Gamers in the crosshairs: are you putting your brain in hock to video games?

Video games are often criticised: they supposedly ruin children and dumb down adults. But the latest research shatters familiar myths: it turns out that what affects our brainpower is not gaming itself, but how much it controls you. The findings, published in the journal "Computers in Human Behavior", may make us rethink some old assumptions.

The World Health Organization has officially added "gaming disorder" to its list of medical diagnoses. In simple terms, it means a gamer can no longer stop, and real-life concerns have long since been left behind in battles on screen.

Psychologists suggest taking a broader view: our behaviour is an endless tug-of-war between "reason" and "habit". Reason makes plans and adapts flexibly; habit runs on autopilot, even when it leads us into a pointless pit. These two mechanisms were the focus of a study by Hungarian researchers led by Krisztina Berta, who recruited 114 people to serve as guinea pigs (for science, naturally).

They were divided into three camps: non-gamers; regular gamers who spent at least 14 hours a week playing (and were holding up just fine); and those whose scores on specialised tests placed them at risk of gaming addiction. Notably, the researchers deliberately excluded "clean" gaming time, so the statistics wouldn't be muddied by boasts about hours spent grinding tanks.

Each participant faced a battery of brainteasers. They had to listen to sequences of digits and repeat them; count shapes without getting the sums wrong; remember which letters had just appeared; press the space bar if the letter "P" followed a blue star, but keep their fingers still for an "R". And, for dessert, they had to spot the hidden rhythm in a series of dog-face pictures and react as quickly as possible, like a mini-game for the sharp-eyed.

The results? Digital battle fans who only seemed to be at risk of addiction surprisingly showed better concentration on tasks that required them to inhibit impulses. Put simply, they were slightly better at keeping their attention on the job than people who had never touched a gamepad. The at-risk group, meanwhile, struggled with memory: small details vanished like a lost match.

Curiously, gamers' habits seem to form at a subconscious level in much the same way, regardless of how many games they have played. In other words, we're all capable of going on autopilot; the question is simply the balance between control and habit.

The researchers admit that they have yet to establish what comes first: addiction or memory problems. All the participants classified themselves, so the honesty of their answers is, as ever, a matter of faith. And the tests themselves involved dull letters and circles, not the spectacular virtual battles gamers are used to.

Still, the main conclusion is clear: video games are no more harmful than kefir, as long as you don't sacrifice food and sleep for the next level. But if games become the centre of your life, it's time to think about rebooting your brain. So keep an eye not on the games, but on who's in control: you or your habits?