The Gamer's Brain: Attentive or At Long-Term Risk?

by Monica Joshi

Just when we thought that our opinions were changing from negative to positive for playing video games, this new research shows up to stop us in our tracks and rethink. All over again. For years video games have gotten a bad rap and as of late, they've been shown to help improve visual attention abilities. But new research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, shows that while previous research on video gamers is accurate, they are much more likely to use navigation strategies as opposed to the brain's spatial memory system (hippocampus) leading to an increased chance of neurological disorders like Alzheimer's.

The research conducted by the teams of Dr. Gregory West (Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal) and Dr. Véronique Bohbot (Douglas Institute researcher) studied a group of adult gamers who were spending at least six hours per week on gaming. Past research has clearly shown that people who use caudate nucleus-dependent navigation strategies, the brain's reward system, have decreased grey matter and lower brain functional activity in the hippocampus region. In other words, using the brain's reward system while playing video games, specifically action video games, has been previously associated with a decrease in grey matter in the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is responsible for the storage of long-term memory including all past knowledge and experiences. While scientists are unsure how this happen, they are certain the hippocampus plays a huge role in declarative memory, which involves recalling facts or events. Since video gamers have lower grey matter in the hippocampus, as response- or reward-based learners usually do, these individuals could be at a higher risk of developing neurological and psychiatric disorders during their lifetimes.

Since past research has shown that video games do, in fact, have a positive effect on attention, it is vital that future research confirms whether or not this new negative effect on the hippocampus contradicts the previous research. The question that gamers need to ask themselves is: can we continue to play video games and live in our happy bubble, or will the negative effects on one part of the brain affect the way that we think about action gaming?

With respect to further research on the hippocampus, Dr. West stated that:

"Future research using neuro-imaging will be necessary to further qualify our current findings, and these studies should investigate the direct effects of specific video games on the integrity of the reward system and hippocampus. "

This research will be absolutely necessary as video gamers now spend a collective three billion hours per week in front of the screen. While an average person will spend roughly 10, 000 hours gaming by the time that they are 21, the effects of intense video gaming are only now beginning to be understood. More specific and quantifiable research is required to determine whether we should be more invested in the positives of gaming or be concerned about the future of our brains on Skyrim.