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Videogaming Keeps the Brain From Aging

Posted by Zonk on Sun Feb 12, 2006 02:49 AM
from the i-shall-live-forever! dept.
Entertainment Games Science
Ant wrote to mention a Globe and Mail article stating that videogames keep the mind young and help in quick focusing on different tasks. "A body of research suggests that playing video games provides benefits similar to bilingualism in exercising the mind. Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tasks. A new study of 100 university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests. If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable."
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  • Awesome (Score:5, Funny)

    by MillionthMonkey (240664) on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:52AM (#14698733)
    Do you know what this means? The "Hot Coffee Scene" is good for you!

  • No camping! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:53AM (#14698737)
    Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tas--

    Yeah, whatever. Dude!! Check out this score! w00t!

    Now.. what were you saying?

    • Re:No camping! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by IdleTime (561841) on Sunday February 12 2006, @09:39AM (#14699658) Journal
      One of the conditions of mastering a language is that you actually are thinking in that language you are about to use. The hardest part is to actually change the mind in order to think in a foreign language. I speak 7 languages but I really only think in 4 of them.

  • Girlfriends Have Known This For Years (Score:5, Funny)

    by geoffrobinson (109879) on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:55AM (#14698741) Homepage
    Plenty of complaints about immature guys have been heard over the years.

  • It's True (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lehk228 (705449) on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:55AM (#14698742) Journal
    You can prove it yourself just go on any counterstrike server even the adults act like thay are 12 years old

  • Or Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slarrg (931336) on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:55AM (#14698744)
    People who are capable of changing tasks quickly enjoy playing videogames.
    • I think they have it backwards. The GAME is the task, one that requires the ability concentrate, to focus on a single task. Multitasking has nothing to do with it: most good multitaskers I know absolutely SUCK at video games. Extreme singletasking is what is going on here. Personally, I'm a terrible multitasker ... as a software engineer I perfer to sit at my computer undisturbed for as long as necessary to solve whatever problem is at hand. Conversely, asking me to cook a complicated meal that requires kee

      • Someone recently referred to raid healing in WoW as "health-bar whack-a-mole". You spend several hours staring intently at one small section of your screen, clicking a mouse button in response to changing colours. and they wonder why healers go a little crazy with the DPS occasionally.

      • Precisely the point that my Psych. teacher tries to hammer into our brains:
        coincidence != causality

        God, if that is the state of students today... you have to unlearn them horoscopes and tarot cards and whatever else new age spirituality where they warp coincidences into something predestined. Somehow I don't feel so bad about our classes trying to hammer in "corrolation != causality" anymore.

  • I rule! (Score:4, Funny)

    by lastberserker (465707) <{babanov} {at} {earthlink.net}> on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:58AM (#14698749) Homepage Journal
    I'm bilingual (2 1/4 to be correct) gamer, so $subj :-)

  • Ahaaa! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12 2006, @02:59AM (#14698750)
    I knew I should keep playing video games all night instead of studying...I'm keeping myself alive longer, so I can study more!

  • Exercise (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MichaelSmith (789609) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:00AM (#14698755) Homepage Journal
    "The [video game players] are much harder to mislead, to trick," Prof. Bialystok said.

    Well OK, games are often about solving problems and getting around situations which try to trick you.

    I think real world exercises would be of equal benefit, assuming that the exposure is broad enough, but this at least confirms that simulations are a good way of training people, which has been understood in aerospace since the 1960's.

  • wish it worked for me. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by etheriel (620275) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:04AM (#14698762)
    weird. i'm bilingual, and i play videogames pretty often, but i have a lot of difficulty filtering out distractions.
    • I'm trilingual and it's even worse for me. I call for a recount. It's just so surprising to me that--

      Oooh, a bird!

    • I have ADD, I have a terrible time focusing my attention, but when I do, it locks on harder than a bell hop at a bunny club. In any case, I tend to play games for the exact reason that they give me something to focus on. Gaming really helps me to relax at the end of the day and gives me a bit of a break from the maelstrom of conflicting signals we encounter throughout our day to day lives. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one, and that many people with concentration issues are drawn to gaming as a kind of

  • Now this study comes out...my whole life friends, family, and significant others thought I suffered from ADHD when really I'm just...

