video games are going to rot your brain stop playing them right now actually don't the opposite is true I want you to all show this video to your parents out there who are wondering are video games rotting our brains are video games terrible for my child in fact the opposite is true we went through the 9s where of course we had Tipper Gore and other people really vilifying video games and telling us it was terrible for us to be playing these things but in fact the science is in this is not not me saying this the science from multiple peer-reviewed studies is in and overwhelmingly playing video games actually improves our brains but now now I should mention this with a caveat here right yes there are entire forums devoted to this on Reddit where people who have played World of Warcraft massive multiplayer online game who've had you know destroyed relationships they have uh you know have all sorts of issues because they've just devoted their lives to playing this massive multiplayer online experience but that is few and far between that is a very specific caveat that we want to put out here at the very beginning of this so you might say you know someone who gave up their whole life just to play World of Warcraft yeah that's an addiction and of course addictions like anything whether it's smoking cigarettes or alcohol or anything like that are detrimental to our health that's not what we're talking about we're talking about casual video game playing 20 minutes here 1 hour there 2 hours there that's the type of video game playing we're talking about in a healthy lifestyle right you're going to school you've got a job you've got a healthy relationship maybe you take a walk with the dog but you enjoy the recreation of playing video games it improves our brain particularly among young people so I've been wanting to do this video for a while because occasionally I will po post a video and someone will say oh I didn't realize Clayton you were a gamer I've lost all respect for you and I asked that person what are you talking about why like well video games are so bad for you uh well you don't know what you're talking about actually let's talk about the data let's talk about the science you sir are uneducated there's been a number of big studies that have looked at the vi the relationship of the brain and playing video games over the years and I just want to go through a few of them so that you can take this back to your parents if you want to share it with your parents or you can share it with your children um so that they have a better healthier understanding about the benefits of playing video games and just as a little side note here we were just on a trip the family and uh we brought our Nintendo switch you know to play and my daughter my 7-year-old daughter beat her very first game ever she got Captain Toad treasure Tracker for Christmas and it was all problem solving puzzles that she had to solve the entire time in the game and she was so excited when the credits rolled and she said Daddy I beat my first game and then she sat for like 20 minutes and explained in detail to me how each of the puzzles worked and how difficult the levels that she most of the levels that she found how she had to move an item here and knock These Bricks down in order to get P so she was problem solving the entire time and was fully engaged with it so when the kids wake up on a Saturday morning and they want to sit and just watch you know YouTube videos or Netflix or whatever I tell them no no when you wake up you know wake up and you know let your mind wake up and then you guys can play like your switch or something like that but I don't want you sitting there sort of blindly with your mouth open watching Netflix videos or things so I want them to be engaging in this way so yeah I'm a good dad in that way I encourage them to play video games Okay I want to get into some of the data here and I'm going to just go through this and this is I thought probably the most comprehensive study from the 1990s this is Daphne buer and Shawn Green they did this big study at the University of Rochester and they began to explore the idea of UN unconventional first of all the unconventional idea that actually playing video games could impact or even Aid with neuroplasticity and I thought this was which is the process where the brain changes and of course adapts to new experiences and we know how important neuroplasticity is for brain health right warding off Alzheimer's dementia and if you want to learn a new skill we're creating new synapses in our brain and after years of research they didn't just spend like a week on this they spent years doing the study they found that action games in particular games where reflexes reaction time like fortnite for instance uh hand eye coordination uh are challenged like Doom or Quake or Team Fortress classic or like I said um you know uh fortnite or Call of Duty or any of those types of games they provided tangible cognitive advantages that help us in everyday life according to their research they found that individuals who regularly play action games demonstrated improved ability to focus on visual details useful for reading fine print and legal documents or in prescription bottles of of of medications they also displayed heightened sensitivity to visual contrast important when driving in like thick fog for instance they the multitasking required to switch back and forth between reading a menu and holding a conversation with a dinner partner also came much more easily but the research went on and on and on so their ability to think on their feet was measured was was demonstrably measured as a result of action games their ability for spatial awareness and being able to focus on visual details uh is really fascinating next up let's look at a study from 2015 and this is from the University of California Irvine and they show significant evidence the cognitive benefits of playing video games improved memory and this was great for older patients they found that patients who were actively engaged in uh video games and and remembering certain things as you navigate different menus I'm thinking of like Metroid Prime remastered right think about having to remember where you were there's no breadcrumbs in that game right there's no broken doors or walls that you can say oh I was already here you've got to remember or like Tomb Raider for instance you've got to like navigate your way through these areas and remember things so that spacial memory you know how important it is when you found something specific and you have to go back to it another study looked at 2,000 children this is totally separate from the University of California study this is the National Institutes of Health they found that in these 2,000 children who played more than 2 to three hours of video games they significantly improved their test scores yes their cognitive skills like working memory they significantly outperform kids who didn't play video games on tests the brain scans shows that those kids who played video games had more brain activity associated with demanding tasks than than those who didn't these patterns of course also related to impulse control and memory associated with playing video games specifically they also show that as the person ages their memory naturally declines we know this and regular video game playing shows a positive way of staving off uh possible dementia and Alzheimer's in older patients isn't that crazy so playing video games can