Videogames may help Aging Brains Multi-Task

By Sarah Williams

Older adults might want to take an interest in their grandchildren’s’ videogames, if early research on the brain benefits of gaming is correct.

In a study of 40 adults in their 60s and 70s, researchers found that those who learned to play a strategy-heavy videogame improved their scores on a number of tests of cognitive function. Men and women who trained in the game for about a month showed gains in tests of memory, reasoning and the ability to “multitask”.

The findings suggest that videogames that keep players “on their toes” might help older adults keep their brains sharp, the researchers report in the journal Psychology and Aging. This is the first published study to suggest as much, so it’s important not to overstate the findings, said senior researcher Arthur Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Still, he said that the results are “very promising”, as they suggest that strategy-based videogames can enhance reasoning, memory and other cognitive abilities that often decline with age.

The study included 40 older adults who were randomly assigned to either the videogame group or a comparison group that received no training in the game. Over 1 month, the gamer group spent about 23 hours training in ‘Rise of Nations’, an off-the-shelf videogame where players seek world domination.

Study participants who trained in the game ended up improving their scores in several areas of a battery of cognitive tests, Kramer and his colleagues found. But Kramer said that more research is needed to confirm and extend the findings.