  • the study i s ryte (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mancat (831487) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:08AM (#14698773) Homepage
    i playd vidoe games all way thru hi scooll, and i faled a lota clases, and my parents kiked me out of home, but now even in my old age of 32 i feel yung @ haeart. so... i think they r ryte.. i thank vid. games for ervrything i have.. my gf i met on hallo xbox online, my dog (but ive been layuing lots of vid. games lately and i dont know hwhere he is), and my fun job @ teh bowling allie.

    long liv vid. gamnes!@ keeping us yung 4 ever!

  • Moral of the story (Score:4, Funny)

    by prakslash (681585) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:09AM (#14698776)

    To stay young, play:

    Halo: El Combate Ha Evolucionado

  • Actually... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by l3prador (700532) <wkankla@gmaTOKYOil.com minus city> on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:12AM (#14698783) Homepage
    Prof. Bialystok first noticed bilingual children were proficient in blocking out irrelevant information about 20 years ago. When asked to identify a grammatically correct sentence, for example, both bilinguals and monolinguals are, by age 5, able to choose, "Apples grow on trees," over "Apple trees on grow" as the correct one. But when it came to asking "Apples grow on noses" versus "Apples nose on grow," only the bilingual children were able to choose the right answer. Although the first sentence is grammatically correct, monolingual children could not get over its silliness. "That's crazy," they'd shout, "You can't say that!"

    Maybe this is good, maybe not. If this is training people to move on and solve the problem, even though they understand that there is a problem with the validity of the sentence, then it is a good thing. On the other hand, if they are able to do better because don't even notice the problem, then maybe it's not so good. I've seen plenty of times where everyone's so focused on solving a problem that they don't realize they're solving the wrong problem.

    • Re:Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LordLucless (582312) on Sunday February 12 2006, @04:22AM (#14698945)
      I think it's because when you know only one language, it's hard to actually figure out what grammar is. When you learn to speak, you don't learn vocabulary, grammar and enunciation separately. You learn them all mixed together.

      When you learn a second language, you are able to more easily identify the structural components of language (ie: grammar) when comparing the two side-by-side. A monolinguist will be more likely to assume that the grammar of his language is universal; a polylinguist will understand that grammar is subordinate to language.
    • I suspect it's just that, actually. We gamers are used to solving the wrong problem (by RL standards) in the right way, or for that matter working with rules and problems that make no sense whatsoever by RL standards. We've got over two decades of experience saying that such stuff is just _normal_, if the game says so:

      - that wolves, or for that matter insects, carry coins or pieces of armour, or that you can get a 6 ft two-handed sword as loot on a 1 ft rabbit

      - but, conversely, things you'd expect each of t
  • I play games and speak three languages...
    Does this mean my brain has started regressing and soon I will have the mental age of 5.

  • Mental agility is a choice. Videogames help! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by killdashnine (651759) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:28AM (#14698822) Homepage

    I personally play a ton of video games still in my mid-thirties and support this wholeheartedly. The thing about video games, to me, is that they constantly challenge your mind.

    I remember a gentlemene that was in his seventies telling me once that he kept mentally spry simply by reading, doing puzzles, and the like. He said that most adults are effectively senile early on because they quit reading and generally idle in front of TV. TV bores me; it doesn't challenge you to do much of anything except look, so I'd imagine that ANYONE who plays any kind of games requiring use of their brain would be a step up on people who don't.

    Anyway ... I play to be playing games until I can't see and hear them anymore. Hopefully in my old age we'll have decent VR and can simply "plug in" ;)

  • It would not surprise me if playing video games was a good mental exercise for gamers. But surely there is selection going on as well. Gamers have a talent that makes them good at the "tricky mental tests".

    I see this sort of thing all the time. A week or so ago, there was an article in the (Canadian) Globe and Mail about some study that indicated that shorter people live longer than taller people by (as I recall) 1.5 years per inch. I assume that this is at least partly genetic characteristices that,

    • It would not surprise me if playing video games was a good mental exercise for gamers. But surely there is selection going on as well. Gamers have a talent that makes them good at the "tricky mental tests".

      You're right, they haven't proven causation. However they have a plausible mechanism (exercising the mind improves it). The alternative hypothesis (that people play games because they have certain mental strengths) seems less likely. Either way it'd be easy to establish causation in this case.

      A w

  • Correlation not Causation (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sallymander (932697) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:29AM (#14698825) Homepage
    Okay, so they surveyed 100 college students. Of gamers I know in college, a very large percentage tend to be engineers, and many of those tend to be Asian American...and speak a second language because of their heritage...and very likely came from families that really emphasized math and sciences. Most "mental tests" tend to lean in favor of that population.

