Video Game Skill = Larger Brain Size

**dog$** · 21 Jan 2010, 04:08 PM

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...ay/635135.html

In the new study, researchers turned to a decades-old video game called Space Fortress. Scientists developed the game, akin to a flight simulator and the classic Space Invaders, to study learning. According to Kramer, it takes about 20 hours for undergraduate students to learn how to become good at the game.

...

The researchers found that certain regions of the brain, the striatum in particular, were indeed bigger in the most successful players. "Bigger is better in this case, at least among healthy tissue," Kramer said.

The findings seem to confirm that parts of the striatum, which is nestled deep inside the cerebral cortex, determine a person's ability to learn both motor skills and new concepts, and also to adapt to changing situations, the researchers wrote.

Somehow I think this is something most of us here already suspected.

Meanwhile, here is proof that playing videogames doesn't rot your brain - not that your mom won't continue to believe otherwise.