German scientists from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf have discovered that regular playing of Super Mario can significantly improve the condition of patients with schizophrenia. It is already known that certain video games can enhance cognitive performance in healthy individuals by activating the brain’s reward system. This study marks the first time such benefits have been observed in patients with mental illness.
Individuals with schizophrenia often experience cognitive impairments linked to reduced neuroplasticity—the ability to adapt to new conditions. Psychiatrists, therefore, sought to determine if video games could enhance the neuroplasticity of patients’ brains. For this purpose, the researchers created two groups | one consisting of 95 people with schizophrenia and another comprising 82 healthy volunteers.
Subsequently, the subjects were instructed to play Super Mario for thirty minutes daily on Nintendo portable consoles, while the control group engaged in reading e-books. After two months, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans revealed that the gamers exhibited significant improvements in attention and memory compared to the book readers.
The imaging also indicated that individuals with schizophrenia had an increase in neural connections within the brain, especially in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. More crucially, the reduction in negative symptoms led to these individuals enjoying daily activities more frequently. Psychiatrists have deduced from these findings that video games could serve as effective therapy for those afflicted with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
