0:02 you're listening to brainson where we're
0:05 serious about being curious brainson is
0:08 supported in part by a grant from the
0:16 Foundation you've just reached level 4
0:19 journey through deep expanse asteroid
0:30 no Take that nasty asteroids no Nobody
0:33 messes with me fuzz butt pickle star on
0:36 her coest for Earth that's right fuzz
0:38 butt we're going to make it to Earth this
0:40 this
0:44 time asteroid debris Direct Hit damage
0:47 to engine must repair mechanics
0:50 mid-flight it's okay I have a reserve
0:51 for this if I
0:55 just honey time's up Mom I just got to
0:58 level four I've literally never made it
1:01 this far I'm sure sure you remember the
1:05 deal we made oh
1:09 man game paused wait wait wait don't
1:13 pause hold on you know I paused yeah how
1:16 could I not look at me I'm frozen midair
1:23 doing nothing this is so cool if by cool
1:24 you mean it's cool to leave an alien
1:26 floating in suboptimal temperatures in
1:29 the bowels of an asteroid field then
1:31 yeah it's cool now how about you hit
1:33 play and let's see if we can get me out
1:36 of this disaster in one piece I wish I
1:38 could but I reached my time limit for
1:41 this weekend excuse me you have a time
1:45 limit on my life trust me there is
1:47 nothing I'd rather be doing than sitting
1:49 here on this couch using my Nimble
1:52 fingers and 8-year-old deduction skills
1:54 to help you muddle through this hostile
1:56 space environment but my mom says if I
1:59 play any longer it might rot my brain
2:03 rot your brain rot my brain rot your
2:06 brain rot your brain your bra your brain
2:08 your brain
2:10 bra your [Music]
2:11 [Music]
2:15 bra well now I feel bad am I really
2:20 contributing to your mental Decay no or
2:23 I mean maybe if I play too much or maybe
2:27 it's just something my mom says or wait
2:30 a lot of adults say that I don't don't
2:35 know aha a quandry for the ages fuzz but
2:38 pickle star loves an Earthly [Music]
2:45 challenge you're listening to brains on
2:47 from APM Studios I'm Molly Bloom and
2:49 with me today is Cen from Buffalo New
2:53 York hi Cen hi Molly Cen you're here
2:55 because you asked us a question about
2:58 video games what was that question do
3:00 video games rot your brain and if not
3:02 why do people say this so how did you
3:05 come up with this question when I was
3:07 younger my parents every time if I
3:09 played too long they'd be like get off
3:12 or your brain will be rotten and I'm
3:15 like what and they were like video games
3:17 rot your brain so I I sent in this
3:20 question when when there was like covid
3:26 so I I could like find out in case like
3:28 cuz I was pretty bored during Co yeah
3:30 there was not a lot else to do besides
3:33 play video games so I get it so do you
3:36 play a lot of video games now yeah I
3:39 play in the morning a lot when my mom's
3:43 home like before school yeah I play like
3:46 Roblox Minecraft I play a lot of variety of
3:47 of
3:52 games I play like sports games like
3:55 games where you create stuff games where
3:58 you have to work as a team it helps me
4:01 work better with people so it sounds
4:02 like you're getting a lot out of the
4:03 games you play so what other things do
4:05 you like to do besides playing video
4:08 games I like playing soccer basketball
4:11 and sing
4:12 obnoxiously question for you would you
4:16 rather watch TV or play a video game
4:18 play video games cuz I get to choose my
4:21 option and I'd rather do that than sit
4:23 there and watch the people in the TV
4:25 show choose the wrong option so you want
4:27 to have some say in what happens in The
4:28 Narrative and that's why you like video
4:30 games yeah
4:34 let's get to it do video games rot our
4:37 brains PE PE Let's laser the answer out
4:42 of the sky what the what excuse me um
4:46 who are you the real question is who am
4:49 I that's what I and the answer is
4:51 Captain fuzzbutt pickle star of the Gastropub
4:52 Gastropub
4:55 nebula I am just a humble fuzzy alien
4:58 with cute ears an asteroid blasting
5:00 laser and a dream
5:04 to one day reach Earth and taste a
5:09 sandal sandals are shoes to one day wear a
5:10 a
5:13 sandal oh you're from that video game
5:16 quest for Earth I've played that exactly
5:18 but I left my comfortable pixelated
5:20 realm to venture to your beautifully
5:22 rendered Homeland in search of the
5:25 answer to the same question you are
