Frequent Video Gaming and Working Memory: What Changes in Delta, Theta, and Alpha EEG — a Commentary on Yıldırım, Kol, Özkan, Doğru & Güntekin (Frontiers in Psychology, 2025)

1) The scientific question

The core question is: Does frequent video game playing (especially violent action games) alter the neural mechanisms of visual and auditory working memory—even when behavioural performance looks the same?
In other words: do neural strategies shift before performance shifts?

Frequent Video Gaming and Working Memory - What Changes in Delta Theta and Alpha EEG

2) The experiment

To answer this, the authors studied 23 healthy young men, divided into:

• frequent gamers: more than 15 h/week (with exposure to violent video games)

• infrequent gamers: less than 15 h/week (not “non-gamers,” but lower exposure)

They used working memory tasks:

• visual (pictures) and auditory (spoken words), followed by free recall after each task (EEG was not recorded during recall)

• stimuli were repeated across trials to engage encoding and maintenance

They recorded EEG during task performance and analysed event-related oscillations (EROs) in:

• delta, theta, and alpha (power and phase-locking), using band-specific time windows.

3) Why this experiment answers the question

It answers the question because it keeps the comparison at the same behavioural level (no group differences in recall performance or anxiety), while testing differences at the mechanistic level (EEG), where strategies can diverge without changing accuracy.

Key findings that support the answer:

• lower and shorter visual delta responses in frequent gamers (interpretable as reduced recruitment/cost for visual working-memory processing)

• left-hemisphere dominance in auditory theta and alpha power (parietal/occipital) in frequent gamers (a lateralised strategy during auditory-verbal memory)

• reduced posterior visual alpha power and less increase in lower-alpha phase-locking during the auditory task in frequent gamers (suggesting different attentional gating or synchronisation patterns)

4) BrainLatam reading — APUS (extended proprioception)

Although this is framed as a cognitive study, we read frequent gaming as repeated training of action + prediction (hand–eye coordination, rapid visual scanning, fast selection under time pressure). Over time, this can produce a more automated APUS—a bodily strategy that organises space and timing with less cost.

From this perspective, reduced/shorter visual delta can be read as: the system needs less global recruitment to keep focus and encode visual items. This does not necessarily mean “less processing,” but potentially more efficient organisation of attention and short-term maintenance.

5) BrainLatam reading — Tekoha (extended interoception)

We also interpret these patterns through internal state regulation. High-frequency gaming can train the organism to operate with more stable arousal and less internal fluctuation during short demanding tasks. That may help explain why behaviour remains similar while EEG markers shift toward a more “economical” profile (reduced visual delta and altered alpha/theta dynamics).

6) Key limits of the design

• Small sample (N = 23) and male-only cohort limits generalisability.

• Classification of “violent” exposure and hours relies on self-report questionnaires.

• The “infrequent” group is not a true non-gaming group; this is a high-dose vs low-dose contrast.

• Multiple separate ANOVAs increase the risk of false positives (the authors acknowledge this).

7) BrainLatam translation to the organic world

BrainLatam translation to the organic world: this study suggests that heavy video game exposure can reshape how the brain solves working-memory tasks without changing how well the person performs. That is a classic signature of strategy: the output is similar, but the temporal organisation (delta/theta/alpha power and phase-locking) shifts.

8) Open BrainLatam question

If we add body-level markers alongside EEG (respiration, HRV, electrodermal activity), can we better separate two explanations:

1. gamers show greater efficiency through attentional automation (APUS), or

2. they differ mainly through internal-state regulation (Tekoha), even in short tasks?

The body does not need belief to function.
It needs space, movement, and regulation.

Ref.:

Ebru Yıldırım, Kol, M. Y., Mehmet Fatih Özkan, Ömer Faruk Doğru, & Bahar Güntekin. (2025). Frequent video game playing alters low-frequency event-related EEG brain oscillations. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1693697