Binary Impact

Brain Size Can Predict Game Performance

Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Gaming, Medicine

If you wonder why you suck so badly at Modern Warfare 2, it could be biological. According to a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the size of your brain can predict how well you perform in video games,

(Presumably mad) scientists at the University of Illinois say  specific parts of the striatum, a collection of tissues deep inside the cerebral cortex, influence a person’s ability to “refine his or her motor skills, learn new procedures, develop useful strategies and adapt to a quickly changing environments.” In short: All the skills you need to do well in a game.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to take a real world task like a video game and show that the size of specific brain regions is predictive of performance and learning rates on this video game,” said Kirk Erickson, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and first author on the study.

Sadly, it doesn’t work in reverse, so you can’t play a bunch of video games and grow those structures in your brain — you’re stuck with the equipment you were born with.

Study shows that better gamers have bigger brains, are better learners too [Engadget]

Tags: Research, Science, University of Illinois, Video Games