5:29 asking do video games rot your brain I
5:31 mean I should hope not but honestly I
5:34 have no idea it's like that age-old
5:35 question of whether pants go on the
5:38 human top or bottom the bottom no one
5:41 knows well you're just in time we're
5:43 going to answer that question today the
5:45 video game one not the human pants one
5:48 first let's start with the basics what
5:51 do we mean by rotting your brain are we
5:53 talking about destroying your brain like
5:56 it's being eaten by a brain munching
6:00 zombie parasite I've seen those real
6:03 nasty creatures or do we mean it'll get
6:05 brown and mushy like an override banana
6:08 that's attracting flies also nasty what
6:10 most people mean is they think games
6:13 will make your brain weak like you'll do
6:15 worse on a test and stuff or games will
6:18 change your personality in some way the
6:21 answer to the first two ideas is a hard
6:24 no playing video games will not destroy
6:27 the actual matter of your brain or turn
6:29 it to literal mush
6:33 closed but the answer to the third idea
6:36 whether games harm your brain in some
6:40 other way that's less clear say what now
6:42 lots of scientists are trying to figure
6:45 this out scientists like sha green so
6:48 I'd probably start by saying video games
6:51 aren't one thing um and so it makes it a
6:54 really tricky question Sean studies
6:56 video games and the Brain at the
6:59 University of Wisconsin in Madison the
7:02 analogy that we use often is what's the
7:06 effect of eating food on your body right
7:09 are you eating ice cream and chocolate
7:12 are you eating broccoli and spinach you
7:13 need to know what type of food it is to
7:16 know how it's going to impact your body
7:18 the same is true of video games there
7:20 are many types of video games with
7:22 completely different characters and
7:25 goals and worlds like Minecraft where
7:26 players build things and go on
7:29 adventures or fortnite where players
7:31 battle out in a fictional world or
7:34 Tetris a puzzle where you try and land
7:36 the falling blocks in a neat pattern oh
7:39 my favorite game only on my planet we call
7:40 call
7:43 it each game requires different skills
7:45 and might affect the brain in different
7:48 ways yep a lot of the Time video game
7:51 research only looks at one specific game
7:54 no study can look at all of them but
7:56 Sean says there's been enough research
7:58 that we can probably be sure of a few
8:01 things and it's good news for gamers oh
8:05 joy lay it on me he says that some types
8:07 of video games seem to boost something
8:10 called our perceptual skills these
8:12 skills help us do all kinds of things
8:14 from reading and drawing to playing
8:18 sports so kind of how well you see or
8:20 hear or what we would call cognitive
8:23 skills how well you can kind of reason
8:27 or think or um plan for example there's
8:30 a video game called Raymond RAV rabids
8:32 that researchers have studied in the
8:34 game you play a cartoony character who
8:36 shoots plungers at Targets and does
8:39 dance offs with rabbits playing a game
8:41 like this might make you faster at
8:42 noticing quick changes in the
8:44 environment or you might get better at
8:46 doing complicated movements with your
8:48 fingers you might even become a better
8:51 puzzle or Problem Solver some research
8:53 shows certain games can help improve
8:56 your short-term memory too so you might
8:58 remember things that happened recently a
9:00 little better does any of this seem true
9:02 to you based on your time playing games golden
9:04 golden
9:06 definitely because I'm the goalkeeper so
9:10 I'm my soccer team so I have to use my
9:12 hands and see what they're going to try
9:15 and do next by watching their eyes and
9:16 see if they're going to try and change
9:18 what they're going to do wow so video
9:20 games are helping you with soccer very
9:23 cool there are also video games designed
9:25 to teach us stuff like math or a new
9:27 language and there's even a game for
9:29 doctors to help them get better at
9:31 surgery Shawn says some of these games
9:33 have been shown to really help people
9:36 learn so that's the good news now for
9:39 some bad news the brain eating zombie
9:42 parasites are back quack put on your
9:45 titanium beanie caps no what I meant was
9:46 there are some games that seem to
9:49 negatively affect us specifically games
