‘Playing video games improves cognitive functions’

Playing action video games improves and changes the structure of certain regions of the brain that are involved in the system that regulates hand-eye coordination. It turns out that in game experts, as opposed to amateurs, these brain areas have better connections.

This is stated in a Scientific Report by Nature. It was already known that action video game players have better cognitive functions than people who don’t play AVGs, so the researchers tested the difference between amateurs and professionals or ‘experts’.

For the study, MRI looked at how a certain brain area behaves in 27 experts and 30 amateurs. Experts were people who played League of Legends for six years or more and are known as regional or national champions. The thirty amateurs had less than a year of experience.

It turned out that the connections in the insula or island of Reil, the area associated with the convergence of sensory stimuli and cognitive skills, were increased or improved in the experts. The amount of gray matter was also greater in the experts. Gray matter is the part of the central nervous system that has to process information quickly.