Get Smarter By Computer Games?

Get Smarter By Computer Games?

By: Lindsey Horton

Usually our parents have to tell us to stop playing computer games. Yet recently, scientists have reason to tell us that we might as well make them a nightly part of our homework. Well, perhaps not every computer game, but on in specific, called "Tetris". There is evidence to show that playing this game for up to 1.5 hours a week, for three months, that the grey matter in your brain will grow larger. The gray matter in your brain is the area that processes information, by brain cells and capillaries. 15 adolescent girls took the experiment of playing the game for 1.5 hours a week for three months, and their area of their gray matter in their brains were seen to grow larger. They were compared to other girls who, over the three months did not do the tetris, and whom showed no growth in size for their gray matter. The 15 girls that were in the study were chosen because they may not have had their gray matter affected as boys might, who stereotypically play coordinated video games more. The 15 girls began as novice players, and soon they became very experienced. Scientists suggested that the cause for the growth in grey matter is because the brain is learning to communicate different areas of itself that it hadn't before. After the three months, that communication becomes typical of the brain.

The social impact of this discovery on how to increase grey matter, an area crucial to planning complex movements, could be the increase in assigned computer use in school. Perhaps game time, which could add up to 1.5 hours a week, could be scheduled in a classroom. A teacher may perhaps assign 18 minutes a day, just like they typically assign SSR time. Another social impact could be more encouraging of computer games at home for boys, and girls as well, from their parents who would otherwise say that the computer is off limits. The last possible social impact is that researchers may do the same experiment with other games, and see if grey matter can be grown further quicker. This could mean that perhaps American soldiers could use this tactic is is was developed enough, and aim weapons better, or learn ducking moves better. 

I though that this article was very interesting because I am always very interested on how the brain evolves and works to adapt to it's surroundings. I think that this example is just one of many that attests to the fact that the brain is an amazing tool, unlike any other. I possibly want to be a cognitive scientist when I grow up, so this article particularly stands out to me. 

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47026/title/Tetris_players_are_not_block_heads