NeuroImage: More time spent playing video games is linked to a thinner cerebral cortex in adolescents

Scientists have found that adolescents who spend more time playing video games tend to have, on average, a thinner cerebral cortex and a smaller overall cortical surface area across a range of brain regions. The study was published in the journal NeuroImage.

Video games are one of the most common activities among adolescents, and scientists have long been interested in how they may be related to brain development. The cortex is the brain’s outer layer and is involved in thinking, speech, and attention; its thickness and surface area change during adolescence.

Researchers led by Jason Nagata of the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed data from 5,686 adolescents with an average age of about 14. On average, participants played video games for around 3.1 hours a day, and 81% of them played at least occasionally.

The researchers found that those who played more video games showed small structural differences in the cortex, but these differences affected multiple regions, including the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Single-player games were associated with changes in areas involved in language and social cognition, while no significant association was found for multiplayer games after statistical adjustment.

Importantly, the study does not prove that video games “damage” the brain. “Because this was a cross-sectional study, we cannot determine whether gaming influenced brain structure or whether adolescents with pre-existing characteristics were more likely to choose certain types of games,” Jason Nagata emphasized. In other words, the relationship could also work in the opposite direction, and it is premature to draw conclusions about the harmful effects of video games. The authors also note that cortical thickness alone does not directly indicate a child’s intelligence or abilities, and the differences identified were small.

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