By: Luke Rossi
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Researchers at the University of Arkansas discover that playing video games for one hour can have a positive affect on the brain. U of A assistant professor of human development, Weiyi Ma, was a part of the research team that included researchers at the Key Laboratory for Neuro-information of the Ministry of Education of China.
In the study, they had students who were both experts, as well as amateurs play the game, “League of Legends” for an hour. Before and after playing, the students had their visual selective attention tested. They ran a computer test where two flashing squares would appear on the screen and the test subjects would try to explain where the second square was in relation to the first.
The pre-video game test showed that the expert gamers had more brain activity and scored higher on the visual selective attention test than the amateur gamers. After the hour of playing video games, both the expert and amateurs showed improvement in both categories. The amateurs had similar results to the experts after playing for an hour.
Based on the results of the experiment, the researchers concluded that an hour of video games can stimulate the brain and improve focus. They also explained that they need more research to find out just how long this improved brain activity will last.