Do Brain Training video games really work?

Do brain training video games really work as a mental gymnastics tool?

Today, the video game industry enjoys an unprecedented power of seduction. Whereas twenty years ago their target audience was made up of children (male) and young men, today they are used by entire families, women and even people over 60 years of age.

While the factors involved in this expansion of market niches could be the subject of a separate article, there is at least one principle that can be understood as both a cause and a consequence of this opening up to a diversity of audiences: the market's response to the concern for physical and psychological well-being. to the concern for physical and psychological well-beingin general terms.

Brain Training Video Games

This new philosophy can be summarized as follows: since video games are going to become an important part of our lives, they should at least serve to improve them. If playing video games used to be equivalent to abstracting from reality, in recent years the wall separating the use of video games and "real life" has been crumbling. This way of thinking has led to the appearance of numerous video games of the "mental gym" type that offer us the possibility of playing at the same time that we improve our cognitive processes. cognitive processes processes that are essential in our daily lives (such as speed in discriminating between stimuli, working with several variables at the same time in the resolution of a problem or our ability to focus on an attentional focus). attentional focus and not get distracted).

Brain training, more than a Nintendo brand, has become almost a genre of video games. It is no coincidence that the popularization of brain training type video games has coincided with the irruption of the Wii and Nintendo DS video game consoles in the 2000s**, both of which have been responsible for opening up the video game market** to a much more varied profile of potential customers.

The customer is everyone

In 2006, Dr. Kawashima's best-selling video game Brain Training appeared in Europe. Dr. Kawashima for Nintendo DS. It can be considered as something like the head of the list of the Training series, a franchise created by Nintendo whose central axis was the learning and improvement of cognitive skills. Soon after, the WiiFit series appeared with its own peripheral similar to a scale that is used to practice postural and movement exercises related to yoga, aerobics and other disciplines. The reception of WiiFit by consumers was also more than positive.

The advantages of brain training video games as a "mental gymnastics" tool for our brains are clear: the possibility of creating personalized programs in which each activity works on a specific cognitive function, quick access to this type of activity without the need to leave home and, of course, the fun factor. On the part of the video game development companies, moreover, this type of productIn addition, this type of product allows them to access a large number of customers with high purchasing power, beyond the profile of a hardcore gamer who increasingly demand a class of video games that are more aesthetically appealing and with higher production costs. However, one has to wonder to what extent it has been proven that they really work.

Skepticism

The truth is that the effectiveness of this type of video games in improving the performance of cognitive the performance of cognitive functions is more than questioned. It seems that, in general, there are few studies that attribute better cognitive performance to the continued use of this type of video games. In the cases in which a statistically significant trend towards improved cognitive abilities has been observed, it has been quite modest.

Among the reasons that make it difficult to measure possible cognitive improvements is the fact that an improvement in performance when solving the problems posed by the video game does not necessarily imply an improvement in performance in the problems we face in our daily lives. In other words, the adaptation and improvement to the difficulty levels set by the game are not necessarily generalizable to other areas of our lives: if I become quicker to react to a gunman appearing behind wooden barrels, this improvement may be because I have learned the patterns of enemy appearance within the game, because I recognize the hiding places where a gunman is statistically more likely to appear, or simply because my adrenaline levels are automatically affected by the simple fact of starting a game.

None of these video game adaptations will serve me well in other situations in my daily life.And none of them involves an implementation in my brain structures that mediate rapid reaction to stimuli and attentional selection. This is the case with both Nintendo's Brain Training video games and the more recent Lumosity.

It seems that, as much as we want to save time and boost our brains while we play, in a certain sense it is still true that what happens in video games stays in video games. The performance improvement that occurs in them is, at best, generalizable to other situations in our lives to a very low degree. It is therefore normal that among the scientific community, mental gymnastics video games are met with skepticism.

However, maintaining a skeptical stance does not mean closing oneself off from the possible advantages that the use of video games can bring to basic and applied psychology. It should be borne in mind that a large number of the brain training type videogames that have been tested are not oriented towards healthcare use, but towards sales in a very broad market. Almost all of them, such as Dr. Brain Training itself, are aimed at sales in a very wide market. Kawashima, they rely only on skillful marketing campaigns when talking about the many beneficial effects that their product can offer us, not on experiments specifically designed to test it. Thus, it is normal that in studies carried out after the fact, the results are poor.

