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Video Games and the Brain     November 21, 2025

 

What's up, sunshine? Happy Friday, Fri-yay. It is a very special Friday for many of us because we're about to get some extra time off, maybe some extra sleep for Thanksgiving break just around the corner. I hope you get some good family and friends time and some really good grubbing too.

 

grub [grʌb] n. Slang. food

 

In honor of the holiday, let's start the show with a Thanksgiving.

 

Did you know. Did you know the first Thanksgiving took place way back in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a bountiful harvest led Governor William Bradford to plan a festival to give thanks.

 

Around 90 Wampanoags, the Native American people indigenous to that region, joined for a three-day feast which featured corn, venison, and fowl.

 

Wampanoag [͵wæmpəˋno͵ɑg] n.美国瓦婆浓族印第安人；瓦婆浓族语

venison [ˋvɛnəzn] n. 鹿肉；【古】野味

fowl [faʊl] n. 家禽（鸡，鸭，鹅等）

 

In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed November 26th as a day of national Thanksgiving. Fast forward to 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved it up a week in a bid to boost the Christmas shopping season. Say what? Talk about a new deal.

 

Then in 1941, Congress officially declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday and moved it back to the last Thursday of the month where it remains to this day.

 

Okay, now let's get to the part of Thanksgiving that just might be the best part for some of us. The food.

 

Did you know Turkey's most famous side dish wasn't even at the first Thanksgiving? We're talking mashed potatoes.

 

Now, the root cause of this issue, potatoes are native to South America, and the spectacular spuds didn't make their way to North America until the 1700s.

 

spud [spʌd] n.【口】马铃薯

 

Pop quiz, hot shot.

 

What is widely considered the first commercially successful arcade video game?

 

arcade video game 大型电玩(又称机台); 街機

 

Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, or Asteroids?

 

If you said Pong, you serving. Based on table tennis, Atari installed the first Pong machine in 1972 at a restaurant in Sunnyvale, California. It stopped working after just a few days because its coin box was jammed with too many quarters.

 

As many of you head into a well-deserved break this Thanksgiving, a lot of us might spend some time playing some video games, maybe on our phone, computer, gaming console. Well, check this out.

 

well-deserved [ˌwɛl dɪˈzɝvd] adj. 受之无愧的; 应得的; 该有的

 

A new study out of Hong Kong shows that spending too much time binge gaming, as it's called, could have some serious consequences on our moods and our quality of sleep.

 

binge [bɪndʒ] v. 尽情享用

 

So how much is too much? I caught up with the doctor, my friend, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to help us understand and acquire some knowledge that might help us out. Check it out.

 

Is gaming entirely bad? Are there any positives to playing games?

 

I think there are, and we're starting to see more of that as you see more and more people who are gaming.

 

By the way, about 80% of people game, and about four in 10 people, 40% are doing it every day. So this is a pretty common thing. But I think it's surprising why people are doing it.

 

They're obviously doing it for the enjoyment of gaming. But overall, there's some real benefits. 72% are actually doing it to play with others.

 

That kind of surprised me, because you think of that as sort of a solitary activity. 42% say they've actually made friends online. 32% say it's helped their mental health.

 

solitary [ˋsɑlə͵tɛrɪ] adj. 单独的，独自的

 

So, you know, we're starting to get data on this, because I think there were a lot of assumptions made about gaming, and now we're starting to see the real world.

 

At the same time, there are concerns about attention and depression and overall impact on mental health in the long term. Right.

 

Yeah, it's one of those things that it can create fellowship, right? Someone who may be sitting right next to you, my neighbor and I, we call it Broga. Instead of yoga together, we're doing Broga. We're playing a game, spending some quality time.

 

It definitely can bring people together, even who are in different states or countries.

 

What is interesting to me, Coy, is that when someone starts gaming, they oftentimes are really quite attentive to that, and that can actually help build those attentive areas of the brain.

 

attentive [əˋtɛntɪv] adj. 专心的

 

Interestingly, as you get better at the game, as you sort of go into default mode, because you're so good at it, it can actually start to decrease attention.

 

default mode 默认模式

 

So, two things can be happening in the brain sort of over time from gaming. First, maybe more positive, and then second, interestingly, as you get better at it, actually decreased activity in certain areas of the brain.

 

Let's dig more into that.

 

Talk about some of the downsides of binge gaming. Okay, we know some things in moderation, generally, maybe not bad for you, but when you're going all out all day on a game, what are some of the downsides?

 

downside [ˋdaʊnˋsaɪd] n. 不利的一面，不利因素

 

I think the headline here is that when people are starting to border on what is known as a gaming use disorder, it typically means that they are no longer able to do things in their normal life without gaming getting in the way. I think that's the biggest thing to sort of measure.

 

border on 靠近；近乎,简直

gaming disorder 电玩成瘾

 

I am gaming right now. Should I be doing something else? And for students, obviously, their homework, their sleep, their social interaction with family and friends, real life interaction, that's when you know it's typically a problem. And the threshold seems to be somewhere around three hours a day, which is a lot.

