The video games have bad press: accused of develop aggression, to promote violent behavior, to cause school failure, in short, to make our teenagers stupid and mean, they are not popular with parents …
However, if some video games remain questionable, others could well have a positive impact on our health, and in particular on our brain capacities: this is what an American study published in the scientific journal shows. Computers in Human Behavior.
Be careful, we are not talking about just any game here, but many puzzle-games : these are video games (on console, smartphone or computer) whose goal is to solve puzzles, or to get out of a problem by developing a strategy effective. No more shooting, fighting or adventure games: in the puzzle-games, it’s about working your neurons!
Neural gymnastics
One of the puzzle-games the best known is the minesweeper, which is present automatically on most computers. In this category, we also find the famous 2048, games where you have to solve puzzles to progress (such as the excellent Machinarium, on console) or games inspired by the investigations of Sherlock Holmes. There is no shortage of choice!
The American researchers encouraged the participants to play a puzzle-game appointed Cut The Rope (on iPhone) for 20 hours (spread over 4 weeks).
As a result, in the end, the participants thus trained were able to adapt more quickly to new situations, were able to juggle more easily between different everyday problems and showed the ability to concentration higher than those of non-players … Another good reason to let the youngest have fun!
Do you think video games can be beneficial for our health? Come discuss in the forum !
