1 hour of gaming may improve attention – Neuroscience Studies

Just 1 hour of gaming may improve attention – Neuroscience Studies

According to Neuroscience studies published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, only 1 hour of playing video games can affect the brain.

---

The scientists conducted study at the Chinese Electronic Science and Technology University in Chengdu. They found that participants who spent 1 hour playing the League of Legends video game experienced brain activity changes.

29 male students were hired for the research by the scientists. One group had at least 2 years of video games playing action and the other group had less than 6 months of video games playing experience.

The group with the most experience, or the “experts,” was ranked among the top 7 percent of players in the League of Legends. Meanwhile, the “non-experts” ranked 11 percent in the bottom.  The researchers evaluated the players ‘ “visual selective attention” before and after playing League of Legends.

Visual selective attention is how researchers refer to the capacity of the brain to concentrate while disregarding less appropriate data at the same time.

Video game boosted brain activity, attention

Visual selective attention was evaluated by the writers of the research. They conducted a test involving squares flashing on separate components of a computer screen.

First, a square in the middle of the screen, followed by a square flashing elsewhere on the screen. That was shortly shown to respondents. The participants had to tell the scientists where, relative to the first square. The second square was on the screen.

The brain activity of the respondents was also tracked using an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine during the visual selective attention experiment.

The specialist respondents were discovered to have more visual selective attention than non-experts before playing the video game. Their EEG findings showed more attention-related brain activity.

Both groups showed enhanced visual selective attention after playing League of Legends for 1 hour. Even reporting comparable results in the post-game test.

Not only that, but the researchers found that non-experts ‘ brain activity increased after playing the game to the extent that levels of brain activity were now comparable between experts and non-experts.

While the findings show a measurable increase in participants ‘ brain activity as well as visual selective attention scores after playing a 1-hour video game. The authors explain that their findings do not tell us how long these effects might last. 

Therefore, they indicate that more studies are required in this respect.To know about New findings add to growing evidence Read Article