Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Playing Action Video Games May Be Bad For Your Brain, Study Finds (www.cbc.ca)

Posted by msmash on from the what-science-says dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report:Playing first-person shooter video games causes some users to lose grey matter in a part of their brain associated with the memory of past events and experiences, a new study by two Montreal researchers concludes. Gregory West, an associate professor of psychology at the Universite de Montreal, says the neuroimaging study, published Tuesday in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, is the first to find conclusive evidence of grey matter loss in a key part of the brain as a direct result of computer interaction. "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 attention and motor control skills," West told CBC News. 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 four-year study by West and Veronique Bohbot, an associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University, looked at the impact of action video games on the hippocampus, the part of the brain that plays a critical role in spatial memory and the ability to recollect past events and experiences.

64 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Who has time for action video games by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Funny

    What with all the porn, crystal meth, tv and politics we have to get through.

    1. Re:Who has time for action video games by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Politics is entertainment these days. The orange dude Made America Laugh Again. His recent tweets about the "Vietnam vacation" almost made me crash laughing while listening to the news driving to work. (Let's just hope he doesn't break something important.)

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Who has time for action video games by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Pff who has time for all that porn, crystal meth, tv and politics when there's frags to rack up and gibs to liberate?

  2. Witch hunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just another bogus study in a long line of anti-video game "studies".

    1. Re:Witch hunt by skids · · Score: 2

      Actually, it's just another sensationalist headline saying wrong things about a study that is really very interesting. I recommend RTFA.

      Twitch games build up one part of the brain and make the hippocampus atrophy. 3-D platformers (VR?) build up the hippocampus. The authors suggest FPS game makers take away the mini-maps and wayfinders and add more scenery and mazes to balance things out.

      Which makes me surprised that BL2 was to them a typical action game... the maps in that are usually best navigated by scenery and aren't linear or especially simple.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    2. Re:Witch hunt by war4peace · · Score: 1

      People drink to forget, get high to forget and play games to forget.
      I guess from this point of view games work perfectly and meet the goals.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  3. Bad or evolution? by dbrueck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Grey matter loss seems bad, but at the same time I wonder if we're just detecting humans adapting to technology - maybe it's not so much a net loss in brain functionality but more a manifestation of tradeoffs being made.

    For example, growing up there was a lot of emphasis on memorizing information (memorize all the countries of the world, memorize all US states and their capitals, memorize these dates in history, memorize these mathematical equations, etc.). These days that seems far less useful.

    So, if we offload to technology the storage and recall of trivia, it wouldn't be surprising to find that some part of our brains are less used compared with those of people 50 years ago. But maybe we'd also see that the brains of people today are better at being exposed to more data without being overwhelmed, or better at quickly sifting through mounds of information to find something in particular, or better at distilling lots of info down to its essence.

    1. Re:Bad or evolution? by David_Hart · · Score: 5, Informative

      Grey matter loss seems bad, but at the same time I wonder if we're just detecting humans adapting to technology - maybe it's not so much a net loss in brain functionality but more a manifestation of tradeoffs being made.

      For example, growing up there was a lot of emphasis on memorizing information (memorize all the countries of the world, memorize all US states and their capitals, memorize these dates in history, memorize these mathematical equations, etc.). These days that seems far less useful.

      So, if we offload to technology the storage and recall of trivia, it wouldn't be surprising to find that some part of our brains are less used compared with those of people 50 years ago. But maybe we'd also see that the brains of people today are better at being exposed to more data without being overwhelmed, or better at quickly sifting through mounds of information to find something in particular, or better at distilling lots of info down to its essence.

      The study is more nuanced than that. It says that Response learners (people who count right and left turns) lose grey matter when playing FPS games for extended periods of time. But Spacial learners (those who use landmarks) seem not to be affected. I use spacial cues in FPS games because there is no way that I could remember left/right turns in games like Skyrim.

