Educational games for brain health: revealing their unexplored potential through a neurocognitive approach

Patrick Fissler, Iris-Tatjana Kolassa, Claudia Schrader, Patrick Fissler, Iris-Tatjana Kolassa, Claudia Schrader

Abstract

Educational games link the motivational nature of games with learning of knowledge and skills. Here, we go beyond effects on these learning outcomes. We review two lines of evidence which indicate the currently unexplored potential of educational games to promote brain health: First, gaming with specific neurocognitive demands (e.g., executive control), and second, educational learning experiences (e.g., studying foreign languages) improve brain health markers. These markers include cognitive ability, brain function, and brain structure. As educational games allow the combination of specific neurocognitive demands with educational learning experiences, they seem to be optimally suited for promoting brain health. We propose a neurocognitive approach to reveal this unexplored potential of educational games in future research.

Keywords: brain function; brain health; brain structure; cognitive ability; education; educational games; gaming; serious games.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
A neurocognitive approach to reveal the unexplored potential of educational games for brain health. In a two-step approach, a cognitive task analysis of educational games is followed by their validation through objective methods. This second step consists of a behavioral analysis to determine the association between game performance and neuropsychological test performance and/or a brain imaging approach to determine the recruited neuronal networks for task completion. Based on this approach, appropriate educational games can be selected to enable randomized controlled clinical trials that assess the efficacy of educational games to improve brain health markers including cognitive ability, brain function, and brain structure.

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