We’ve all been gripped by such mischief at one time or another - most likely at Christmas, when spirits are high, or some other holiday when the clan converges: the irresistible urge to fire up the gaming rig and, after she’s had a few egg nogs … Blow. Grandma’s. Mind.
But with what? Delightful cartoon worlds? Dashing hot laps in a Maserati? Of course not. She’s frail, hunched, rheumy-eyed. She wears compression socks, for god’s sake. Naturally, we choose a bit of the old ultra-violence. Zombies are good. Gods of war. The type of space where no one can hear you scream. Odds on, Gran’ll peer into the television screen wearing a puckered gape (quad comedy multiplier for denture detachment), before slowly leaning back in her chair as if sensing a great disturbance in the force, and with reluctant diplomacy, not wishing to crush your spirits, say something like, “Goodness ... I can see that it involves quite a measure of ... hand-eye coordination.”
Hand-eye coordination! What a dusty old phrase. Not that it’s no longer relevant - quite the opposite - it’s so commonplace as to be invisible. Modern life demands it. No surprise: the Twentieth Century was a veritable hothouse of H.E.C. There was the mass production of the motor vehicle (and therefore drivers), improvements in manufacturing and synthetic compounds, which brought games and amusements into the backyard and home. Global warfare. The explosion of sport and music as activities for all, not just the wealthy. And then gaming. And what a breed of hand-eye adepts it discovered. But when it came down to putting your initials at the top of the leaderboard, what separated the wheat from the chaff? Was it practice, or something that couldn’t be taught? And in either case, what mechanisms lay behind it?
Hand-eye coordination: you're doing it wrong.
Of course, H.E.C. is the dynamic relationship between movement and vision: vision informing movement which feeds back into vision - a process which involves almost all of the brain and central nervous system, so describing it in depth would take all day. Suffice it to say, given that it’s been such an integral part of our survival since day dot, it’s no surprise that it’s neurologically intensive. But when it comes to gaming, are there any areas that can be singled out?
Perhaps the most relevant research indicates that a structure that hums away right between the ears, known as the basal ganglia, holds one of the keys to gaming performance—more specifically a subsection called the dorsal striatum.
The interesting thing - and the most disheartening for the fan of twitch shooters and the like - is that the activity in this area of the brain is the greatest predictor of improvement in skill, and that level is something you’re born with. If you’ve poured hours into the latest Call of Duty, only to get owned by that novice friend with the seemingly supernatural ability to frag you, you’ll relate. Just like a mesomorph (a person with a naturally muscular build) and ectomorph (a naturally lean build) starting a weight-training program at the same time, the chunkier guy is going to make far greater gains over the same period. Of course, the human body is an amazingly malleable thing—who hasn’t seen a photo of a 150 pound weakling transformed into a flexing mass of veiny bulk? It’s just that the average person isn’t going to put in hours at the gym for years on end, and nor is the average gamer going to go blind trying to match it with the lords of twitch town.
Twitch Town, population: your dead corpse.
Fortunately, gaming involves far more than freakish coordination and lightning reflexes. Take an FPS map, for instance. Knowing where the spawn points are, ammo dumps, and the sniping sweet spots, has nothing to do with inherent ability - such things must be learned.
The particular aspect of memory most related to gaming is called spatial memory. The part of the brain responsible for this capacity is known as the hippocampus, a worm-like band which wraps around the brain’s core.
The hippocampus allows us to recall the layout (up, down, left, right) and landmarks (where to go up, down, left, right) of an environment. It’s also the structure which allows us to mentally picture a learned environment, and therefore plan our route ahead of time (while running from the cops in Grand Theft Auto, for instance).
People with injuries to the hippocampus have severe difficulties learning video game maps, though their abilities can be significantly improved with gaming “therapy.” By the same token, it has been found that the hippocampi of people with spatially intense jobs, such as taxi drivers in big cities, actually grow to accommodate the vast amounts of information.
The implications for gamers are clear - exercise your hippocampus! You might not have the best H.E.C. in the world, but you can more than compensate with superior tactics.
Statue of Liberty? Never heard of it.
As everyone knows, the brain isn’t a machine, and making use of our faculties isn’t like flipping a switch. So when you really need to bring your A-game, what can give you the boost you need?
Tiredness is a major contributor to cognitive impairment. Everyone can remember playing a new game well into the wee small hours, until the burning desire to progress is thwarted by numb fingers and a blank mind. All that we’ve learned over the past eight hours seems to have evaporated, our minds wander hopelessly, and our carefully honed reflexes have become sloth-like and misguided. Curiously, science hasn’t yet determined the biological basis for sleep. “Because we get tired,” doesn’t cut it. The question of why we get tired still hasn’t been answered. At any rate, tiredness is the scourge of any determined gamer, so what can be done?
A forty minute nap can boost performance by a third, and double alertness. If that’s not an option, old faithful (caffeine) might be needed. Does caffeine do anything beyond making you feel more alert, though? And if so, what kind of dose is required for a boost?
The general consensus is that coffee stimulates all areas of the nervous system, ensuring improvements to reflexes and H.E.C. But research has also shown that while it can speed up simple problem solving, it can actually cause you to do worse at complex tasks. So, Pac-Man yes, Civilization no.
Caffeine obviously has a dark side too.
Perhaps surprisingly, physical exercise - not just of the fingers and eyeballs, but the other six hundred and fifty odd muscles too - can be a great kick-starter of the major cognitive systems. Running, cycling, lifting weights. Fresh air, Lycra and sweat. Sedentary people who begin an exercise program experience significant growth in the aforementioned hippocampus, as well as other structures of the brain related to information processing. But if you’re already pretty fit, what else can you do?
Perhaps it’s time to look into the world of nootropics. Derived from the Ancient Greek words nous (mental activity) and trepein (to bend) - therefore, mind-benders - these substances engage with the chemical pathways of the brain to help overclock it. Legally.
The level of acetylcholine in the brain, for instance, has a significant relationship to attention and memory. So, just like A Clockwork Orange’s moloko vellocet, it might be just the thing to sharpen you up. Look out for foods rich in its primary component, choline, such as beef liver, eggs, cod, chicken, quinoa, and nuts, and let your body do the rest. A little sugar boost can assist the process, so don’t feel too guilty about chasing the cod down with some Junior Mints. Your significant other will thank you for it.
Just be careful where you put it.
The parts of the brain related to gaming are among the first structures to have formed in the development of Homo Sapiens. Given that many of our favoured past-times, as a species, involve lashings of the primal, it’s not surprising that we love to exercise them in the virtual world. So, what have we learned about squeezing the most out of our CPUs?
Twitch reflexes are pretty much innate, and while they can be improved, have more to do with individual variation. Spatial memory used in remembering maps can be greatly improved by anyone. Physical fitness is a wonderful boost to mental capacities, while the fit and active might wish to look into foods rich in the fundamental fuel of synaptic activity - choline. And finally, coffee can be relied upon to enhance reflexes and simple problem solving, but can actually hamper more complex strategizing. To get back to your best, you’ll need some good old-fashioned shuteye.
Daniel Clark is an Australian freelance gaming journalist and writer. Why not follow him on IGN and join the IGN Australia Facebook community?
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