A study of more than 2,000 kids that play video games finds beneficial changes in their brains and behavior.
The interesting thing about brain / video game studies is it tends to be the largest studies that show games are having a positive impact. Or put another way, the “video games are bad for you†reasearch studies tend to be small sample sizes and generally not as well designed.
Bader Chaarani, a neuroscientist at the University of Vermont in Burlington is clear on this, “It’s really important,†he says, “to have as big a sample as we can get.†That means you need to test lots and lots of people.
Chaarani was part of a team that set out to study the brains of more than 2,000 kids. They came from 21 different sites across the United States.
In the end, this extensive study concluded kids who game more than 20 hours a week did better than nongamers on mental tasks requiring memory and attention.
That is not to suggest there may not be negative effects of that much game play, the design of the study did not control for which games were played and many other considerations that led to confounding findings – but not around mental performance.
Source: https://www.snexplores.org/article/playing-video-games-may-improve-memory-attention
