The Winner Takes a Swollen Head

How well you perform on video games may be determined, at least in part, by the size of a certain region in your brain, a new study by the University of Pittsburgh suggests.

How well you perform on video games may be determined, at least in part, by the size of a certain region in your brain, a new study by the University of Pittsburgh suggests. Scientists focused on the striatum, a structure located deep inside the cerebral cortex. The striatum is thought to be involved in learning and memory, especially in tasks that require motor skills, like playing video games or riding a bike.

The study enrolled 36 students who had spent relatively little time playing video games. For the study, they learnt a game developed by the research team. The goal is to destroy a fortress by hitting it with missiles. In addition to a total score, players also get sub-scores for aspects such as control, velocity and speed. Half the participants were told to focus on obtaining the highest score possible, and were known as the ‘fixed priority’ group. The other half, called the ‘variable priority’ group, were asked to focus on different sub-scores. They all had their brains imaged with a MRI scanner.

The researchers found the size of the striatum predicted how well players performed on the game. But their predictions only held true for participants in the variable priority group. The findings hint that scientists may one day be able to improve upon educational techniques involving video games.