Are video games good for you?

THERE’S A LOT of conflicting information about the effect video games have on us. Questions such as ‘Do they rot your brain and ruin your vision?’, or ‘Do they improve your hand-eye coordination and cognition to make you smarter?’ abound.

According to brain scientist Professor Daphne Bavelier, video games can help us learn, focus, and – most fascinatingly – multitask. ‘In reasonable doses, even action-packed shooter games have powerful and positive effects on many different aspects of our behaviour. In the lab, we measure in a quantitative fashion what the impact of video games is on the brain,’ says Prof Bavelier.

She goes on to say