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Playing video games may be associated with improved cognition and brains staying younger, a large-scale study has found.
The findings are part of the Brain and Body study, a collaboration between Western University, Canada, and the UK’s Science and Industry Museum for the Manchester Science Festival.
Over 2,000 participants from around the world registered for the study, which asked them to complete a lifestyle survey followed by brain games that are both fun and accurately measure different aspects of cognition, such as memory, attention, reasoning and verbal abilities.
After around 75 minutes, participants were given feedback about their cognitive performance and the results were analysed, when the effects of lifestyle activities on aspects of brain health could be weighed up.
The study, spearheaded by celebrated neuroscientist Professor Adrian Owen of Western University, showed that among roughly 1,000 people who finished all the tasks, playing video games had a positive effect on an individual’s cognition, but did not seem to affect their mental health.
However, exercise was seen to improve mental wellbeing.
“Playing video games was associated with improved cognitive abilities (but not better or worse mental health), whereas more physical activity (that is, more than 150 minutes per week, in accordance with the WHO guidelines) was associated with improved mental health (but not better or worse cognitive health),” commented Prof Owen, who has spent more than a decade developing the tests.
The analysis shows that cognitive benefits of playing video games as tantamount to being younger, according to Prof Owen.
“People who frequently play video games – that is, five or more hours per week for a single type of game – performed cognitively, on average, like people who were 13.7 years younger. Individuals who engaged infrequently with video games played – less than 5 hours per week across all kinds of games – performed like people 5.2 years younger.”
Professor Adrian Owen, Western University
Professor Owen added: “It is important to emphasise that although regular exercise did not improve cognitive functioning, it did seem to affect mental health, leading to lower reported levels of depression and anxiety.
“We know that physical activity stimulates the release of endorphins in the body, which are thought to produce feelings of euphoria, often referred to as the ‘runner’s high’.”
Physical activity also improves cerebrovascular health, which increases blood flow to the brain, enhancing oxygenation and the delivery of nutrients.
When it comes to the impact of mental health on those people who did not meet the WHO’s recommendation for physical activity, “they were twice as likely to suffer from depression and 1.5 times more likely to have a generalised anxiety disorder,” said Prof Owen.
Despite the seemingly obvious examples of a brain-body connection, like how being ‘hangry’ affects the ability to concentrate, stress makes muscles tense, or steady breathing calms the mind, relatively little is understood about how brain and body affect each other.
Completing the survey helped the Western University team to build a better understanding of how lifestyle relates to the long term health of our brains, “and could in future help us choose activities that promote healthy cognitive aging,” said Prof Owen.
Details of the findings were presented by Prof Owen in the museum on October 19th 2024 as part of the Manchester Science Festival, running from October 18th to 27th at the Science and Industry Museum and across the city.
The news comes after a separate study found that League of Legends players are the most intelligent in an IQ survey of gamers, with an average score of 120.4.
Visitors to the Manchester Science Festival also have the opportunity to take part in a pilot study to follow up these results. While the online survey focused on long term effects, the Western team will be inviting festivalgoers to help them in a pilot study of whether there are short term improvements to cognition as a result of exercise and gaming.
Prof Owen also provides a commentary about how the brain handles sound and light within an artistic commission for the Festival by the Squidsoup collective. Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, “State of Mind” is a three-dimensional arrangement of LED lights within an intriguing and informative soundscape that is currently on display at the Science and Industry Museum as part of Manchester Science Festival 2024.
A preprint of the Brain and Body Study results is now available. You can also learn more about the results in the latest blog from Roger Highfield, Science Director for the Science Museum Group.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
