What Counter-Strike Does to Your Brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jD4OdaHjK8&t=63s
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Hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms can produce recurrent, perceptual after-image intrusions, which in the medical field if found to cause dysfunction, is referred to as hallucinogen-persisting-perception-disorder, or HPPD. One of the many symptoms associated, with this disorder is something called palanopsia, which simply put is a neurological phenomenon where visual images persist, or can come back long after the stimulus has been removed. Now, take a moment and think about the last time you played Counter-Strike, all day or any other game for that matter. What you likely experienced, when going to bed or walking away with something called game transfer phenomenon, or GTP. And while doing research on a peer-reviewed study of this phenomenon of GTP, a professor from the University of Bergen, and a PhD researcher affiliated with the University of Liège stated that GTP, can sometimes resemble experiences remarkably similar to palanopsia. Dr. Angelica Burotiz, the researcher who coined the term GTP,
reviewed research involving over 6,000, gamers and found that playing video games can temporarily, carry over into real life as images,sounds, voices,tactile sensations, involuntary movements,sensations of unreality, illogical thoughts,and even verbal outbursts.But, it doesn’t just stop there.In the spring of 2017,a Western Canadian University took 343, students and tested them for GTP symptoms.Over 91%, of the participants, described experiencing game transfer phenomenon at least once in their life.And out of the 343 students who were self-described avid gamers,all reported experiencing GTP.The intensity of the symptoms is strongly correlated with gaming hours,but types of symptoms are dependent person to person.But,the most interesting part of all this is out of the 91.3%, of students who experienced GTP,86% of them reported it as an enjoyable experience.Not so long ago when I played Counter-Strike almost all day,I too would experience GTP to at least some degree.
I would get mental images in my mind which were only amplified, once I closed my eyes to go to bed.But, when I really think back on it,it wasn’t so bad.It gave me time to process the games I’d played that day and to even inspire, me to play more.I’ve left research down in the, description about GTP if you’d, like to learn more about it,but that’s just one thing that Counter-Strike does to your brain and there is so, much more.In 2016,99 Finnish undergraduate students underwent a physiological, test to compare how your body reacts when seeing an opponent in-game, that’s either a computer,a random stranger, or even someone you know.The EMG devices that used to determine these physiological, indicators were also capable of measuring something called skin conductance, level,or SCL for short.This measurement allowed researchers to determine whether the subject was tense,alert, stimulated,and emotionally engaged.What they found comes as no surprise.
Subjects that engaged with a computer opponents [music] had significantly, lower SCL when compared to facing a human opponent.That would likely indicate that it’s physically impossible, to replicate a competitive environment, for a player if that player is not playing against real human opponents.This also explains why aimbots can be so boring.Your mind and body refuse to engage in an activity that just doesn’t matter.Something that the research did find, however,was that in a match with someone you know or a complete stranger,SCL remained the same.But, specifically when you die to a friend,your skin conductance levels are at their highest.Because of the equipment the researchers used,they couldn’t pinpoint what those emotions were.But, another study did.In 2021, a study done on 652 CS:GO players was done at the University of Poznań,Poland.The goal was to determine exactly, what about Counter-Strike makes people feel specific emotions.What makes us happy, enthusiastic,sad, or even angry.
The answers that the test produced will likely not come as a surprise,but I found it interesting to see these emotions quantified into a percentage.Perhaps you’ll agree with a few of them.When asked about what makes Counter-Strike the most fun or amusing,15% of the players said playing with friends,and 34% claimed that winning games was the most fun.And 4% said watching players fall to their death was the most fun.45% of players claimed that the most enthusiastic event came from clutching, rounds.32% also said winning.27% of the time weak teammates attribute to what makes players the most angry.15% of the time was from teammates intentionally sabotaging the game.6% said falling to their own death was the most frustrating.But what made players sad was defeat,which came in at 29% followed by not playing well, which came in at 12%.It’s clear that Counter-Strike evokes a lot of emotional responses from us,but something not a lot of people, know about is how Counter-Strike.
can actually improve your cognitive, function.In 2023, a meta-analysis,which is a compilation and analysis of multiple peer-reviewed studies,was done on 133 papers to figure out one thing.Can first-person shooters actually improve cognitive skills?I’ve researched this a bit in the past for previous videos,and if you’ve seen those,you know that professional eSports athletes score significantly, higher in test measuring spatial cognition.The key difference here was to figure out if first-person shooters alone, actually improve this function and functions similar.found was professional and normal everyday FPS players scored significantly, higher on average.Throughout the paper, the researchers used this thing called Hedges’ G,which is an expression, used to measure the difference, between two groups in the form, of standard deviation.In simpler [music] terms, if G equals zero,there’s no difference.If G equals 0.2, there’s a slight difference.0.5, moderate difference.