improve your overall cognitive ability um as you a age which is great for Grandpa who wants to sit down and play some video games another couple of studies looked at spatial awareness spatial visualization and being able to relate in an environment in a 3D space and they found that those people who played video games performed much better in the real world with spatial visualizations things like parallel parking uh things like uh organizing your closet good spatial visualization also uh fantastic in different stem careers STM careers for space faal visualization there's a whole separate study on perception and vision as well High action video game playing for instance improve their ability to distinguish patterns which is something that scientists thought you could never improve your ability to um uh improve upon contrast they thought that's not something we can improve upon in fact those those kids who played uh video games 5 hours a week of of of action games for nine for nine weeks showed a 43% Improvement in their contrast sensitivity huge Improvement something they thought they couldn't improve and they were because they were playing video games one of the biggest things that they discovered for playing video games is decisionmaking this was dramatic in fact increases in plasticity in the brain on your brain's ability to change in response to learning multiple studies found this so playing games like Need for Speed or Call of Duty or ability to stay on your toes and be very quick thinking and make split-second decisions was vital of course for playing playing those games playing video games then lets you direct your attention towards a specific task and then receive stimulation as you complete those challenges since your brain knows how to handle these smaller decisions it can quickly move on to more complicated ones the study says the more you learn the better your brain adapts and you can make smarter decisions faster so faster decision making is an incredibly beneficial decision uh skill in everyday life as you accomplish more when you make Trivial decisions quickly so playing video games found that you dramatically improved your fast decisionmaking skills instead of wasting time deciding what shirt am I going to wear I need to spend 5 minutes 10 minutes wasting time on meaning small trivial things you can make them fast and move on and get onto more important bigger bigger developmental tasks with your day it's like Steve Jobs he's like he got sick of worrying about what kind of shirt he was going to wear every day so you know what he decided to do he bought all black shirts he's like I don't need to worry about this I've got much bigger things to worry about about in my life I don't need to worry about what shirt I'm going to wear I'm going to wear a black shirt every day that's it done and we are calling it iPhone problem solving another big one that they discovered had in almost every genre of video game involves problem solving whether it's figuring out a puzzle or finding something finding the fastest Escape Route discovering something you have to use problem solving memorization you have to analyze situation ations and what they found is in fact the University of South Carolina found that video games stimulate how players process the world players solve problems and engaging virtual environments and become more likely to apply those lessons they learned and those experiences they gain in situations outside the game so they found that they took those skills they learned in video game playing and applied them in the real world so I think problem solving to me is one of the biggest benefits of playing video games I see it in my kids I see in my kids that they're willing to then to tackle other problems and solve puzzles in the real world as a result of playing uh games on online or playing their playing their switch or something like that they're able to take those skills and move those to the real world what about mood are kids just like cut off from the world are they going to be moody all the time when they're playing video games in fact the opposite is true that researchers found that it's a great way to unwind and relax and then they actually have a more positive sense of well being less anxiety less depression kids who play video games are less likely to have anxiety kids who play video games are less likely to be depressed and adults by the way big category in this less likely to be depressed less likely to have anxiety as a result of playing video games I point you to the video that I just did recently on Elon Musk and his favorite video games and in fact he talked about getting into a flow state uh he's a big video game player it's his main form of recreation he's busy he says his brain is like a storm it's constantly thinking and working on problems for him one of the only way for him to calm down and to have less anxiety and less stress is to play video games and I'll just wrap it up with this more research also shows that when kids play video games they solve and complete the puzzle they actually want to get to the end of The Challenge and that teaches us in life to complete things get things done see the end of the game get through the puzzle and I think that's incredibly powerful I really you know I tell my kids we don't give up in our family we do not give up and you're going to beat that game you're going to complete that game you're going to complete that schoolwork you're not going to quit that sports team that you tried out for and you're a part of now you're not giving up you're going to continue and see it through and video games according to the research shows that they it it it helps train our brains to complete the puzzle complete the challenge and finish the game anyway I'd love to hear your thoughts on this again I'm really excited about this research I think and I've read a couple of books now on this topic um especially in younger children and how they're developing their brains I just read a book on the teenage mind for my son he just turned 13 so I want to understand what that's like you know it's a teenage boy and the research in the book even the mother the author of the book she's a doctor she's like you know I thought it was going to be bad my son's sitting there playing fortnite a lot and she's like I just can't admit it she's like sadly he's like I wanted to say that it was bad for him she's like it's not the opposite is true it's actually reducing his anxiety helping his problem solving improving his cognition and uh and I think that's a good thing to end on here because fortnite is a lot different than say like World of Warcraft like I mentioned at the beginning where you're in these massive multiplayer online campaigns and you're you know you're can really screw up your relationships and all of that kind of stuff fortnite they're 20 minute battles 20 minutes you know and then you can and really talks about in the research you can kind of get in and then you you're done I did a 20-minute battle good now I'm off to something else so it's not sucking up your whole world again yes an addiction is a bad thing so if you're fully addicted where 24 hours a day you're playing video games and you're not leaving the house and you're not doing anything else that is an addiction that's not what I'm talking about here talking about casual video game playing and it really does work it does improve our brains I love to hear your thoughts on this guys and we'll see you in the next video