In addition, the fact that different video games work different areas of the brain with different intensity makes the comparison between studies chaotic and difficult to reach clear conclusions.. All this means that, although the most that can be said about brain training that has existed up to now is that it sells a lot thanks to exaggeration, the video games that are yet to come can be good tools for strengthening higher mental processes. Perhaps, it's just a matter of getting it right.

Reasons for optimism

It is worth asking how it can be that, given that there is evidence that in our daily reality there are activities that enhance the good performance of our neocortex brain, these activities cannot be transferred to the field of video games, a virtual environment in which one can do practically anything imaginable and with an enviable maturity and with an enviable maturity in terms of the technologies it uses. The potential of video games is enormous and yet they all have a clear limitation, to a greater or lesser extent: as the man-made products that they are, they lack chaos. They all have certain designs, certain game mechanics and not always too varied. It is very difficult to find a videogame that after eight months does not seem repetitive. If we reinforce the ability of video games to surprise us by presenting unexpected stimuli and tasks of different types that are presented at the same time, it is quite possible that our brain will be pushed to the limit and thus be exercised. In this sense, Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco has reason to be optimistic.

In 2009, Gazzaley collaborated with the video game developer LucasArts (famous for its video game series Monkey Island, Rogue Squadron or the critically acclaimed Grim Fandango) in the development of NeuroRacer. This game consisted of piloting a vehicle along winding roads, without leaving the track, and at the same time paying attention to a series of icons that appeared on the screen to press the corresponding button each time one of them appeared. As time went on, moreover, these tasks became more complicated, following an ascending difficulty curve to push the player to the limit of his or her possibilities. The objective of the video game was to improve the cognitive capacity of elderly people or to alleviate the decline associated with age.

The idea behind the development of this video game is as follows: if even in the elderly the brain has the capacity to change and adapt to the demands of the environment, let's present it with a complex environment in which different brain functions have to be activated at the same time. different brain functions have to be activated at the same timeemulating what happens in everyday life. It will be this exercise of attending to multiple tasks at the same time that will generate more and better neural connections in the brain and thus improve its condition, not the successive presentation of the same type of problems.

To test the effects of this video game on the brain, Gazzaley divided a group of 180 participants between the ages of 60 and 85 into three groups. Those in one group would play the video game three times a week for a month, those in the second group would play the same number of hours of a simplified version of the video game in which they would either control the vehicle or press the buttons when they saw the corresponding icon, but not both tasks at the same time, and those in the third group would not play the video game. Results on standardized tests to measure working memory and attentional management showed a significant improvement in these processes.

Moreover, these results tended to be maintained over time, at least up to 6 months after the experiment without having played NeuroRacer. On the other hand, the participants' bioelectrical activity recordings obtained by electroencephalogram (EEG) after their passage through the experiment tended to resemble those of the participants who played NeuroRacer. experiment tended to resemble those of a 20-year-old person.. It also showed variation in measurements of activity in the brain's prefrontal cortex, which is the primary neural mediator in sequencing ordered, purpose-directed actions, decision making and selective attention, among other things.

Since then, Gazzaley has continued to work on similar projects. Project: Evoa video game based on NeuroRacer which appeals to other cognitive functions that were not addressed in its predecessor (in addition to those already addressed in the 2009 game) may offer even greater benefits. In Body Brain Trainer, Gazzaley uses an Xbox Kinect camera. Xbox Kinect camera to recognize movements and propose exercises in which physical exercise is related to mental processes, following the philosophy of embodied cognition.

However, none of the experiments carried out by Gazzaley offer complete guarantees as yet, as this requires a sample with many more participants and longer periods of time for experimentation. It will be years before we have real brain training video games that have the backing of science, and for the time being the big investments in video games have a predilection for the profitable leisure market. In any case, and without detracting from the potential of those formerly known as "matamarcianos"in the field of neuropsychology, it could be said that the benefits that video games bring us as simple entertainment or as another form of culture are enough reason to enjoy them. are already reason enough to enjoy them.