Every now and then the videogame medium returns to be questioned by studies and research. Many times there has been talk of the possible inconvenience that video games can cause to those who use them in the wrong ways, but in recent years there have been more and more studies that underline how video games can also give a whole range of benefits. Just recently we have returned to discuss the videogame theme within a research, which brings out some very interesting information.
The research in question was carried out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which recently published a study entitled Association of Video Gaming With Cognitive Performance Among Children. The study involved 2.217 children aged between 9 and 10, and showed that those who play videosgames for 3 or more hours a day demonstrate superior cognitive abilities compared to those who do not play at all.
To have concrete evidence on what has been studied, the research has done some tests. One of these, for example, proposed that children press a button in different ways according to the indications of an arrow positioned on a screen, and this action had to be done as quickly as possible to demonstrate children's cognitive abilities. In this test those who played video games were able to react faster by as much as 0,8 milliseconds compared to children who did not play at all.
La conclusion of this research expressly mentions the following: “the use of video games may be associated with better performance in cognitive tests involving response inhibition, memory and an altered BOLD signal [dependence on blood oxygen level]”. According to the researchers, the results of the test lead to the awareness that video games can become real cognitive training for children that has beneficial neurocognitive effects.
