Video Games May Increase Cognitive Functioning

Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: IAN GILLESPIE -- London Free Press Jan. 20, 2007

My brain is going bad. And probably yours is, too.

It's getting tougher to remember names. I go to the store and neglect to pick up the main item I need. I forget where I've put things (like, ah, the car).

I'm sure there are other symptoms, but I can't remember what they are.
Anyway, experts tell us memory problems are fairly common. They also say this is happening partly because our lives are so busy that our brains are being overloaded. (This doesn't explain why I can't remember where I put my glasses, when the only thing I've done all day is try to find my glasses.)

But now, there's hope.
Paradoxically, one of the solutions is something that, for years, we were told was bad for our brains: Video games.
That's right. Once regarded as devilish devices that would turn minds to mush, researchers now are saying video games may be good for us.

"There's been a lot of research recently, primarily on the standard shoot-'em-up action games, showing that those sorts of things can be beneficial," says Jody Culham, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario. "Particularly with older people.
"There's some interesting stuff suggesting there might be some benefits to getting grandma playing the hot new games."

I'm not sure I can envision a gang of white-haired grandmothers, slumped in bean-bag chairs in a darkened basement, wasting gangsters in Scarface. But the general concept is gaining acceptance.

In his book Everything Bad is Good for You, for instance, technology expert Steven Johnson explored the benefits of an array of pop-culture offerings, including video games.
While early models like Pong and Pac Man were simple exercises in co-ordination and pattern recognition, Johnson argues today's games present a dizzying array of options and information. Indeed, he points out that one how-to-play guide for the game Grand Theft Auto III is more than 50,000 words long -- nearly the length of an average novel.

With their developing storylines, complex puzzles and multiple characters, Johnson argues, many modern video games are more than just instant-gratification machines. In fact, he says, these games actually delay gratification by forcing players to craft long-term strategies and figure out what to do. (Unlike board games of the past, you don't learn how to play a video game by reading a set of rules; you learn by playing it.)

Of course, many of these games are simply too fast and complicated for older players.
That's where Nintendo's Brain Age comes in. According to the promotional literature, this new software for the Nintendo DS hand-held system "acts like a treadmill for the mind."
Using a touch screen that allows players to write their answers with a special pen, Brain Age allows players to solve simple math problems, draw pictures, count moving objects and read examples of classic literature.

Culham says it's a variation on the old "use it or lose it" adage.

"There's lots of evidence that people who are in busy, stimulating work situations and have to do a lot of problem-solving fare much better in terms of (fending off) the development of Alzheimer's, senility and all sorts of cognitive problems," she says.

Oh boy! Finally -- a legitimate excuse to hide in the basement and waste hours and hours playing fancy video games with neat new software and . . . .
Hold it.

Culham says many of the benefits gained from video games can be found in plain old reality.
"I would suggest that people consider taking up tennis or playing strategy games like chess or backgammon with their friends," she says. "This way they get the intellectual benefits of a video game, but other benefits, too, such as cardiovascular exercise or social interaction and support."
Instead of shelling out cash for software, Culham says there are other ways -- just as effective but not as expensive -- to exercise your brain.

"Pull out the Sudoku from the newspaper, read some Jane Austen and play some games with your friends," she says. "That may do just as well -- or better."
Darn.