As more and more people start playing video games, a new study reveals that our brains produce reactions similar to those we would have in real life. A detail that allows us to stay in front of our console for hours without getting bored.
Life like a video game. In France, 52% of people play video games at least once a week, according to the annual video game barometer. Of Rayman has Need for speed passing through Final Fantasy or even Minecraftthere are millions of them. They are all different but resemble each other thanks to one common element: their impact on the brain.
Many researchers have been working on this theme for decades to better understand the way we react to these games. Big movements, stress, moments of reflection… We go through all the emotions. And according to a new study led by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and published in the journal Pnas on July 21, the behavior of the brain during a game is particularly intense and unique.
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P300-CE neuronal signature
To fully understand how the brain reacts to exposure to video games, scientists brought together 200 people. Initially confronted with laboratory activities, they were then inspected in the middle of Flappy Bird. This flagship mobile game that everyone played in the 2010s (but removed from platforms in 2014) in which the objective was to control a bird and avoid obstacles represented by green pipes. Easy to understand, it quickly becomes addictive. Facing their phone screens, the players studied surprised the scientists. When they played, their brains triggered the P300-CE neuronal signature, a rarely observed phenomenon. In fact, this signing occurs during events for which people are not prepared.
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To explain more simply this triggering of the brain, as soon as there is a “ Critical Event » (CE), or critical event, the wave appears 300 milliseconds after stimulation. Hence the name “P300-CE”. Throughout the game, the brains of the 200 people studied triggered spikes when the bird hit an obstacle. Concretely, the researchers noticed that the brain felt a problem, as if it were hitting the obstacle that is in the game, at the moment when the bird hit a pipe.
Response similar to real life
The production of this P300-CE neuronal signature was also observed in another video game, Escape Spacean arcade game whose goal is to escape from enemies who attack us in space. In a children’s game, where you have to remove the teeth from a crocodile’s jaw without being bitten, the same reaction was recorded. The various observations led scientists to the following conclusion: despite being fully aware of the artificiality of its activity, the brain reacts with a primal response, the same that occurs when a threat occurs in real life.
Moreover, “well-executed game mechanics can simulate semi-realistic scenarios that activate the neural system by tricking the brain. This could be one of the factors behind the highly engaging and addictive nature of games, which are a vast topic of research.say the authors of this study.
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More aggressive emotions
Another problem that comes up very often in debates is the question of the link between violent video games and the level of aggression of players in everyday life. Several studies have been carried out to better understand certain reactions. And, in an article published in The Conversation, we learn that “the results obtained show that the players are more excited than the others in the minutes that follow, and that their thoughts and emotions become more aggressive after a game”.
However, the term “aggressive” does not refer to criminally reprehensible behavior. In the long term, video games have less clear violent effects. Many factors come into play when receiving messages from video games. But what remains the most harmful for our brain is overly prolonged exposure.