 

It's a lot of screen time just on the games. But once you get beyond that point where you're starting to see it interfere with activities of daily life, as it's called, that's when it becomes problematic.

 

Sometimes, I get the same sort of feeling from a competitive aspect and a wanting to win aspect when I played in the NFL.

 

It's kind of that same pressure to perform and my teammates are relying on me. Can I get a good score for the team? So, that's personally what I feel at times.

 

I imagine that some of the same areas in your brain that were activating when you played football, obviously, it's a very physical game, but some of the same brain areas were probably activated in gaming.

 

Show us what parts get activated or what kind of hormones might be released as you're playing games.

 

So, there's all these different areas of the brain. The thing about gaming is that so many different areas are being activated.

 

So, first of all, just in general, this is the last part of your brain to develop, frontal lobes and prefrontal areas. And that's your judgment. And that's also inhibition.

 

frontal lobe 额叶

prefrontal [priˋfrʌnt!] adj. 前额叶的

 

So, in the beginning, you may have more inhibition because you're sort of figuring out the game. As you get better and better at it, your inhibition may start to go down. Now, you need inhibition in life.

 

So, if you get too disinhibited, that could be problematic. You got visual cortex, which is near the back of the brain. You have spatial areas, which is on the right side of the brain.

disinhibited [dɪsənˋhɪbɪtɪd] adj. 去抑制的; 不再拘谨的; 不受抑制的

visual cortex 视觉皮层

 

But I think a big one, Coy, is really sort of more at the base of the brain, which is your emotions, your amygdala.

 

amygdala [əˋmɪgdələ] n.【解】大脑中杏仁核(负责情绪反应)

 

And these games can be very stimulating to that particular area of the brain. So, again, in moderation, it appears to be a good balance between inhibition, emotional centers, and all the other things.

 

Once you start to overdo it, and interestingly, when it becomes rote, that's when a lot of these areas sort of will decrease in activity instead of increasing.

 

overdo [͵ovɚˋdu] v. 把……做得过分；使过于疲劳

rote [rot] n. 反复; 机械的作法; mechanical or habitual repetition

 

So, that's a little counterintuitive, but that's essentially what seems to be happening over time.

 

counterintuitive [ˌkaʊntɚɪnˈtuɪtɪv] adj. 违背直觉的；不如预期的

 

And for all the people out there, not as smart as you, who don't know what rote is, really quick.

 

Rote, just routine. Just something routine. Learn something new every day. There you go.

 

It is interesting. If you just look at games overall, puzzles overall, word puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, things like that, people think of those as brain training exercises, which they can be.

 

I mean, they can actually make you better at words or numbers or whatever it might be that you're doing. So, I think that's probably the closest sort of thing. The difference, I think, between video games and those things is, again, video games are really designed through the imagery, through the way that they move you up level to level to keep you hooked, to keep you addicted.

 

hooked [hʊkt] adj. 着迷的，入迷的

 

I don't think anyone's ever been overly, overly addicted to a crossword puzzle. You sort of do it, you move on. Video games are different.

 

I love it. I get smarter every time I'm around you. I'm so glad our viewers get to enjoy you as well.

 

I try not to be rote. You are the best. If I do Sanjay, so myself.

 

Today's story, getting 10 turkeys out of 10, a heartwarming holiday tradition that's helping those in need. Have you ever participated in a friendsgiving?

 

A group of friends in Warwick, Rhode Island, gather every year for their annual dinner. And over the last few years, they've started using the gathering to help make the holiday season brighter for others.

 

They build meal baskets for struggling families. Dawn Burgess said they started it during the COVID-19 pandemic and the idea and the guest list has grown each year.

 

Three years ago, I said, you know, maybe our friends would like to get in on the action have a little party and stuff some baskets.

 

get in 加入; 参加

 

Now it's a full-blown holiday assembly line. This year, they knocked out 17 baskets complete with all the fixings, the dessert and yes, even turkey.

 

fixing [ˋfɪksɪŋ] n.（复数）【美】【口】设备；装饰

 

They deliver the baskets to families just ahead of Thanksgiving and say it's been an amazing way to come together to make their community a better place.

 

You feel extremely good after you deliver your baskets to the people that are in need. It's a great feeling. Rise up.

 

Time now for some Friday shout outs. This first one goes to Mr. So Cool. So cool.

 

All of our friends at Hammond Academy of Science and Technology in Hammond, Indiana, thank you for making us part of your day. And a huge shout out to our YouTube subscribers, including Mr. Jewett from Astago Middle School in Otsego, Michigan. You rock, dude.

 

Like you, we're going to be taking the next week off for Thanksgiving break, but be sure to follow us @CNN10, @CoyWire on Instagram for some exclusive bonus content, teaser, maybe even some fun behind the scenes videos that we'll be posting throughout the week.

 

Play that Friday music nod there. I am thankful for you, Big Dog and Chelsea and Brendan and Sabrina.

 

Love my CNN10 team. And we especially are thankful for all of you. You are why this is the best 10 minutes in news.

 

Stay hungry for knowledge and turkey and stay curious. You are more powerful than you know, especially around the holidays. Make someone smile.

 

I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN10.