McGill researchers are turning to video games to harness the power of citizen scientists in order to map the gut microbiome.
By Monica Slanik, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy
The study by Canadian researchers Dr. Véronique Bohbot of Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal and Dr. Greg West, an associate professor at the French-language Université de Montréal, demonstrates that the way first-person shooter video game players use their brains to navigate within the game changes the impact various games have on their nervous system.
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Human-computer interactions, such as playing video games, can have a negative impact on the brain, says a new Canadian study published in Molecular Psychiatry. For over 10 years, scientists have told us that action video game players exhibit better visual attention, motor control abilities and short-term memory. But, could these benefits come at a cost?
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B by the teams of Dr. Gregory West (Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal) and Dr. Véronique Bohbot (Douglas Institute researcher and associate Professor at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and the Douglas Research Institute of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île de Montréal) shows that while video game players (VGPs) exhibit more efficient visual attention abilities, they are also much more likely to use navigation strategies that rely on the brain’s reward system (the caudate nucleus) and not the brain’s spatial memory system (the hippocampus). Past research has shown that people who use caudate nucleus-dependent navigation strategies have decreased grey matter and lower functional brain activity in the hippocampus.Â