Do video games damage our brain?

If you play video games frequently, your brain changes: the more of the so-called gray mass is present in the hippocampus of the brain, the healthier the organ of thought is. The less they are present, the greater the risk of developing brain disease.

The League of Legends computer game is a phenomenon:

The computer game “League of Legends” is a phenomenon: around 100 million people around the world play it, usually “LoL”, as they say among the connoisseurs. The game, in which normally two teams with five members each compete against each other. The rules are complex and winning against other players requires strategic thinking.

Research confirms many positive effects:

The study published in mid-November 2017 from the University of York in England in the journal Plos One. It cannot be answered if gamers got smarter over the hours in front of the screen or if it just helps gamers smartest in the league, says psychologist Alexander Wade:

We bet on the latter.

Computer games are a common pastime for young people today. Research on the effects of computer gambling is also flourishing, producing hundreds of studies each year. After all, they want to know how this mass phenomenon influences the brain and behavior.

Contrary to popular belief, the results generally lead to computer games improving the brain functions involved. It’s pretty clear that many games don’t improve the entire IQ, but they do improve individual brain functions.

Only later did scientists demonstrate the positive effects of the game. Those who play regularly for an hour are better at quickly understanding situations, generating new knowledge, and classifying what they have learned into categories.

The reason for this is increased activity in the hippocampus, an area that is important for learning and that can be trained through computer games. But through excessive gambling, an average of fourteen hours per week, the so-called gray matter of the brain suffers in gamers, reduced in some places. This is found in the orbital frontal cortex, which belongs to the frontal lobe responsible for higher tasks. The more excessive his game, the greater the loss.

Just what does that mean? The volume of gray matter in which the nerve cells of the cortex settle varies greatly throughout life and depends on several factors; it’s hard to tell if a change is good or bad.

One thing is for sure: if you spend a lot of time on the screen, you don’t have enough time for other things. Neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier from the University of Geneva compares computer games to red wine:

It is a shame in large quantities. It may even have enjoyed moderate health benefits.