Game Playing Makes Your Cerebral Cortex Thicker

[steven johnson]

So game playing makes the cerebral cortex thicker, just as studies on jugglers has shown long ago. This would certainly suggest a mechanism as to why exercise seems to retard the onset of intellectual decline and dementia in the elderly.

Effects of exercise on cognitive function

Fifteen of the girls were given the task of playing the video game for an average of 90 minutes a week over the course of three months. The others were told to avoid playing video games.

Both groups were monitored for changes in brain function as well as brain structure. Earlier research conducted in Germany had shown that juggling practice led to a thickening in areas of the cerebral cortex, so Haier and his colleagues were pretty sure they'd find a link between what they saw in the functional MRI (about more efficient brain function) and in the structural MRI (about cortex thickening).

The researchers analyzed the brain changes in the game-playing group compared with the control group, and they found that the Tetris players' brain function became more efficient in areas linked to critical thinking, reasoning, language and information processing - just as Haier found in 1992. They also discovered that the cortex became thicker - just as the German researchers had discovered. The only problem was ... they weren't the same areas.

"We all were surprised when we put the images together and saw that there was no overlap," Haier said. The cortex became thicker in areas of the brain linked to the planning of complex movements as well as the coordination of sensory information.

How Games Change Your Brain

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. Games changing yer brain a no-brainer

I think a lot of folks who regularly play games understand this intuitively.

I'm not entirely convinced about exercise and its effects on declining cognitive function. My primary example is my father who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He has been phenomenally active his entire life (and remains so). Body-type-wise, he's a classic ectomorph, with practically no body fat and plenty of lean muscle. It's worth noting that he's a game player, too, having taught me backgammon, chess, etc. Perhaps, if he had been more sedentary, his Alzheimer's would have progressed more by now. He needs no convincing: anything he can do to slow the disease's progression is in his daily activities, but he is plainly frustrated that, according to current research, he's done everything right his entire life and he's still getting zinged.

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Interesting.

I'm just curious, did he like so many eat a lot of foods cooked in aluminum cookware?

[Warpy]

3. It's the amyloid, not the aluminum

The connection between dementia and aluminum cookware or aluminum containing deodorant has been debunked.

Here's a good discussion with little medicalese: http://www.everydayhealth.com/alzheimers/webcasts/top-five-dementia-myths-debunked-transcript-2.aspx

[kimmerspixelated]

4. Thanks, but I believe I was addressing the poster.

[Odin2005]

5. Post this in GD, it will make the game-haters heads' explode.