I bet you’ve never equated playing video games to developing your brain.
I don’t mean developing your brain in terms of making you smart—though that may well happen. What I’m referring to is the sort of brain development young children undergo when they’re exposed to mental stimulation.
Experts have long been telling us that it’s important to read to small children daily. Reading to them, the experts say, helps form brain synapses likely to serve those children well in the future. Synapses are connections between neurons, or cells designed to convey signals to other cells, and such connections help ensure effective communication between neurons.
Enough of the science. What’s important here is that learning and playing video games may do for you what the stimulation of a good story seems to do for children.
According to Dr. Ezriel Kornel of Brain and Spine Surgeons of New York, certain video games can help improve your split-second decision making, hand-eye coordination, and auditory perception. “It’s actually a very complex set of tasks that your brain is going through,” says Dr. Kornel, as reported in WebMD.
The result, he continues, is that “there are new synapses forming between the neurons. So you’re creating thousands of connections that can then be applied to other tasks as well.”
Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
But it seems to make perfect sense that new challenges and learning do help develop synapses. Such benefit may taper off if video games become “old hat,” but with new games being introduced to the market every month there should always be something new out there for any active senior who wants to stay sharp.
Other potential benefits for seniors playing video games are becoming widely known. Stress is a major cause of illness and medical expense for the general population, but especially for seniors. Some seniors swear video games are the best stress-beater they know of. Games can sometimes free minds of stressful clutter, if only for a time, and help seniors refresh themselves and regroup to meet whatever challenges they face.
A Penn State University study helps confirm what some people have been saying for years. Video games improve your problem-solving and decision-making skills. Combine those benefits with the relaxation games can provide, and how can you go wrong?
Many retirement homes see it that way, and have introduced video games for seniors to their activity schedules. With all the evidence apparently suggesting that’s a good move, isn’t it time you did the same?
What’s the main benefit you get from playing your favorite video game? Please leave a comment below!
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Video Games Can Build Your Brain © 2012 MedicareMall.com