  • Longer Mental Efficiency for Species (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SeaFox (739806) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:41AM (#14698851)
    If this is true than this generation should prove to be more mentally healthy than previous generations into old age. Video games didn't exist for the Boomer's childhood and didn't hit mainstream till adolecence for Gen X. But Gen Y and later have had the availabilty of this sort of therapy since they were old enough to hold a joystick. This increased time should (in my theory at least) mean greater mental ability into old age than the pervious two generations.

    I wonder if the type of game or level of difficulty have any effect either. I find today's games are a lot more complex than when I was young. Yet you still see young people able to master them. Perhaps this will enhance the effect due to the additional hand-eye coordination and problem solving skills needed to navigate in a modern first person shooter (where vertical/rotational perspective has to be tracked independently of actual character movement) vs. the simple side scrollers we started on (like Super Mario Bros).

    Like the idea long ago that 65 years was very old age one would be lucky to make it to, perhaps someday the idea of the mentally feeble old man will be tossed as people stay sharp in mind far into their twilight years.
      • Not entirely true--it takes time to build up the coordination between your vision and your hands; that is, being able to see where you need to go on screen and getting your character there while keeping your field of view where you want it (ie turning instead of strafing, moving the mouse on the right axis, etc)

  • Interesting, although gamers already know this... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Max Nugget (581772) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:55AM (#14698876)
    Watch any older adult try to pick up a game controller and play a videogame. *IF* they manage to get the hang of using the controller, they typically are overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the modern videogame and the number of things they must simultaneously (and QUICKLY) keep track of. This has always been, IMHO, at least anecdotal evidence that videogames clearly develop a certain set of mental skills that very few other activities develop so effectively.
    • overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the modern videogame and the number of things they must simultaneously

      There must be a disipline of user interface undesign within game developent. I must remember this when I am interviewing new UI designers.

      My point (if I have a point) is that games are not like any other software, and increasingly are not like other things which employ UI design principles.

      • Re:Interesting, although gamers already know this. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Aladrin (926209) on Sunday February 12 2006, @05:47AM (#14699136)
        I think you misunderstand. The complexity doesn't come from the interface.

        Take my father, for example. He's been driving since he was in high-school, so I'm pretty sure he's caught onto that. He's got an IQ of like 140 or so, so he's no idiot.

        Now, place a Playstation 1 controller in his hand and let him play a racing game. Pick an easy one with just the analog stick, brake and gas. (Yes, I've done this.)

        The result is pathetic. He actively WANTS to play it. He asked for it. He repeatedly runs into the walls, forgets which controls are which (There's only 2!) and generally just fails at the game. He played for a few hours with the same results. He asked me like 3 or 4 times over the first hour or so what the controls were. (Admittedly, the last time was a confirmation, not a question.)

        This is something any kid I can name would be able to do quite easily. He did not grow up with video games of any sort, and does not touch-type.

        He's an amazing industrial engineer, but the simplest of video games eludes him. It's not the complicated UI, it's a thought-pattern he never developed. Maybe if he spent enough time at it, he could pick it up, but he never will. He's got too many things to do that are actually fun for him.

        I think the study fails to recognize that there are thought-patterns associated with being a good gamer, but gamers definitely tend towards more agile thinking and better motor skills, at least for the hands.

    • Re:Interesting, although gamers already know this. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Spiffae (707428) on Sunday February 12 2006, @04:50AM (#14699023)
      This exact point is covered in the extremely excellent "Everything Bad Is Good For You" [amazon.com] which I'm sure Slashdot has reviewed...let's see. Yep [slashdot.org].

      It's an excellent book and well worth the time and money. Covers a huge range of topics from watching TV to playing Grand Theft Auto, and it does so in a well informed and enlightening way.
    • The fact is, games started with a simple interface, if only by virtue of not having CPU or RAM for more complex stuff. Pong only had two directions: up and down. Pacman had four. At this point we're not even talking about a fire button yet: just the directions. Then games got a fire button. Then two. Then gradually... well, have you looked at a console controller lately? A PS2 one sports no less than 12 buttons, including the thumbsticks which can _also_ act as buttons, in addition to their normal function.
      • "These aren't 'mental skills' - they're learned behaviors."

        Learned behaviors are mental skills. Seems our brains are geared more for reacting to events around us than to ponderous analysis. This makes sense if you think about our evolution: Which is going to let you live longer to successfully breed, thinking about running away from the obvious danger, or just running and maybe thinking about it later.

