Video Games – How They Can Increase IQ?

It is speculated that on an average an American youngster spends 10,000 hours on video gaming by the time they turn 21. This has given rise to an increased concern about the negative and positive effects of gaming on the general health and especially on the working of the brain. While video gaming is considered as a practice harmful for the body as it restricts the physical activity and the children and teenagers tend to spend the time in front of computer screens sitting idle, there are some brighter sides too.

To have an idea of how many people are involved in the Video Gaming thing, it can be considered that more than 1.2 billion people across the globe play the video games and the revenue involved in this business is about 100 billion per year. After extensive studies and researches conducted on the thousands of gamers of all age groups the following positive effects of gaming have been discovered in the gamers.

1. Motor Abilities

Dr. Henk ten Cate Hoedmaker is the researcher who has designed the game named underground. It is designed to train the new surgeons. In the game the surgeons are made to control the surgery procedures going on in front of them on a screen. This increased the precision of the under-training doctors’ hands and they could execute themedical procedures better. Dr. Henk has also noted that the people who play video games tend to be more accurate in doing complicated motor functions at higher speeds. This, according to Henk, can be useful in situations like driving at high speeds and responding to unforeseen circumstances.

2. Visual Function

Video games can boost iq, according to a research conducted at the University of Geneva by Professor Daphne Bavelier gamers can keep in their focus, a number of moving objects. The research has also found that the people who play fast action video games can shift their attention very fast from one place to another still keeping the previous one in focus and this is not even possible in non-gamers.

3. Brain Growth

At the Max-Plank institute of Human Development Berlin, a research is conducted by Prof Simone Kuhn, in which he studies the brains of people who played the game super Mario 64 DS for the period of two months had certain areas of their brains grown. The areas included right hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. All these areas are involved in increasing IQ and focusing ability of the brain. Simone has noted that the gamers have to focus continuously on the game and that increases the inter-neuron connections in the brain which ultimately increases the size of brain and its abilities.

4. Decline in Mental Function

The most exciting field of research regarding the interaction of video games with the brain is the way it affects the aging process of the brain. Numerous researchers have noted that the people who play a moderate level of video games tend to sustain brain activity for longer times.