A recent meeting of members of the American Psychological Association in Boston touched on studies that explored the effect video games have on young minds. The findings appear to be pretty positive: sharpening problem-solving skills, “scientific thinking,” blah blah blah. But hey, history’s shown us it’s mostly the smart kids that play these things anyway, right?

The strangest study involved appears to be the one that compared video-game-playing surgeons to non-video-game-playing surgeons.

The edge went to gamer surgeons, they found, even after taking into account differences in age, years of medical training and the number of laparoscopic surgeries performed. In laparoscopic procedures, surgeons use small incisions, thin surgical tools and video cameras to see inside the body.

One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn’t.

Advanced video game skills also were a good way to predict suturing abilities, according to their study, which was published in the Archives of Surgery in 2007.

Surgeons have time to play video games…?

Also:

Other studies confirmed earlier research that found students who played violent games tended to be more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games. And those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were are greater risk of obesity.

Oops.

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