        Some suggest that we do actual thinking only to the point where we find a valid, working reaction. We then

  • It's improved my memory (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DaNasty (833075) on Sunday February 12 2006, @03:55AM (#14698877) Homepage
    I've certainly noticed it's improved my memory and allowed me to become more adept at finding my way around new places. Expansive games like GTA: SA have allowed me to learn locations & glean directions with just a cusory glance at a map. Thanks videogames!
  • I use desktop sidebar to subscribe to slashdot... I play World of Warcraft in windows mode so I can still see desktop sidebar... Both of these events where occuring at the same time... I guess that whole "task switching" thing works well in my head...

    Comment posted, time to slaughter some more aliance care bears!!
  • On the other hand. if you instead of spending your time playing VG's you spend it studying, working, reading an educational book, socializing with fun or interesing people, the benefits would far surpass the whatever skills these ppl claim you acquire.

    (Not to mention the increased number of opportunities to meet chicks, unless of course you are this guy
    http://media.putfile.com/PurePwnage-WoWisafeeling [putfile.com] ...)

  • Europe vs US (Score:4, Funny)

    by toolslive (953869) on Sunday February 12 2006, @04:14AM (#14698922)
    most Europeans speak 2 or 3 languages... and yes, they consider Americans stupid.

    • Re:Europe vs US (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cyber-vandal (148830) on Sunday February 12 2006, @07:46AM (#14699370) Homepage
      Which as far as I can tell is due to 2 factors: most Europeans start learning a foreign language at a very young age; and there is an enormous amount of English language media out there.
      I bet your charts are full of US and UK music in English, I bet your TV channels have English language shows with subtitles, and you are currently posting on an English language website.
      Contrast my experience as a Briton learning French: there are no French songs in the charts, my only opportunity to see French language shows is TV5 without subtitles and there are no French language websites that really grab my interest although I'm still looking around.
      Learning other languages you have it even more simple given that French, Spanish and Italian all have a lot in common, and Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian likewise.
      If you could speak a language very different to your own with little to no exposure to the language outside lessons I'd be more impressed, as it is mainland Europeans have it very easy with regards to being multilingual and your arrogance is misplaced.
    • The fact that Americans don't speak multiple languages also stems from the geopolitical reality of the nation. I can drive thousands of miles in any direction, and the language never changes. You cannot say the same thing about Europe. It is necessary to learn multiple languages in Europe. In America it is just not so. Now, this will hopefully change in the future. Spanish is becoming quite prevalent. Also, with the fact that travel across the globe is so easy, hopefully Americans will become more and
    • and yes, they consider Americans stupid.

      Don't worry, it's mutual.
  • Does l337 speak count as a language?

  • Exercize the mind, mind is healthy.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Havenwar (867124) on Sunday February 12 2006, @09:23AM (#14699619)
    But what about the body? Sure, gaming is good for the brain... so is readin, drawing, studying, thinking, fantasizing, and pretty much anything else you do with your mind. How do I know... simple - if you stop you're dead.

    But more importantly, as I said, what about the body? I'm pretty sure it isn't helped by those 48 hour MMORPG maratons. Really want to have the mind of a 12 year old in the body of a 75 year old... when you'r thirty, or maybe forty? Really?

    I think I'll diversify a bit more myself. Maybe pick up another language... or I dunno... not game so much.

    Just one more level.

  • also useful for stroke victims? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grikdog (697841) on Sunday February 12 2006, @11:53AM (#14700273) Homepage
    When I turned 60, I didn't turn myself in for euthanasia, either. Star Ocean is lots more fun, and I've learned to appreciate those annoying AI bugs.

    On a serious note, I apparently had a minor strokelet a couple years ago that left me unable to understand the color red in the context of traffic lights, stop signs, tail lights, etc. Red means stop, of course, bear with me here. When I see red in any more or less urgent context involving driving a car, red is simply invisible.

    I have to TELL myself, in words, what it means. I've got the tickets to show for this weirdly anecdotal condition, and I've learned to love my 2000 Honda Civic's ABS and V-Tek engine in consequence. That was then.

    These days, several months after the worst of these episodes (it was never life-threatening, fortunately), my "red reflex" has rewired itself almost back to normal -- and the only major change in my lifestyle has been videogaming. Post hoc ergo propter hoc and all that jazz, Doc, but I think there's something to it.

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