      The study also found that playing 3D platformers (i.e. Mario Brothers) reversed the grey matter loss.

    2. Re:Bad or evolution? by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      This is probably more on-point than conclusions that it's just outright brain damage. Lots of studies have shown there are tradeoffs for certain types of intellectual capacity. In one notable study they found that all chimpanzees have perfect photographic memories. The researchers hypothesized that human beings may have lost the ubiquity of this mental trait as a tradeoff for language processing capabilities.

    3. Re:Bad or evolution? by thebullshitpatrol · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'm very suspicious when these types of claims are made without considering the tradeoff.

      I'm very much oriented towards rapid processing of information. On the contrary, I have a much more difficult time with memorization and procedural tasks than other people.

      The Richard Feynman archetype has existed forever, I think its just that now everyone who doesn't have that personality is being directed into it by the internet.

    4. Re:Bad or evolution? by eagle52997 · · Score: 1

      Until you hear North Korea was threatening to attack Guam, and you're like "wtf are North Korea and Guam?" There is some level of information that is required to be a good citizen, and another level that is probably memorized based on your occupation and gets used often enough where knowing it saves you the time to look it up. Have you also seen the reports of how navigation tools are causing loss of spatial intelligence? Deity help us when the solar flares knock out electronics, or when NK attacks Guam and sets of other bombs around the world to cause a global EMP and loss of tech https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-...

    5. Re: Bad or evolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I wonder whether it isn't an evolved response, like the brain perceiving it as combat, and prioritizing survival over other more intellectual functions

    6. Re:Bad or evolution? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      For example, growing up there was a lot of emphasis on memorizing information (memorize all the countries of the world, memorize all US states and their capitals, memorize these dates in history, memorize these mathematical equations, etc.). These days that seems far less useful.

      Forced memorization of things you're not actually using was always stupid. When you actually use things repeatedly, you learn them plenty quickly.

      Memorizing equations is probably the exception, though. Knowing which equation to use when seems indispensable. You could figure it out if you're a badass mathematician, but why waste the time?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Bad or evolution? by dbrueck · · Score: 1

      Yes and yes! This line of questions is something I've wondered about too and ... I don't know what the right answer is. :)

      On the one hand, memorizing gobs of factoids like I did in grade school seems like a waste. OTOH, without some set of hopefully-common knowledge, you can't really participate in society as well, much less avoiding repeating the mistakes of history. I found this article https://www.nytimes.com/intera... pretty fascinating, for example.

      For me personally I seem to do best if I'm aware of stuff on some level and then I can go read up on it if I want to know more, but I don't know what the right level of exposure is needed to give people at least in their formal education. But if I could redo my grade school education, especially things like social studies and history, I think I would have benefited from (and enjoyed) more focus on lessons and learnings from history, principles, and themes and far less focus on being able to say what exact year something happened.

      But on the flip side, knowing e.g. dates does matter some too - knowing that something happened right before the US Civil War can be relevant. Or knowing that it was as recent as the mid 1970's that women (at least in the US) had to have a man to co-sign for a bank loan can help in shaping perspective on certain types of progress.

    8. Re:Bad or evolution? by dbrueck · · Score: 1

      Agreed, although those too either remain with you if you use them or generally fade away if you don't use them regularly. I'm pretty sure the volume of a sphere is 4/3 * pi * r^3, but that's something I'd double check before relying on it since it's not something I use often. And it's been years since I've used the quadratic formula so I'd definitely have to Google that one. Those are really basic equations, and some people would be shocked that anyone doesn't just know them, while others would not even know what they are.

      We somehow need to make people aware of what's out there so that they can go dig in deeper if the need arises, but it's hard to know what is important enough to cover in the exercise of making people aware.

    9. Re:Bad or evolution? by aliquis · · Score: 1

      data without being overwhelmed, or better at quickly sifting through mounds of information to find something in particular, or better at distilling lots of info down to its essence.

