Bullets are trying to get me out of cover. Explosions penetrate my field of vision, blood covers the floor and somebody yells instructions over the intercom. Welcome to the modern world of gaming. Gone are the days of endless sessions of Tetris and hours of Link discovering the pixel-loaded world of Hyrule. High definition graphics brought around a wave of realism, which flesh out the colorful world of gaming. More and more do gaming worlds mimic and imitate or even match environments found in reality. Virtual environments are not only a necessary narrative device for games; they also challenge the brains of players in interesting ways.

As parents often worry about their children spending their time in front of the computer screen, fearing aggressive behavior or developmental issue, scientists have made interesting results researching video games influence on the brain. Apparently, intensive use of so-called “Action Games” can improve the cognitive abilities significantly. These enhancements can vary depending on the main focus of the game. A “first-person shooter” can lead to a better spatial orientation, faster reaction times, better visual attention and faster processing times in the brain. To explain this to someone, who never touched a video game in their life, such games simulate high stress situations like shootouts with enemies, hostage situations and disarming a bomb. Even if it takes place in a virtual world, the sense of identification with the characters and the high visual stimulation through lighting and color cause a response in the brain. As one form of learning is induced through repeated actions, repeating mentioned scenes and situations, it explains what leads to the improvement in cognitive abilities.

The motivating context of the games, mainly through rewarding the player with story progress, new weapons or other achievements, if an enemy was slain, can be beneficial in many ways. However, negative effects occur, manifesting in higher rates of aggression right after playing and even longer and a lower attention span. This can be monitored in children, where those who play games more often display difficulties in paying attention during a long lecture, though this effect might not only due to the sensational environments. Therefore, games can both enhance cognitive abilities and decrease them, dependent on the time spent with what type of game.

The learning through repetition concept affects not only the brain itself, it additionally might pick up actions witnessed in games. Some studies suggest that gamers tend to display behavior learned in games, in most cases unintended.  “Mario Kart” suddenly lets people drive their car like a professional; “Street Fighter” can lead to unexpected fighting moves and “Battlefield” fires up the need to look for cover. Reality and virtual reality bend together for some short moments, resulting in beneficial, strange or unexpected behavior, often surprising the gamers more than other people. It is suggested that the similarities of the environments lead to this effect.

The situation however is left unsolved. The modern world of gaming calls. Light will still blind everyone, captains and generals will still yell over the intercom and blood will be splattered all over the place. Hopefully it stays in the virtual world. But it is good to know that the brain does pick some things up from all the shooting.

Inspired by:
Adee, S. (2011). Game of Life. New Scientist, 212 (2844/2845).

Bavelier, D., Green, C.S., Han, D.H., Renshaw, P. F., Merzenich, M.M., Gentile, D.A. (2011). Brains on Video Games. Nature Reviews Neuroscience  ,12, 763-768.

Konno, H., Sugiyama, T. (1992). Mario Kart (Video Game). Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan.

Liliegren, F. (2011). Battlefield 3 (Video Game). EA Digital Illusions CE, EA, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nishiyama, T. (1987). Street Fighter (Video Game). Capcom, Osaka, Japan.