9:53 with a lot of fighting and violence oh
9:55 well that's different and we're talking
9:57 about games with very intense and
10:00 realistic violence not more Mario
10:02 jumping on a turtle or angry birds
10:04 flying out of slingshots here's game
10:07 researcher Sean green again I would say
10:10 kind of most research in that space has
10:13 kind of pointed to there being a small
10:16 effect where more and more exposure to
10:19 um violent video games can cause um kind
10:21 of more aggressive thoughts or more
10:24 aggressive uh feelings or maybe even
10:26 more aggressive um behaviors Shawn says
10:29 that scientists are still debating that
10:31 last Point many scientists think it's
10:34 true that violent games might make some
10:37 people act a tiny bit more violently but
10:39 others think we need to do more research
10:43 to be sure and either way he says these
10:45 effects are small so most people who
10:47 play violent games don't feel more
10:49 aggressive or never do anything violent
10:51 because of them but it's something to
10:53 think about when picking which games to
10:56 play for you know parents in particular
10:58 knowing what types of content is in
10:59 games is actually
11:02 really important so games have some
11:04 benefits and some games might have a
11:07 downside too but none of them turn your
11:10 brain into literal mush that's probably
11:12 just something parents say to help their
11:14 kids do what they think is the right
11:17 thing yeah parents are always saying
11:19 stuff my father once told me if I ever
11:21 left my home planet of korpus I would
11:24 disintegrate into a pile of cosmic dust
11:26 obviously that didn't happen and now I'm
11:29 here with my friends malri and kwag not
11:33 even close it's Molly and
11:38 Cen good one MRI the wise so Cen and
11:40 fuzzbutt did we answer your question
11:43 yeah I think so video games can help
11:46 boost some skills but really violent
11:48 ones can be bad for some people it's a
11:51 lot to take in honestly your world is
11:53 too complicated for this pixelated pal
11:55 I'm going to go back to my game where
11:57 things make sense you see an asteroid
11:59 you blast it with a laser you see a
12:02 black hole you fly around it you see a
12:04 human pants you put it on your head
12:07 probably again pants go on the bottom
12:12 half pants such a mystery well see you
12:28 on hello it's me
12:32 gang hey and me Captain fuzzbutt pickle
12:36 star today gangor is dancing monster
12:41 friend but long ago gador was part of a
12:44 video game called most epic fighting
12:48 battle realm we're monsters F and there
12:53 is no dancing so sad and I am the
12:56 extremely lovable but tough star of the
12:59 Quest for earth I shoot asteroids and
13:02 travel through wormholes to get to Earth
13:04 Gang and fuzzy here to tell you that
13:08 video games sometimes addictive make you
13:12 want to play play play that's right much
13:15 like the hand biting aliens from planet
13:17 mud flap once you pick up a game it can
13:21 be very hard to put it down that because
13:24 when players do good at game Brain of
13:28 player release chemical called
13:31 dopamine and with every asteroid blasted
13:34 every evil alien avoided your brain
13:36 rewards you with a little burst of happy
13:38 good time feelings and once your brain
13:41 gets a taste it wants
13:45 more like sour cream and onion
13:50 chips G's favorite exactly games are
13:52 often specifically designed to keep
13:55 giving you little winds so those happy
13:57 brain chemicals keep coming and that
14:01 makes your brain want to play on and on
14:04 and on until next thing you know you've
14:06 missed your exit on the galactic Super
14:08 Highway and your ship is running out of
14:10 fuel and the only planet to gas up on is
14:13 bangula Prime and as you know everyone
14:15 living there will talk your ear off if
14:18 you even try Landing there I mean as an
14:22 example sure sure like tiny fuzzbottom
14:26 says games hard to stop but playing too
14:29 much can make player forget to do other
14:34 important things like riding bikes with
14:36 friends or combing your tail hairs so
14:40 they don't tangle or watering tiny
14:42 flowers or working on your self-portrait
14:44 skills hey does this look like me by the
14:48 way no real fuzzy much
14:52 cuter so remember just because game is
14:56 fun don't let it take over your life if
