Play These Games to Unlock the Incredible Power of Your Brain
Video games can be powerful tools for brain training
I was raised in a competitive family. My parents had high expectations regarding our school achievements, and they used to compare us to other kids (to keep us motivated, I guess).
Having two older brothers who were always playing video games and a father trying to stop the game often made me think, “Are video games bad?”.
I enjoyed playing video games with my brothers and tried to please my parents simultaneously because I loved seeing them happy. Often I could not stop playing Call of Duty with my brothers, but at the same time, I thought playing games was a “waste of time”; this was what my parents told us. I ended up finding a way to convince my parents that playing video games was not a waste of time.
I was not always the top student, but I could manage to achieve my ambitious goals such as reaching B2 level in German in 6 months while having a full-time job. During the journey, I realised the more I train my brain, the more powerful it gets, just like muscles. And games can be a tool to improve your cognitive skills.
So let’s check what cognitive skills we need to unleash the tremendous power of our brain. In short, cognitive skills include attention, auditory and visual processing, processing speed, memory, last but not least, logic and reasoning.
Here are games that can improve these cognitive skills.
Counter-Strike
“I knew I’m good at filtering irrelevant information but I just recently realised where I got the skill!”
Though CS was launched all the way back in August 2012, the game is still popular and reached over 977,000 concurrent players in September 2020 according to Statistica.
In 2013 a study published by the National Center of Biotechnology Information analysed the brainwaves of gamers playing Counter-Strike and other high-energy action titles (with the help of an MRI system) to those of non-gamers. The results showed “the game players may allocate attentional resources more automatically and flexibly, possibly allowing more efficient early filtering of irrelevant information”.
Other action video games that may improve attention, auditory and visual processing, processing speed are Halo, Gears of War, and Call of Duty.
Rise Of Nations
Another study at the National Center of Biotechnology Information in 2014 aimed to examine if training in a complex real-time strategy game such as Rise of Nations would improve older adults' executive control and memory processes. And the answer is yes!
The study showed a significant improvement in task switching, n-back tasks, visual short term memory and reasoning. “In short, our study of older adults, where the participants are trained on a strategy-based real-time videogame, transfer of training is, as predicted, found mostly in tasks that tap executive control functions, except for mental rotation”.
Other strategy games which may improve the executive control and memory processes are Age of Empires II and Civilization.
Memory Games
Aside from video games, there are well-known memory games played by memory athletes such as Nelson Dellis, Yanjaa, Johannes Mallow, and Simon Reinhard.
Note that you can improve your memory tremendously by playing training games regularly. “Even some studies show that Memory game activities can facilitate children’s language development (Cekaite and Aronsson 2005)”.
The following games are played in the World Memory Championship contest every year:
- 5-minute numbers: Here, you will be given a list of numbers. The more you remember in 5 minutes, the better. Wei Qinru From China could memorize 616 digits in five minutes during the WMSC World Championships in 2018.
- Speed cards: You have a shuffled deck of cards, and are supposed to memorize the cards' order as fast as possible. Shijir-Erdene Bat-Enkh from Mongolia could remember the order of a shuffled deck of cards in 12.74 seconds during IAM Korea Open in 2018. Can you challenge yourself to beat him?
- 15-minute names and faces: This is my favourite game because I was horrible at remembering names before playing this game! I found out many people have the same problem, but you can easily improve your memory to remember names and faces. Katie Kermode from the UK has the highest score achieved during the IAM World Championships in 2018.
- Spoken numbers: Here someone reads the numbers for you, and you are supposed to remember as many numbers as you can. The best score is for Ryu Song I from North Korea who could remember 647 numbers during the WMSC World Championships in 2019.
- 15-minutes Binary digits: In the same pattern as the 5-minutes numbers game, here you have a list of binary digits to remember in 15 minutes. The best score is for Ryu Song I from North Korea who could remember 7485 digits during the WMSC World Championships in 2019.
If you found it hard, there are methods you can practice to improve your memory, such as an ancient Roman and Greek method called “Method of loci”.
Looking back on my childhood, we were surrounded by games, not social media notifications.
Technology provides different assets that can be tremendously useful, or that can decline our mental health. Video games and other memory games that can be played individually or in a group are assets that can positively affect our cognitive skills if we play reasonably.
Isn’t it amazing to see that we humans can train our brains even when playing and having fun? Thanks are deserved for technology that helps to unleash our powerful minds to go beyond and further our imaginations, and because of that, I believe we are living in the best era in history.