0.8, there is a substantial difference.Basically, the closer the number is to one,the more significant the difference is in a positive way.Anyway, when the FPS players were compared to people who don’t play FPSs,they discovered FPS players were substantially better at multitasking,scoring G equals 0.81.In perception, they scored 0.71.Spatial cognition, which is something we’ve explored in our previous video,they scored 0.67.Top-down attention got 0.63.The FPS players average around the 75th percentile in these tests.As in,if you lined up 100 people where none of them played first-person shooters,a first-person shooter player would outperform 75 of them on average.This is substantial,but the researchers realized that this only proves correlation, not causation.After all,these players may be drawn to these games because they naturally, have these cognitive abilities.Therefore, perform better and would play the game more because of it.So,they went ahead and analyzed 28.
different training studies where they gathered non-FPS, players and had them train with these games to see if their cognitive, abilities improved.How this was done was by comparing cognitive tests from two different groups.One group would train their cognitive abilities via FPS games,while the other would train using non-FPS games.After the test was complete,the test group who used FPS games, to train showed overall cognitive, scores of G equals 0.3, higher than the test group who didn’t use FPS games.This isn’t as substantial as the scores from avid FPS users,but still is definitive proof that there was improvement.One category in particular saw that major improvement was from top-down, attention.This is the ability to choose what to focus on, ignore distractions,track important information,and the ability to control attention in chaotic situations.It’s remarkable to consider the, idea that FPS games can actually, improve one’s cognitive, function.And once more time has passed,
it’ll be interesting to see the, long-term effect these games, have on people’s brains.But we haven’t yet spoken about the psychological, influence of Counter-Strike and what it does to your brain,why it makes you angry, sad,and everything in between.But there is a compelling theory behind all of that.But before we get into that, let’s talk about the sponsor of today’s video.Skins Monkey is an automated CS: GO trading site.Skins Monkey provides an instant way to get new skins.If you encounter any issues, there’s 24/7 live chat support.To find the perfect skin,there’s a filter tool and a search bar to find exactly what you’re looking for.If you use my promo code Rider Die,you can start trading on Skins Monkey and earn up to 100 worth of skins to make the most of it.But if you’d rather buy your skins,you can use my promo code Rider Die to earn a 35% deposit bonus.Thank you, Skins Monkey,for sponsoring this video.Andrew Przybylski, a psychology professor at Oxford University,
and Richard M.Ryan, a professor at Rochester University,co-founded what is called the self-determination theory.This theory explains our basic psychological needs to feel useful,to be capable of doing what we set out to do.They coined this theory in an, attempt to dispel the narrative, that violent video games cultivate, a violent, society,which I’m sure by now no one really believes.But they also wanted to eliminate the idea that violent video games created, angry people.How they targeted this was through a series of Tetris.They designed a Tetris-like video game and for 104 undergraduates,they’d be playing this.One version of the game had simple controls while the other had more complex, controls that even an expert Tetris player would struggle with.And to make matters worse,the harder version of the game also came with a block algorithm, that was intentionally designed to undermine the player by providing the worst, block possible.The professors even claimed that it was overly challenging.
and designed to undermine someone’s competence.In essence,it was created to make you lose and to hate yourself on the way there.After the games were completed,participants were required to complete a task measuring, how quickly they recognize aggression-related, words.How they did this was quite interesting.They would flash a string of letters on a screen.Some were real words and some were aggression-related words like abuse, damage,outrage, etc.Some words were fake and they looked like English.What the participant had to do was press space bar, as fast as possible if the word they saw was a real, English word and to do nothing, if they believed the word to be a fake word.They were given 110 trials, 10 practice rounds,60 fake words, 20 neutral words,and 20 aggression-related words.They aimed to see if the frustrated games gave the participant, easier access in their mind, to aggression-related, words and they were.In fact,the participants.
who played the difficult game of Tetris were capable of identifying, aggressive words 5%, faster.In another test,they were told the next player up would have to put their hands in painfully, cold water and the participant, could determine how long that player would have to do so.Participants who played normal Tetris gave an average time of 22.25, seconds to the next player up.While the participants who played the frustrating, game of Tetris imposed an average time of 30, seconds.And after that trial was done, they had reached their conclusion.Tetris in no way is a violent game,but the simple feeling of being powerless, or incompetent made them more aggressive towards someone they did not know.Now, let’s take a step back and think about Counter-Strike.With a previous study,we saw that what made players angry at the game was weak and sabotaging, teammates along with underperforming.Because of these things, it’s easy to feel powerless,useless, and incapable of doing what you set out to do,
which in terms of the self-determination, theory would be the culprit of your frustration, and anger that comes from the game.And since Counter-Strike isn’t Tetris and is played in a social environment,that be it online, it only amplifies our frustrations.As humans, we constantly are in search for our purpose.We yearn to feel useful to those around us.And unless your intent is to be a professional player,you should remind yourself that you are indeed valuable.Hopefully,this video makes you more aware of the effect that this amazing, game has on your brain.And at the very least,serves as a reminder to remember why you started playing in the first place.So, have fun in your next game,and thanks for watching.
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