Video Games & Your Memory
A new study shows that playing video games could improve memory.
FOX’s Alex Hein reports:
This is, Housecall for Health.
A small study suggests that playing three-dimensional video games for just thirty minutes per day might mean new memories are less likely to fade away.
While the study wasn’t designed to show how 3D video games might improve memory, it’s possible playing these games stimulated the hippocampus region of the brain.
For two weeks researchers asked novice gamers to devote a half-hour daily to playing either the two-dimensional Angry Birds game, Super Mario 3D World or nothing at all. Based on tests taken at the start and end of the experiment, only the 3D players had memory improvements.
Participants took memory tests that engaged the brains hippocampus. They were given a series of pictures of every objects to study. They were then shown images of the same objects, new ones and others that differed only slightly from the original items and asked to categorize them.
Recognition of the slightly altered objects requires the hippocampus. The 12% improvement seen with the test scores for the 3D gamers is roughly the same amount that memory tends to decline between the ages of 45 and 70.
For more on this story, check foxnewshealth.com.
Housecall for Health, I’m Alex Hein, FOX News.
