According to this study, people who play video games like the action game "Call of Duty" are better at multitasking, cognitive tasks like mentally rotating objects, and concentration and information retention. They even have better visual perception, including grayscale perception and the ability to resolve small details. Gamers can also process information faster and are capable of making lightning-fast decisions (see Spiegel ). How is this possible?

Computer games create better prediction skills

The study's lead author, Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, New York, explains: "Our brain is always trying to figure out what's coming next, whether we're having a conversation, driving a car, or even undergoing brain surgery. To sharpen its predictive powers, the brain is constantly developing models or patterns of the world. The better these models are, the better the brain's performance. And through our research, we know that playing computer games can indeed lead to better models."

To measure this effect, the scientists had a group of students play computer games for 50 hours (in 40-minute sessions) over a period of nine weeks. They played two very different types of games: an action-packed shooter game and a low-action simulation game. Both groups were then asked to perform a perceptual learning task. What was very surprising to the researchers was how much faster the action game players were able to build and refine new patterns compared to players of slower-paced games. And not only were they able to build these patterns faster, they were even able to do so while engaged in other activities. The action game players were indistinguishable from the non-action gamers at the beginning of the perceptual learning task, so they didn't have a better pattern," says Bavelier, "but they developed better patterns much, much faster, thus showing a significantly steeper learning curve."

Gamers are more focused, attentive and solution-oriented

After the training, the video game players didn't immediately lose their newly acquired skills. In a follow-up test a year later, the researchers found that the action game players were still better than untrained individuals. They had therefore retained the ability to form better patterns more quickly. "At the same time," says Bavelier, "we were able to look at the effect of computer games on the brain, and we found changes primarily in the neural networks that control attention. These include neural networks in the parietal lobe, which controls the direction of attention. Also in the frontal lobe, which controls how we maintain attention, and in the cingulate gyrus, which controls how we allocate and regulate attention and resolve conflicts. In our experiments, we observed that the neural networks in all three brain regions are much more efficient in people who play action games."

Nevertheless: Gaming only in moderation!

Nevertheless, Professor Bavelier warns that the results of her study shouldn't be used as an excuse to play video games for days on end and neglect homework. "I'm not going to tell you that playing computer games every day is good for your health. It's not, and excess is never good," she says. "We know that kids who spend a lot of time on the computer or video console perform worse in school. The more time you spend playing video games, the less time you have for homework, and the worse your grades will be."

Source: Vikranth R. Bejjanki et al.: Action video game play facilitates the development of better perceptual templates. PNAS 2014 111: 16961-16966. Here you can find a lecture by Professor Bavelier with German subtitles.