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Video gamers have trouble focusing
28 October 2009
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If you are a keen gamer, it's worth making an effort to maintain other interests in your life as well as your gaming.
People who play action video games for hours at a time may be less able to focus on tasks, according to scientists.
The US researchers looked at 51 male university students who played action video games. Half of the men were classed as 'low gamers' (they played video games for less than two hours per week), and the other half were classed as 'high gamers' (they played video games for an average of 43 hours per week).
Each student carried out a test to measure their attention span while the researchers recorded their electrical brain activity using an electroencephalography (EEG). During the test, the words 'red', 'blue', 'green' or 'yellow' were displayed on a computer screen in either a font colour that matched the word, or one that didn't. The men were asked to identify the font colour of the word.
When the word and colour didn't match, both groups took longer to respond and were less likely to give the right answer. According to the researchers, this shows that the amount of time you spend playing video games does not affect your ability to react to something unexpected (reactive attention control).
However, when the scientists looked at the students' attention span over time and their ability to adapt (proactive attention control), they found that the high gamers had a shorter attention span than the low gamers. The EEG tests from the gamers also showed that brain activity was reduced in high gamers, in areas of the brain needed for attention span.
The researchers believe that, in contrast to previous studies, their findings show that people who play video games for many hours a week are less able to maintain attention and remember specific information in surroundings that are not very engaging.
Dr Rebecca Small, assistant clinical director for Bupa, commented: "This is an interesting, although rather small study. It conflicts with results from previous research that found that video games can be beneficial to some aspects of brain function. Many video gamers may be left wondering what to believe.
"The main point to take from this study is that video gaming is perfectly healthy in moderation. However, if you are a keen gamer, it's worth making an effort to maintain other interests in your life as well as your gaming."
Read the study
Bailey K, West R, Anderson CA. A negative association between video game experience and proactive cognitive control. Psychophysiology 2009: 1-9. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00925.x