Cyber culture: More proof that gaming can keep you young A study from the University of California has suggested, once again, that playing video games can have a positive effect on our cognitive abilities. This particular study concluded that people as old as 80 can begin to show neurological patterns more normally identified with 20-somethings after spending time playing a specially devised driving game called NeuroRacer. We've seen these kind of claims made many times before; that for all the negatives that people may associate with intensive use of video games, they can lead to marked improvements in certain aspects of cognitive function, including short-term memory, multi-tasking skills and, most notably, increased attention spans in an era of constant distraction and over-stimulation. The Californian study also found that the cognitive improvements seen while playing NeuroRacer were then transferred to other, non-gaming activities. That's one in the eye for the game-play naysayers