You are on page 1of 7

Sajal 1

Sajal Baral

Ms. Knudson

UWRT 1104

08 November 2017

Do Video Games Affect Mental Health?

Hey! You should go outside, it is going to ruin your eyes!. It is going to melt your

brain. It is because of that thing you are turning into a violent person!. If you are a kid, teen,

or maybe even an adult, these are common criticisms that you probably come across. Those

criticisms are often thrown out by parents or loved ones to make gaming look like it is causing

them physiological and psychological damage.

While playing an excessive amount of video game can create lots of concerns about ones

physiological and psychological health, there are ample amount evidence that supports the claim

of playing a reasonable amount video game can improves ones sense of self-worth, improve

brain function, enrich social skills, and even contribute benefits for those that are undergoing

psychological or physical traumas.

How could video games improve ones sense of self-worth? To answer that, we first have

to talk about depression. Depression? Why talk about depression? What does this have to do with

self-worth and video games? When someone is depressed, two parts of the brain get under

stimulated. The hippocampus, which is associated with memory and learning, and the reward

pathways, which is associated with goal-orientation and motivation. With the hippocampus

under stimulated, it makes it harder to develop new skills and coping strategies which makes it

harder to improve at anything, let alone depression. When the reward pathways gets under
Sajal 2

stimulated, you feel discouraged and barely have any motivation to do anything. But when

gaming, you are presented with puzzles, hidden objectives, etc. that create a sense of

determination and motivation which in turn hyperactivates the hippocampus and the reward

pathways. Therefore, the player experiencing a stronger self-worth, along with the feeling of

positive emotions and an increase in physical energy.

In addition, video games can improve the players overall brain function. A study

conducted at University College London and Queen Mary University of London showed that

some video games can improve a persons brain flexibility. They recruited 72 volunteers that

split into three groups. Two groups played two different versions of a high paced strategy game

called Starcraft and the third group played The Sims which was a life simulator for forty

hours over six to eight weeks. They found that the two groups that were designated to play

Starcraft showed signs of improvement in their psychological tests and finished cognitive

flexibility task swiftly and more accurately. A scientist from QMUL states that Previous

research has demonstrated that action video games, such as Halo, can speed up decision making

but the current work finds that real-time strategy games can promote our ability to think on the

fly and learn from past mistakes. (Glass).

Another research conducted by German researchers showed evidence of video games

improving the players brain function. They asked 23 adults, mean age of 24, to play

Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 3DS XL for 30 minutes a day over a two month period while

a control group did not play the game. Using a MRI scan, they found an increased amount of

grey matter in the right hippocampus, cerebellum, and the right prefrontal cortex in comparison

to the control group. Those regions of the brain deal with memory formation, spatial navigation,

strategic planning, and fine motor skills in the hand. A senior scientist at the Center of Lifespan
Sajal 3

Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development states that This proves that

specific brain regions can be trained by means of video games (Khn).

Equally important, video games can enrich a players social skills. Over 70% of gamers

play their games with a friend, either cooperatively or competitively (Engels, 73). Many

multiplayer games have become social communities. In MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online

role-playing game) like World of Warcraft and DC Universe Online, the player needs to figure

out how to lead a team on top of finding out who they need to trust or reject. For example, when

doing raids, a type of mission where there are a large amount of players that need to gather

together to succeed at a common goal, the player needs to put together a team of players that can

accomplish the goal. This involves finding players they get along with, finding the correct player

that can play a certain role in the group (mainly damage, healer, and tank), and being able to lead

everyone throughout the raid to reach the end goal. Multiplayer games encourages social

interaction which can be applied to the real world.

Video games can help with physiological or psychological damage. With video games

causing positive changes in the brain, investigators from Max Planck Institute for Human

Development state that video game training might be therapeutically useful for patients with

mental disorders such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or

neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's dementia, in which brain regions are altered or

reduced in size. Amputees can also benefit with games. Sometimes, amputees feel pain on the

part of the limb that is missing but researchers are using augmented reality to trick the brain into

thinking that their limb is back. A PhD candidate Max Ortiz - Catalan is working on a probe that

attaches to the missing limb to detect muscle movement. The data gathered from the probe is

then fed into a computer that uses the data create a CGI of the missing limb.
Sajal 4

While these positives shines a different light on gaming, there are still negatives. Too

much gaming can turn into an addiction. Like an addictive drug, the player feels like games is a

way they can escape from life. "The person is trying to change the way they feel by taking

something outside of themselves. The cocaine addict learns, 'I don't like the way I feel, I take a

line of cocaine.' For gamers, it's the fantasy world that makes them feel better." (Bakker). Just

like, but not in the same magnitude as a drug overdose, too much can be harmful. The player will

start ditching homework, jeopardize relationships, or even lose their job. Health can also be

affected. Skipping meals to play or skipping physical activity can lead to obesity. It can also lead

to the player being desensitized to certain situations. In a study conducted to test this, researchers

had players play two different version of the same game. One group played as the moral group

(United Nation soldier) and the other as the immoral (terrorists). The researchers concluded

that over time, repeated violent gaming and lead to emotional desensitization over time.

People like to connect aggressive behavior/violence and video games but there is no

correlation between the two. The APA (American Psychological Association) like to claim that

there is a connection, they lack evidence to link criminal violence to video games.

Thus, while playing an excessive amount of video game can affect ones physiological

and psychological health, there are evidence that supports the claim of playing a reasonable

amount video game can improves ones sense of self-worth, improve brain function, enrich

social skills, and even contribute benefits for those that are undergoing psychological or physical

traumas.
Sajal 5

Bibliography (On top of the Annotated Bib)

McGonigal, Jane. How Video Games Can Teach Your Brain to Fight Depression. Slate

Magazine, 9 Nov. 2015,

www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/11/how_video_games_can_teach_

your_brain_to_fight_depression.html.
Sajal 6

Playing Video Games Can Boost Brain Power. Queen Mary University of London,

www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/112578.html.

KurzweilAI | Accelerating Intelligence. KurzweilAI Video Game Playing Found Beneficial for

the Brain Comments, www.kurzweilai.net/video-game-playing-found-beneficial-for-the-

brain.

Granic, Isabela, et al. Video Games Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits,

Review Finds . American Psychological Association, American Psychological

Association, www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games.aspx

Franceschini, Sandro, et al. Action Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better. Current

Biology, Cell Press, 28 Feb. 2013,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213000791.

Crecente, Brian. How Video Games and Augmented Reality Could Cure Phantom Pain.

Polygon, Polygon, 3 Mar. 2014, www.polygon.com/2014/3/3/5462508/phantom-pain-

video-game-treatment.

The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games. Raise Smart Kid, 24 Oct. 2017,

www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-

video-games.
Sajal 7

You might also like