Middle-aged and elderly people often enjoy playing games while commuting, during work breaks and even at home. It has been known that games have a negative effect on children’s brains, but this is also true for adults.
It may appear that you are using your brain as you move your fingers when playing a game, but it only works part of the brain, and if the prefrontal cortex is worked, it is only in the beginning of playing the game. Once the brain learns how to play the game, it suppresses the prefrontal cortex.
What happens when the prefrontal cortex is suppressed? There is a report from Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), which investigated how the prefrontal cortex works before and after playing games. The experiment aims to solve language-related and figure problems before and after playing a game for 30 minutes.
It was found that the areas behind the brain and prefrontal cortex worked when the subjects (college students) performed tasks related to figures and languages before the game. The next time the game was played, the area behind the brain, which controls visual information, was active while the prefrontal area was suppressed. After the game, when the same language and figure tasks were performed, the back of the brain worked more actively, but the prefrontal cortex remained depressed and work worsened.
From this experiment, the brain has properties similar to muscles, and the areas of the brain that are frequently used become active, but the prefrontal cortex may not work well and may not be able to exert its ability.
Even if you play a game before work, with the intention of taking a break or changing your mind, it will reduce the efficiency of your work. Before work, it is better to do brain training and reading to train the prefrontal cortex instead.