to train and test your brain are also beneficial, right? Since logic games were introduced, they have been a love-hate genre. A lot of providers have made claims about them and some people just don’t believe them. There are claims that if you spend a couple of minutes on a game like this, that you will become smarter. It’s important to know that games like this are still being debated. At the end of the day though, anything that engages your brain is certainly not a waste of time. They are great at helping the elderly with their mental stimulation and this is something that a lot of doctors really do recommend.
Video Games and the Body
So how else are games good for you? Sure, they can make your brain bigger, but they can also help you to shrink your waistline too. Games such as Wii Fit have experienced a huge level of resurgence over the last couple of years and a lot of this comes down to companies such as Konami and even Nintendo. If you load up games like this then you can revolutionise the way that you exercise in a really positive way. Nintendo have made games like this appealing because they make it easier than ever for you to get into a good workout without having to leave the house. They are ideal if you lead a very busy life and they also make it very easy for you to get a quick burst of activity.
The best thing about tech like this is that you can also track your progress relatively easily. You won’t have to worry about how you are going to lose weight when you have an app or game which is telling you exactly how your workout is benefitting you. Of course, if you aren’t quite sure whether a game like this is good for you or not then you should certainly give it a go. When you do, you will soon see why they can be addictive, in a positive way. You may find yourself pushing to try and achieve a new high score or even trying to beat a friend’s record. All of this can help you to lose even more weight, which is always a good thing if you have goals that you are trying to achieve.
