With 67 pct of American households playing them , video game are no longer the sole area of 15 - year - honest-to-god boys who spend Friday dark in damp basements [ source : ESRB ] . ( And really , were they ever ? I eff many a mom who was a secret and diligent " Tetris " actor . ) While annoyed parents swap stories ofvideo games ' various sins — how they describe fury , how they discourage attention span and , recycling the old TV - age word of advice , how they " turn your psyche to mush " — video games had n’t been seriously studied for some of their more positive applications until the 21st century . As more enquiry comes in , there ’s more and more compelling grounds that telecasting game are n’t just a time suck for kids who do n’t need to finish homework .
Let ’s start off with the dubiousness at hand : Do video games really improve handwriting - eye coordination ? favorable for us , there ’s a study that test just that . In 2014 , University of Toronto research worker conduct two experiment on gamers ( who had regularly played first - person shooter games for the previous six month ) versus nongamers ( who had played few or no biz in the premature two years ) . One experimentation had them use a calculator black eye to keep an object at the core of a complicated ( and recur ) moving target . They found that everyone did pretty terrible at the outset , but the gamers eventually became significantly well at the repetitious movement . This implies that gamers are n’t ply an " initial advantage " when it fare to learning unexampled hired man - eye coordination task , but that they finally pick it up more easily [ source : University of Toronto ] .
They also tested to see that the gamers were actually learning the new task and not just naturally better at hand - eye labor . In the 2nd test , instead of the insistent drive , the object on the screen tracked randomly — and this clip , nobody did well or got better , which showed that the gamers really were meliorate through learning [ source : University of Toronto ] .
Another 2014 study bring forth a rather surprising finding . adolescent who play more video game had increased cortical thickness in a couple of parts ofthe brain — indicating greater density and more genius cell connections . One of those part was the left-hand dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , which help us make complex decisions and stores some computer storage role . The other part that showed thickness ? The unexpended head-on optic William Claude Dukenfield , which — aha ! — helps us work stimulant and includes hired hand - oculus coordination skill [ reservoir : DiSalvo ] . The thick-skulled learning ability region do entail that video games can meliorate cognition and hand - middle coordination [ source : Kühn et al . ] .
But lease ’s get down to business . Does punt assistance in the real world ? A 2007 study showed that TV biz playing did amend surgeons ' laparoscopic operation acquirement [ source : Rosser Impact ] . In addition , a 2013 study show that surgeon who " trained " with a video game warmup before surgical operation were faster and made fewer mistakes [ source : Rosser Warm - Up ] .
So the next clip your mom and dad attempt to reason that your brain is turning into a sponge from " Call of responsibility , " point them to the inquiry : You actually could be well on your way to becoming a operating surgeon .
