Action games, especially first person shooters, can lead to hippocampal atrophy.
“Yes, video games are good for the brain! “, We said not too long ago. No, they are in fact dangerous, and cause changes in the brain, sometimes dangerous for health, we also hear. In reality, it seems that the effects of video games depend both on the type of game and on the individuals.
A study carried out at McGill University, in Montreal (Canada), showed that first-person shooter video games, for example, could induce a decrease in the mass of gray matter in the hippocampus. The results are published in the review Molecular Psychiatry.
Shooting game and “response learners”
Canadian researchers recruited 64 people between the ages of 18 and 30. He placed them in front of action games: shooting games like Call of Duty, Killzone, Medal of Honor or Borderlands 2, or 3D action like Super Mario 64. Games that participants had never played. previously.
They then assessed cognitive abilities, particularly on navigation, and performed MRI scans of the participants. And they observed a loss of gray matter in the seahorses of those they call “response learners”, and who played shooting games.
The neglected hippocampus
These people do not use their hippocampus to evolve in their game, but rather their caudate nucleus. This part of the brain has a role in execution, memory, learning, but also emotions and the reward system.
Those who use the hippocampus use spatial learning to find their way around. For example, they use rocks, mountains, or other scenery to navigate. The others rather remember having turned left or right.
By abandoning their hippocampus, they promote its atrophy. Hence the (slight) loss of gray matter observed in the participants of the Canadian study. “People who play action video games are twice as likely to be response learners (83%) as non-gamers (43%), explains Dr. Véronique Bohnot, memory specialist at McGill University , and one of the study’s authors. This is important to take into account, when we know the importance of the hippocampus in cognition. “
Favor platform games
People whose gray matter is less important in the hippocampus are indeed more at risk of developing neuropsychiatric diseases. It can be depression, schizophrenia, or even Alzheimer’s disease.
But not all games should be banned. “Games don’t all have the same effect,” Dr. Bohbot continues. These are first-person shooters specifically, and besides, it’s not on 100% of the population. Only 85% of the people who will be attracted to these games will tend to use their caudate nucleus ”.
For researchers, platform games are therefore safer, regardless of the player. In addition, as several previous studies have shown, they promote visual attention, motor skills and short-term memory.
.
