Playing Super Mario Video Game Can Improve Executive Functioning in Older Adults

A study published in Experimental Brain Research explored how playing three-dimensional (3D)-platform video games can boost executive function in older adults, reports PsyPost . The researchers tested this setup on an "antisaccade task," which assesses the ability of participants to properly ignore a stimulus — inhibition of the reflexive saccade — and execute a saccade, or rapid eye movement, in the opposite direction. Decreased performance correlates with reduced executive function and signals loss of inhibitory control. The investigators theorized that playing games like "Super Mario 64" — which require players to inhibit distractions to reach objectives — would correlate with better antisaccade test scores and higher gray matter volume in the Frontal Eye Fields (FEF), a brain area responsible for directing eye movement. The team recruited 33 participants ages 55 to 75 years old, divided into a cohort that received training in the game, one that received piano lessons, and one with zero intervention. When retested, participants in the game training group exhibited significant improvements in inhibition of reflexive saccades and increases in the right FEF. The implication is that frontal inhibitory processes, a key component of executive function, can be enhanced by training with 3D-platform games.