The cerebral cortex of teenagers who play excessive video games is thinner in some areas, and its surface area is smaller on average.
Video games are among the most popular activities among teenagers, and scientists have long been interested in studying their relationship to brain development. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain, responsible for thinking, speech, and attention, and its thickness and size change during adolescence.
Scientists have discovered that teenagers who spend more time playing video games have, on average, a thinner cerebral cortex and a smaller surface area in a number of regions.
But this doesn't necessarily mean there's any damage or disorder, according to scientists. The cerebral cortex naturally thins during early adolescence, and then neural connections are reorganized to become more efficient. This conclusion was reached by scientists from the University of California, San Francisco.
Scientists published an analysis in the journal NeuroImage of data from 5,686 participants in the American ABCD project, where adolescents, around 14 years old, underwent MRI scans and were asked about their gaming habits. The results showed that they played an average of 3.1 hours a day.
The correlations varied depending on the type of game played. Solo games were often associated with smaller areas of the cerebral cortex related to speech, communication, and emotional regulation. Online games, however, showed no significant differences after accounting for other factors. Age-restricted games were frequently linked to thinner cerebral cortex in the networks involved in attention and processing social and emotional cues.
The authors emphasize that this is a statistical correlation, not evidence of causation. Brain characteristics likely influence game choice, and the observed differences are small and reflect normal developmental patterns. Scientists will continue to follow adolescents to understand which of these factors emerges first.
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