A study conducted by Universidade of Ciência and Tecnologia Eletrônica of China found that playing League of Legends produces measurable improvements in attention, memory and brain function. The positive effects remained detectable ten weeks after the end of the experiment, according to data presented by the researchers.
The research followed 68 young adults with little previous experience in games. Durante 30 weeks, a group played League of Legends one hour a day, five days a week. The other group, for comparison purposes, played Legends of the Three Kingdoms, a strategic card game with the same frequency and duration.
League of Legends surpassed card game in brain effectiveness
The researchers tested the participants at several points in time, assessing spatial attention, spatial working memory and executive function. Ambos groups showed improvements on several cognitive tasks during follow-up. Porém, the group that played League of Legends made significantly greater gains in spatial attention and working memory.
The analysis also recorded resting brain activity from each participant. The data showed that the League of Legends group showed more pronounced changes in brain wave patterns. According to the researchers, these changes indicate greater efficiency in the processing of information by the brain. The results suggest that different types of games stimulate different neural pathways, but action games like League of Legends produce stronger and longer-lasting effects.
Benefícios persist weeks after experiment
The most relevant aspect of the research was the persistence of cognitive gains. Quando participants were tested again ten weeks after finishing the experiment; improvements in attention and memory were still visible. Isso differentiates League of Legends from many cognitive interventions, the effects of which diminish rapidly after termination.
The authors argue that this durability may be related to the strategic challenges and continuous motor demand that League of Legends imposes. The game requires rapid processing of visual information, real-time tactical planning and decision-making under pressure. Essas activities can consolidate neuroplastic changes more robustly than static tasks.
What has changed in cognitive tests
- Space Atenção: group of League of Legends showed greater gains than players of Legends of the Three Kingdoms
- Working Memória: More significant and lasting improvement in the strategic action group
- Executive Função: both improved, but differences favored the group of League of Legends
- Padrões brainwaves: most striking changes in League players detected by electroencephalogram
- Resultados follow-up: benefits maintained ten weeks after the end of the experiment
Contexto Scientific and Study Limitations
It is important to contextualize the findings within their real limitations. The study involved only young, healthy college students, a population not representative of all ages and health conditions. The researchers also did not fully control for external factors such as individual motivation, academic workload, or gaming outside of the experiment. Essa lack of control may have influenced the results in an unpredictable way.
The findings, therefore, do not prove that simply playing League of Legends will automatically make everyone smarter. The effects appear measurable and consistent in the tested group, but the full biological mechanism still requires further investigation. Diferentes player profiles can respond differently to the same stimuli, and genetic factors can influence the magnitude of cognitive improvements.
Implicações for health and well-being
The findings are part of a larger context of research on how leisure activities impact brain health. Videogames, often criticized for negative effects, emerges here as a potential cognitive training tool. Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, did not specifically fund this study, increasing the credibility of the results.
The mechanism proposed by the authors involves brain plasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize neural connections in response to stimuli. League of Legends, due to its competitive and dynamic nature, offers a constant challenge that forces this type of reorganization. Quando the player faces new scenarios and rapidly changing environments, the brain activates multiple neural networks simultaneously. Essa repeated activation, over weeks, consolidates cognitive gains.
Future Pesquisas will need to examine whether these benefits transfer to non-game cognitive tasks and whether different game genres produce similar patterns of brain improvement. Também remains an open question as to whether more experienced players—often the subject of previous study—show smaller effects through cognitive plateauing or whether they continue to accumulate gains. Long-term follow-up of participants for periods longer than ten weeks would also help establish the exact duration of these benefits.
For now, those late-night sessions playing ranked matches can do more than raise blood pressure in moments of defeat. Segundo this Chinese research, there is a genuine cognitive side to this pastime that millions practice daily.