Strategy video games are good for the brain, study suggests
Now I do have a legit reason to playIn a study of 40 adults in their 60s and 70s, researchers found that those who learned to play a strategy-heavy video game 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 "multi-task".
The findings suggest that video games 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 Dr Arthur F. Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
However he said the results were "very promising", as they suggested that strategy-based video games could enhance reasoning, memory and other cognitive abilities that often decline with age.
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