14:59 gador didn't stop playing most epic
15:03 fighting battle realm gangor never would
15:06 have known how good dancing
15:08 dancing
15:14 feels twirl Cha Slide spark your fingers
15:17 oh so this is a dance party now the hle
15:19 are we done with the public service
15:21 announcement I think I'll just
15:22 just [Music]
15:27 [Music]
15:29 bye now let's play a game with no
15:32 controllers or buttons or even screens it's
15:38 [Music]
15:44 the are you ready Cen yeah here it [Music]
15:58 is what's your guess is that a game
16:02 glitching app Out ooh very nice guess
16:05 what do you hear in that sound I hear
16:07 like someone siipping up like some kind
16:09 of jacket yeah there's like almost something
16:10 something
16:13 metallic it's a very particular sound
16:15 yeah well we will hear it again and
16:18 reveal the answer after the credits so
16:20 stick around [Music]
16:34 you're listening to brainson from APM
16:38 Studios and I'm Cen and I'm Molly some
16:40 video games are probably good for us in
16:43 certain ways but there's a catch yeah
16:45 there's always a catch according to
16:48 scientific research playing more doesn't
16:51 equal more skills at some point you
16:53 don't really get much better at those
16:55 perceptual skills we talked about and in
16:58 fact if you play too much you might run
17:00 into other problems like not getting
17:02 enough exercise or skipping your
17:05 homework hear me out Molly it's like
17:09 flossing flossing like your teeth yeah
17:11 you floss for a few minutes and it does
17:15 a lot of good popcorn kernels vanquished
17:18 plaque busted mouth cleaned and if you
17:21 keep at it for maybe 15 minutes sure
17:23 you'll probably scrape off even more
17:25 tooth Gunk at some point you floss all
17:28 the stuff you can and eventually it'll
17:29 just hurt your gum
17:32 and even make them bleed hm okay
17:35 interesting example but I love it so
17:38 video games like most things are best if
17:40 you don't overdo them we all need
17:43 balance in our lives but Molly If Video
17:45 Games don't actually rot your brain why
17:48 are so many people afraid they will well
17:50 people tend to be worried about new
17:53 technology especially how it'll affect
17:56 kids and video games are not the first
17:58 bit of technology to get people all in
18:00 an up Ro people were really upset about
18:03 novels in the 19th century that's
18:05 Katherine Clark she's a historian at the
18:07 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
18:10 wait I'm sorry did she just say novels
18:14 as in chapter books yep around 200 years
18:17 ago fictional books meaning stories made
18:19 up and written down for people to read
18:22 were still a pretty new thing today we
18:25 call them novels the novel is like an
18:27 invention of the 18th century the idea
18:30 that you have fictional
18:33 stories being narrated Often by
18:36 first-person narrators does not exist in
18:38 the 14th century in the same way that it
18:40 does in the 18th century and when things
18:42 like the printing press and less
18:44 expensive paper came along and made
18:47 books a lot easier to make suddenly
18:50 these novels were everywhere lots of
18:52 people could suddenly read this new type
18:54 of Storytelling but some people were
18:57 worried these new fangled books would
19:00 rot your brain so if you like to read
19:02 novels you liked things like romance and
19:04 adventure and that if you liked those
19:06 things in novels you would not be able
19:08 to pay attention to things that were
19:10 better for your mind those things like
19:14 philosophy science um religion so
19:16 they're worried about the mind being
19:20 weakened my sight is everywhere offended
19:23 by These Foolish yet dangerous books if
19:26 my sensitive daughter should merely open
19:28 the pages of one of these Toms of moral
19:30 turpitude I Fe her growing mind will be
19:32 deprived of nourishment it will languish
19:34 and diminish
19:37 thusly allow me to interpret I speak
19:42 19th century English he's saying novels
19:45 will Rush your brain thank you colon and
19:48 this is just one example throughout
19:50 history people especially adults were
19:52 worried that new technologies would
19:55 distract young people weaken their minds
19:58 and make them lonely when radio was
20:00 first inv Ed and kids and teens were
20:03 suddenly listening to music and stories