      Yeah I'm excellent at ignoring everything to save energy ;D

    10. Re:Bad or evolution? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      There are people who count right and left turns? That hasn't even occurred to me as a viable strategy and now I feel stupid and ignorant of this.

      It's a classic strategy for traversing a maze or structure, but I for one have problems with numbers and I lose count, so I navigate by landmarks, colors, whatever is unique about the different areas. It really made the near-endgame of Halo horrible, I got turned around a bunch of times :)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    11. Re:Bad or evolution? by Calydor · · Score: 1

      There was this dungeon crawler game back in the late 90s, early 2000. Mordor II, later Demise. Its map wasn't fluid but divided into squares, 45x45 I think, and then of course a ridiculous number of levels deep.

      By the time I grew bored of it, I was walking down to level 14 from the city just by remembering the number of keystrokes on the arrow keys. So yeah, it could be done - but I wouldn't really use it in any modern 3D game. Landmarks are the way to go - head under the outcrop and continue ahead to the three burned trees.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    12. Re:Bad or evolution? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's very true. But how often do those come up in reality? Or even in a game, for that matter. Usually there's at least one tricky feature included to trip up that strategy. Except, of course, Halo. The only problem then is if you get turned around because of an extended firefight with the occasional surprise, and doorways. Do virtual doorways cause the same memory problems as real ones?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:Bad or evolution? by skids · · Score: 1

      Really to get a full workout, you need to be re-traversing the map so you come it the same room from different angles/perspectives. If you always respawn in the same place and run the same path to go get killed by the boss again and again, you'll regress into only exerting your response centers.

      So, nix on the spawn poles, too, or at least have a lot of eligible spawn points within range from which to randomly choose.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    14. Re:Bad or evolution? by skids · · Score: 1

      The most valuable thing you can teach is a taxonomy of what there is to learn, and the methods to learn it. But throwing some random data from some leaf nodes of that taxonomy can lead to a few "ah-ha I know this one" moments which will provide emotional motivation to put some flesh on those bones.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    15. Re:Bad or evolution? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      I use spacial cues in FPS games because there is no way that I could remember left/right turns in games like Skyrim.

      The study also found that playing 3D platformers (i.e. Mario Brothers) reversed the grey matter loss.

      What did they say about CounterStrike? I play a fair bit and seem to have above average reaction, attention, motor skills etc, but also have terrible memory. To the GP's point, do I care? Figuring things out quickly is more important these days than remembering stuff, could this just but an evolutionary shift where strong memory becomes as useful as a tail?

  4. Re: Everything is bad for you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well. Is it the gaming or the lack of sleep from staying up too late?

  5. Misleading title by Marcpek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As usual, news sites like make catchy titles on scientific articles while ignoring important information. From the abstract: "These results show that video games can be beneficial or detrimental to the hippocampal system depending on the navigation strategy that a person employs and the genre of the game." So that doesn't mean that playing video games shrinks your brain, does it.

    1. Re:Misleading title by nasch · · Score: 1

      Playing Action Video Games May Be Bad For Your Brain, Study Finds

      Playing first-person shooter video games causes some users to lose grey matter

      The qualifiers are right there. You're the one who paraphrased incorrectly.

  6. And next week it will be..... by Zorro · · Score: 2

    Playing Action Video Games May Be GOOD For Your Brain, Study Finds..... Click bait!

  7. Kotaku-in-Action by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Most of us already knew playing action video games was bad for your brain.

    Remember #gamergate?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re: Kotaku-in-Action by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      You mean the thing where a bunch of women hating basement dwellers tried everything possible to get women who dare criticize or work in video games fired or killed?

      Ironically, reading the thread over here and over here shows that the biggest supporters of firing critics are, in fact, the ones who were the biggest supporters of the games journos.

