Can Video Games Help Keep Your Brain Sharp?

Video games are meant to be for kids and teenagers, right? After all, once you start working full time or attending university, it’s hard to get enough time to enjoy Minecraft, WoW or CS, right? As you enter your mid-20s and then 30s, you start a family, and then that’s that. No more video games, no more spending hours after hours trying to take down the enemy soldier on the TV screen or trying to outscore the opponents.

If you think that, then it may be time to think again. Scientific research and studies suggest that playing video games and online computer games actually helps in people keeping alert and staying young in the mind. As far-fetched as this may sound, scientists have shown that such computer games could help keep the brain active and sharp. Although there is still a lot of scepticism out there, studies are going on on whether video games could cure dementia in its early stages. Early research has shown showed that people could improve on computerised memory and speed tasks in the laboratory, although it is not yet clear whether they can then take these skills and apply outside in the real world.

Most computer or video games do involve some kind of cognitive exercise. After all, if you want to kill the enemy or win the race with your car, you need to be alert to everything that is going on the screen. One video game that has been marketed to elderly people in order to keep their brain active is Nintendo’s Brain Age 2. This game is claimed to improve cognitive activities. NeuroRacer is a video game developed by the University of California to specifically target multitasking skills. In this game, the player has to perform two tasks at the same time.

While it has not been proven scientifically, it would make sense to suggest that puzzle games and online poker would help keep the brain sharp. Playing Words With Friends is the online version of scrabble—with certain modifications and improvements, of course—and one can understand how this could keep someone vocabulary intact as one grows old. Puzzle games such as 1010!, Monument Valley and Threes! are not only fun for kids, but they are fun for adults and the elderly as well and keep them active mentally. Online poker involves a fair amount of cognitive skills as well, and for Canadians in 2017, there are a lot of websites that provide impartial reviews of online casinos that offer attractive sign-up bonuses.

One suspects that it will take years and years of study to understand just exactly how video games improve the cognitive function of the brain, but for elderly people, it would not hurt to play a bit of Minecraft, Destiny 2, Grand Theft Auto V or online poker from time to time. At the very least, it will make them feel happy and allow them to have fun.