Nope, video games do not only have harmful consequences on children. A large study published this Monday in the American medical journal JAMA Network Open indicates that this popular hobby may also have cognitive benefits.
More than 2,000 children tested
The study’s lead author, Bader Chaarani (assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont) analyzed data from tests conducted on more than 2,000 children, ages 9 and 10.
The children were divided into two groups : those who never play video games and those who play them every day for 3 hours or more. Both groups performed two tasks.
For the first, arrows pointing left or right were shown to the children, who had to click on the corresponding button as quickly as possible. They also had to press no button if a “stop” sign appeared instead, a way to measure their ability to control themselves. For the second task, they were shown a first face and then a second, later, and they had to say if they belonged to the same person, this time testing their working memory, a short-term memory.
More activity in the brains of “gamers”
The researchers found that children playing video games consistently performed better on their tasks. During the tests, the children’s brains were observed using specific imaging techniques. Those of the gamers showed more activity in areas of the brain associated with attention and memory.
Better to play a game than watch a video
“Too much screen time is of course overall bad for mental health and physical activity“, notes Professor Bader Chaarani. But his results, he adds, show that video games might be a better use of that screen time than watching videos on YouTubefor example, which exhibits no detectable cognitive effects.
Other studies rehabilitate video games
This latest study adds to others, also recent, which tend to demonstrate that video games do not cause major health consequences.
In 2021, an extensive study conducted over 10 years
denied any link between violent video games and violence.
In 2020, another study conducted by the University of Oxford
boasted theThe benefits of Animal Crossing and “Plants vs Zombies” games on mental health.