      This whole google-firing scandal is rich in irony - I'm waiting to hear those same supporters whine about the silencing effect of the government when google gets slapped with a fine for illegally firing someone (AKA silencing the dissenting opinions). There is literally no way out of this that does not reveal all the "feminists" to be intellectual midgets.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  8. Study actually looks at navigation strategies used by celest · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actual study (open access): http://www.nature.com/mp/journ...

    The actual study looks at the navigation strategies used in games and separates both the type of games and the type of players; i.e., players of the same game using different navigation strategies develop their brains differently.

    The finding is that if you play first person shooters and just wander around and shoot things, the hippocampus doesn't develop (and decreases in mass). By contrast, if you learn to navigate based on references in the game (or, by dying repeatedly by navigating incorrectly, as is common in the Mario game control group they used) your brain develops.

    It would be interesting to see a comparison between Call of Duty pub players and competitive Counter-Strike players. The former just "shoot everything that moves". The latter are highly coordinated like SWAT teams. The present findings seem to suggest that the latter--in the same game--would develop their brain matter, whereas the former would not.

  9. Re:So... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    That would explain my poor event memory, my drive to work isn't horrible by a lot of people's standards but I spend about an hour and a half every day driving to and from work (combined); and I've only ever played FPSes - Doom, Quake, Half-Life, FarCry, Skyrim, Deus Ex, Rage, Wolfenstein, etc.
    My wife remembers all kinds of things and details and I just barely remember being there. :-(

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  10. You mean to tell me... by glenebob · · Score: 1

    that if you use your brain in a narrow way for a large portion of your life, that your brain will become less good at the things you don't use it for?

    Here comes my shocked face again.

  11. Re:As a professional video game tester... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Not a team player for working hard to better your career?

    The ugly fact about being a video game tester is that any other job pays better. Whenever someone complained about Sony paying $20/hr when we got $16/hr, management told us to get a job at the Taco Bell down the street. That is until a tester got a job at Taco Bell with better pay and benefits.

  12. Re: As an actual video game engineer by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    Anyone who has a CS degree can probably call themselves a game designer. I made a Pong clone as part of an assembly class and I imagine most people have either done something similar or made a simple game as a hobby project. Thinking back I even made a crappy little text adventure game as a kid. Technically that was a game as well.

  13. Small wonder by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "Playing first-person shooter video games causes some users to lose grey matter"

    My character has his brains flying around all the time in the games I play.

  14. Isn't the lesson here... by RyanFenton · · Score: 1

    First up, link to the actual study in Nature's Molecular Psychology:

    Impact of video games on plasticity of the hippocampus

    The study was mostly on the effects of different navigation mechanisms (the "control group" did 3d platforming) - so isn't the lesson here, if you spend lots of time gaming, don't only play one kind of game?

    Also, where was the non-videogaming control? Isn't there a general loss of grey matter over time regardless? I'd think tablet/GPS users using virtually NO navigational skills would also see a reduction in hippocampus grey matter over time - and most archived studies wouldn't have taken into account newer commonly used technologies reducing general navigation.

    Nice data point - as the paper states and strongly implies, more study is needed, and the conclusions that can be drawn here are quite limited.

    Ryan Fenton

    1. Re:Isn't the lesson here... by tranZent · · Score: 1

      A good summary of the study, by a neurologist: https://sciencebasedmedicine.o...

    2. Re:Isn't the lesson here... by RyanFenton · · Score: 1

      Cool - really like Dr Steven Novella's take on this - I listen to the Skeptics Guide podcast on occasion when I can.

      Ryan Fenton

  15. Media cycle by DrYak · · Score: 2

    In other words :

    Article "Doing activity X will improve training on capability A and B, but the unused skill C and D will dwindle"
    Press "OMG! X is going to kill us all because of C and D ! Quick, click on our advertisement!"

    Cue in ob. reference to PhDcomics

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  16. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Creimer's full of shit.

