Platform games are better for your brain than action games, a new study has suggested.
Platform games are better for your brain, study finds
The research, led by experts from the Department of Psychology at the Universite de Montreal, and from the Douglas Institute in Quebec, has found that platform games increase the volume of gray matter owing to the "use [of] spatial strategies".
By contrast, action games were found to have a less positive impact, with researchers suggesting that playing such games for extending periods of time can be bad for your brain.
Therefore, the team of experts has warned against "prescribing" action video games to young players, cautioning it may end up causing them harm.
Gregory West, an associate professor of psychology at the Universite de Montreal, told CBC News: "A few studies have been published that show video games could have a positive impact on the brain, namely positive associations between action video games, first-person shooter games, and visual tension and motor control skills.
"To date, no one has shown that human-computer interactions could have negative impacts on the brain - in this case the hippocampal memory system."
The study featured participants who were all aged between 18 and 30, none of whom had any history of playing video games.