20:06 and game shows parents were concerned
20:08 will you listen to that infertile racket
20:11 constantly pouring from the radio she
20:13 Willers poor Timmy's brain will surely
20:16 turn into mush then they got worried
20:19 when comic books came along I can't
20:21 abide dot staring at those pictures all
20:23 day her brain's going to shrink from all
20:28 these silly stories TV too w-e how many
20:31 times do I have to tell you that darn
20:32 thing will rot your
20:36 brain being a parent is hard you want
20:38 what's best for your kids but when new
20:40 things get introduced into the world
20:41 that you aren't familiar with you're
20:43 worried about how they'll affect your
20:46 kids and again too much of anything can
20:49 spell trouble but many adults today grew
20:51 up playing video games themselves even
20:53 our historian friend Katherine I love
20:55 video games I played a lot of Zelda as a
20:58 child I was a Kirby's pinball land gal
21:00 myself and now I play video games with
21:03 my daughter any ooblets fans out there
21:05 it's a great game so parents worrying
21:08 about video games is a long tradition of
21:10 grown-ups trying to help their kids live
21:13 good lives yep and because there's
21:15 always new technology in the works
21:17 Catherine says there's always something
21:19 new to worry about so in the 50s it's
21:22 television in the 20s it's radio and
21:25 then in the '90s when with Nintendo it
21:27 starts to be about video games as well
21:29 um and who knows what the next thing
21:33 will be oh I do worry about quinland
21:35 spending so much time in the molecular
21:38 reconfiguration chamber why can't they
21:49 instead so video games don't actually
21:51 rot your brain and they may be good for
21:53 building some skills like problem
21:56 solving or hand eye coronation but some
21:58 scientists also think playing really
22:01 violent games might be bad for you and
22:03 remember adults are always a little
22:05 nervous about the effect that new
22:08 technology will have on kids but it
22:10 seems like the answer to these worries
22:12 is always to remember the motto
22:13 everything in
22:16 moderation that's it for this episode of
22:18 brainson this episode was produced by
22:23 Molly Bloom Anna wle Aron walis ly Nico
22:27 Gonzalez Whistler Rosie Dupont Anna
22:30 Goldfield Molly quinland Ruby Guthrie
22:33 and Mark Sanchez our editors are sand
22:35 and Totton and Shayla farzon this
22:36 episode was sound designed by Rachel
22:38 Breeze and we had engineering help from
22:40 Aaron hen and Jess Berg Beth Pearlman is
22:42 our executive producer the executives in
22:45 charge of APM studios are Chandra kavati
22:47 and Joan Griffith special thanks to
22:49 Analisa Calbert Chris eert Kennedy
22:52 Calbert Vicky kler and Coco BRS on is a
22:56 nonprofit public radio program there are
22:58 lots of ways to support the show head to brains
22:58 brains
23:01 .org while you're there you can
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23:10 submit your birthday songs questions and
23:12 Fan Art have I mentioned how much we
23:15 love your fan art we cannot get enough of
23:15 of
23:19 it okay colen are you ready to listen to
23:21 that Mystery Sound again of course all
23:23 right here it is [Music]
23:38 what are your thoughts um I think I'm
23:42 going to stick with the zipper okay or I
23:44 feel like they're like rubbing plastic
23:48 together ooh very
23:51 interesting you ready to hear the answer
23:54 yeah hi I'm Jude and I'm from
23:57 Hudsonville Michigan and that was the
24:01 sound of two magnets when they connect
24:03 have you ever done that before like have
24:06 two magnets bump together yes I did that
24:09 in my class before recently so now I'm
24:12 surprised I didn't get that I know it's
24:13 so hard these sounds are so hard out of
24:15 context but you did say two pieces of
24:17 plastic bumping together and a lot of
24:19 magnets I've played with are covered in
24:22 plastic so I think you got like halfway
24:24 there so good job yes [Music]
24:38 thank you for watching if you enjoyed
24:40 this episode don't forget to hit the
24:42 Subscribe button make sure to check out
24:44 all our great podcasts brainson smash
24:47 boom best forever ago and moment of um
24:58 [Music] the
24:59 the [Music]
25:35 [Music]
25:37 we'll be back next week with more
25:39 answers to your questions thanks for listening
