How game playing may boost attention & brain activity.
Do you ever feel like your brain is slowly becoming mashed potatoes from performing the same tasks over and overagain? A journal posted from the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggested that simply one hour of playing videogames can increase brain activity. The most interesting part of the article I found interesting was the quote that “Visual attention is crucial to preventing sensory overload, since the brain is constantly faced with an overwhelming amount of visual information.”Author Bjorn Hubert-Wallander reviews that “It’s an ability,” he said, “that is especially emphasized during visually demanding activities suchas driving a car or searching for a friend’s face in a crowd, so it is notsurprising that scientists have long been interested in ways to modify, extend,and enhance the different facets of visual attention.” It’s so easy to become overwhelmed or even experience “sensory overload” in times of stress which I think many students and also parents face from time to time. One of my favorite games I played with my friends throughout high school was GTA and I strongly agree with the article that time spent playing video games is capable of increasing concentration and brain activity because it allows you to focus on soley one game or task. Brain activity bettering from game play is also supported by the scientists from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu who created a study that showed participants who spent 1 hour playing the videogame League of Legends experienced changes in brain activity…the lights were going on! The participants also demonstrated improved ability to focus on relevant information while screening out distractions. Focusing on relevant information in this way uses up brain power, so scientists tend to believe that people who are very good at focusing their attention while filtering out distractions show a very efficient use of their brains. Findings from the study demonstrate a measurable increase in both brain activity and visual selective attention scores in participants after playing a video game for one hour, the authors explain that their findings do not tell us about how long these effects might last. They therefore suggest that more studies may be needed. In conclusion, I found the article notable for the connections between science and the study of gaming, along with its effects on players.
