Brain Science and Video Games

Thanks to Bobbie Johnson over at the Technology Blog at the Guardian for pointing out a recent article at Discover Magazine by Steven Johnson entitled, This is Your Brain on Video Games: Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception.

Steven Johnson addresses several items from the gaming portion of his book, Everything Bad is Good for You, taking a look at some of the latest brain research surrounding video games.

Some of the studies in recent months are ones I’ve documented elsewhere in this blog, but others I have not previously covered. For instance, he talks about Richard Haier over at UC, Irvine, tracking cerebral glucose metabolic rates in Tetris players. Experienced players show lower glucose use (a rough measure of thought energy) than novice players.

Things he points out that I’ve covered include Green and Bavelier’s work on visual plasticity, Rosser’s work with laproscopic surgeons, and Beck and Wade’s business study of gamers in the workplace.

Victoria Schlesinger is given a byline for additional reporting on the story, and perhaps is credited with the legwork involved on the more recent studies. There are a handful of other studies and quotes in this article that will make for interesting reading for researchers looking out for new papers to peruse.