    No, video game testing was a dead end job. I got my certifications (A+/Network+/Windows) and learned computer programming to get out of the video game industry.

  17. Re: As an actual video game engineer by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Clicking the Amazon Associates stripe to get an affiliate link to spam on Slashdot doesn't count as "computer programming".

  18. My Brain Hutrs... by newbie_fantod · · Score: 1

    The game may only be a simulation, but the PTSD is real.

    1. Re:My Brain Hutrs... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Well, it'll have to come out!

  19. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Clicking the Amazon Associates stripe to get an affiliate link to spam on Slashdot doesn't count as "computer programming".

    Thank God that I'm not a professional programmer by trade then.

  20. Did they account for pot use? by the_skywise · · Score: 1

    We therefore followed up Study 1 with two longitudinal training studies where participants trained in-lab for 90h on either an action or 3D-platform video game (Study 2) or on an action-role playing game

    How many players of Call of Duty were habitual pot users vs the players of My Little Pony Sparkle Adventures?

    Wait... don't answer that...

  21. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Not like cleaning closets. That's a job with limitless career growth.

    I seriously don't understand your obsession about IT closets. I cleaned up a few in my 20+ year tech career and that's all you harped about.

  22. Re:As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    He's also full of himself. But I repeat myself.

    I heard those complaints when I went I got my certifications and went back to school. Seems like anyone who tries to better himself is "full of himself" and not "a team player". No wonder this country is screwed up.

  23. Oh no! We are DOOMed! by jmcwork · · Score: 2

    I Quake with fear that the loss of grey matter could resulting in me leading a Half-Life. (OK, I got you started, do not disappoint me.)

  24. Fight or Flight Reaction, Maybe? by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

    Maybe they are counting the fight or flight reaction. Being overstressed is known to kill brain cells.

  25. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    Mostly you get shit about it, because you cite it as evidence of your "miracle worker" status - as if getting paid an IT salary for doing low value work that is best accomplished by facilities and maintenance staff is somehow an accomplishment worthy of note.

    These are IT closets that facilities refuses to clean up. Mostly because they don't want the electronic waste disposal fees charged to their budget. When I worked at a local hospital, it took three weeks for management to figure who was going to pay for three 40-yard dumpsters to throw out the packing materials (foam and cardboard) for 750 PCs and 1,500 monitors.

    If you don't think it's important or relevant, why do YOU bring it up?

    Because it pisses off my trolls.

  26. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    No, just you you fat fuck.

    I'm afraid not. I've seen this quite frequently with other people. Whenever someone tries to better themselves or promote their personal brand, critics (trolls) are always ready to tear them down.

  27. Re:All things in moderation by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    You must be a software tester.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  28. Well .... by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    You can die crossing the street. You can loose grey matter in your brain from concussion or other injury. This study is rubbish ... it is a waste of time and resources.

  29. This bothers me... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    This bothers me because I have good visual attention and motor control skills but poor memory and...well, look at my username...

    Maybe the puzzle games would help to compensate for the FPS damage? :-P

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  30. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    [...] you wasted money, time, and skills better spent on other tasks to clean something that literally nobody in the organization felt was a priority to fund or budget.

    Until the fire marshal shows up. Then it becomes a priority. Having boxes stacked to the ceiling and blocking sprinklers is a no-no.

    That management doesn't get their shit together on budgetary issues isn't really the problem of a low level ticket dispatcher

    You must not work in a large corporation then. These bureaucratic battles are quite common. Also, I was the technician responsible for unboxing, imagining and deploying 750 PCs and 1,500 monitors. I wasn't dispatching tickets.

  31. I thought I read where gaming was good? by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Wasn't it within the past 6 months, there was a "study" that stated playing FPS was good for the brain?

  32. Adjust Data For Krunk? by ponfgong-e · · Score: 1

    Did their data adjust for the percentage of gamers who were pounding keystone light while racking up frags? frags is still gamer lingo right? I don't know anymore I'm old and I lost too much gray matter on CS in my youth.

