There’s a tendency to overemphasize the effects on the brain of simple computational tasks (symbol manipulation, calculations, also word recall and such) and of academic exam-taking. They’re traditionally considered “cerebral” tasks but they don’t stimulate the brain as much as activities like sports, that we do not associate with cognitive skills usually. But recall that even a simple pocket calculator can do calculations or memory fetches instantly, while even the most complex state-of-the-art artificial neural networks have trouble with immitating the movements of a human engaging in sports, because there’s a lot of complexity that our instincts hide from us. Even simple object detection programs have to use billions of simple operations to match humans. Same applies for playing videogames.
Videogames allow people to stimulate the parts of the brain that were developed when we had to survive in wild environments, but go unused and atrophy in industrialized societies. Modern life is very limiting when it comes to behaviors that demand mind activity because there is no competition or survival pressure anywhere (outside of memorization in formal schooling and monotonous excel monkey jobs in the industry), so the parts of the brain that deal with these problems remain inactive.
Videogames demand fast-paced critical thinking, decision making, reflexes, situational awareness, spatial reasonins, pattern recognition, planning, risk assessment, multitasking, prediction and anticipation, deception and mind-games, creativity and problem solving, resource allocation, territorial control, team communication and cooperation. All of that besides the complex mechanical execution, which they share with sports. I don’t think there are any other activities that can match the number of skills required by videogames.
I suspect mainstream ressentiment over exists because of the competitiveness and skillful action it cultivates. Success in competition requires contact with the objective material truth of the game state, as opposed to hypersocialized top-down teaching of what truth is. Children are not involved in their parents’ business while growing up in modern society, so their brains form while they’re disconnected from any notion of survival, scarcity and of the ‘real world’ broadly, and this cultivates the intuition that they live in a meaningless fantasy world, rendering them especially prone to brainwashing and social constructivism.
- Video games can help boost children’s intelligence
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- Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have studied how the screen habits of US children correlate with how their cognitive abilities develop over time. They found that the children who spent an above-average time playing video games increased their intelligence more than the average, while TV watching or social media had neither a positive nor a negative effect.
- Effects of Video Game Type on Cognitive Performance and Brain Functional Connectivity: A Longitudinal EEG Study
- Previous research has shown that video gaming experience is associated with changes in cognitive and perceptual functions as well as neural structure and function. However, how the different types of video games differentially influence cognitive function and neuroplasticity remains unclear. […] These findings suggest that different types of video games improve cognition through distinct neuroplasticity pathways, with action games effective in optimizing neural efficiency and producing sustained effects.
- Connectivity in the Dorsal Visual Stream Is Enhanced in Action Video Game Players
- The Benefits of Video Games on Brain Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies
[updated 2026-06-07]