If played within reasonable limits, action games such as Call of Duty can be just as good if not better for your brain than a video game specifically designed to stimulate cognitive function, a recent study claims. With this argument researchers are claiming that policymakers should make more educated and balanced decisions when drafting policies that concern the consumption of particular types of video games.
Video Games
"The essential take-home message [in this paper] is that there is a lot of research that demonstrates that both action and brain training video games do influence cognitive processes The key thing is instead of just saying video games are bad, and restricting the time we play them, we need to look at both the benefits and disadvantages of video games, and make better-informed policy recommendations," Aaron Seitz, paper co-author and a psychology professor at the University of California, told Motherboard.
He added: "These games provide challenges: You have to respond to very subtle stimuli that are presented across the visual field very quickly. You need to do a bunch of different things at the same time-in essence, it's a workout for certain brain systems."
"Training laparoscopic surgeons to play video games also helps them with the surgery."
"It's necessary to really get scientists who are part of the policy process to look at what the benefits of gaming are, and how society can reap these benefits, instead of just assuming just because one characteristic of a game is offensive that there is no game to be had," he said.
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