  33. Here by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1

    https://www.nature.com/mp/jour...

    Forget short hand summaries and the articles you are gonna read about this subject that are often misguided and sensationalistic.
    Read the piece. It has some merit, but it might not be drawing the conclusions that people are writing about it.

  34. Re:So... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    My wife remembers all kinds of things and details and I just barely remember being there. :-(

    I have the same experience, but I have drastically more hours in Civ2 and AlphaC than I do in all FPSes put together. I can't remember the names of streets, but once I drive someplace I can drive there again — unless I got there by GPS navigation, in which case I wasn't really using the navigating part of my brain, and I'm going to need the GPS at least another time or two.

    On the other hand, some particular details stand out to me, and I remember them much later. I think the difference is really what you're thinking about. I tend to think about the stuff I'm talking about when I talk to people, and some people tend to think more about the people they're talking to. It's not that I don't value people, but part of what I value them for is high-quality discourse. But I do see it as a failing that I don't retain more about the people, who are at least as important as the topic of discussion.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  35. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    And when the fire marshal shows up, then management will prioritize it, and suddenly when faced with a $10,000 fine for fire code infringements, or a $5,000 charge for e-waste disposal, the facilities department will suddenly find that it's part of their charter to clean up the closet.

    Not at the companies I've worked at. Facilities doesn't do squat. If the IT department gets cited by the fire marshal, it comes out of the IT budget.

    It's fucking stupid.

    That's why contractors are hired to do all the "fucking stupid" jobs that full-time people don't want to touch. This is why I enjoy working as a contractor. Every job is completely different.

  36. Use it or loose it? by tomxor · · Score: 1

    Does the study actually show computer game specific negative effects? or is this another "do this to excess and the negatives outweighs the benefits" type of observation which applies to basically everything, (yes i'm sceptical... i'm also lazy/busy/not interested enough, someone read the study and give us the TL;DR of the truth of the article premise.)

  37. Re: As an actual video game engineer by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    If facilities doesn't do anything, why do you care?

    Because I needed space for the next shipment of Dell PCs from China.

    Pile the empty boxes in a hallway and tell your boss, "I can't do anything about it until you get a me a dumpster."

    You don't put packing material out into the hallway of a hospital. The IT manager's response: "Go talk to facilities."

    Plus, you never have to do anything useful - you can just clean closets and take boxes out to the dumpster.

    Don't forget the 750 PCs and 1,500 monitors for deployment, the 750 PCs and 1,500 monitors for disposal, and a ton of old PC hardware pulled from the floors that looked like they were being used but no one was using them.

  38. And TV... by Torp · · Score: 1

    ... makes your whole brain shrink, right?

    --
    I apologize for the lack of a signature.
  39. Re:So... by skids · · Score: 1

    Civ2 and AlphaC aren't games that are likely to build your spatial cognitive abilities. It's the maze-solving/navigation variety that do... and sandboxes with complicated maps, if you play them in an exploratively.

    --
    Someone had to do it.
  40. Articles take the lazy approach by sarbonn · · Score: 1

    Part of the problem with this study is the bad interpretations of the study after the study was concluded (and this was done by the click bait articles about it rather than the scientist journal that described it). If their conclusions are significant (and more studies, specifically case studies, are needed to determine just that), what they have found is that repetitive actions in a game long term is problematic, but long term playing of the game is not the causal mechanism itself. Because what they found was that doing the same thing over and over again over long periods is what causes the negative ramifications. So, a fps player would have to play the same sequences over and over again in order to achieve this mundane existence that causes the loss. Playing a game over a long period of time would allow the player to interact with continuously changing environments (not doing the same exact thing over and over again), whereas their study focuses more on doing the same activities extensively (which they term "autopilot" mode). So, a repetitive game would be bad; a fps involving exploring would probably be a lot better.

    --
    Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog