Playing video games may boost your cognitive abilities and exercise can play a role in improving your mental health, but not the other way around, a large-scale study has found.

The surprise findings are part of the Brain and Body study, a collaboration between Western University and the Science and Industry Museum for the Manchester Science Festival. A preprint of the work is published on PsyArXiv.

More than 2,000 participants from around the world registered for the study, which asked them to complete a lifestyle survey followed by Creyos online brain games that accurately measure different aspects of cognition, such as memory, attention, reasoning and verbal abilities.

The study, spearheaded by Western's celebrated neuroscientist Adrian Owen, showed that among approximately 1,000 people who finished all the tasks, playing video games had a positive effect on an individual's cognition, but did not seem to affect their mental health.

Exercising more than 150 minutes per week, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, however, was seen to improve mental well-being but had no effect on cognition.

"Playing video games was associated with improved cognitive abilities but not better or worse mental health, whereas more physical activity was associated with improved mental health but not better or worse cognitive health," said Owen, a professor in cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

According to results of the study, people who frequently play video games (five or more hours per week for a single type of game) performed cognitively, on average, like people who were 13.7 years younger. Individuals who engaged infrequently with video games (less than 5 hours per week across all kinds of games) performed like people 5.2 years younger.

In terms of mental health, participants who met or exceeded the WHO recommendations of 150 minutes of physical activity per week were 12% more likely to report having no symptoms of depression and 9% more likely to have no symptoms of anxiety.

The data also suggest that these differences in mental health were not driven by the severely depressed or anxious individuals in the study; rather, physical activity made the greatest difference at the lower end of both scales where symptoms were either mild or absent altogether.

Brain-body connection

Despite the seemingly obvious examples of a brain-body connection, like the way being "hangry" affects the ability to concentrate, stress makes muscles tense or steady breathing calms the mind, relatively little is understood about how brain and body affect each other.

Completing the survey helped the Western team build a better understanding of how lifestyle relates to the long-term health of our brains.

"The results of this study could help all of us choose activities that promote healthy cognitive aging," said Owen.

Details of the findings will be presented by Owen at the Science and Industry Museum on Oct. 19 as part of the Manchester Science Festival, running from Oct.18 to 27. Visitors to the festival will also have the opportunity to take part in a pilot study to follow up these results. While the online survey focused on long-term effects, the Western team will be inviting festival-goers to help them in a pilot study to examine short-term improvements to cognition as a result of exercise and gaming.

Owen will also provide commentary about how the brain handles sound and light within an artistic commission for the festival by the Squidsoup collective. Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, "State of Mind" is a three-dimensional arrangement of LED lights within an intriguing and informative soundscape.