Watching Game Shows Boosts Brain Health – Including “Jeopardy!” & “Wheel Of Fortune”
Watching game shows boosts brain health. That’s great news for fans of Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and the many other show that people watch on a daily basis. Many of them are our “comfort shows,” and knowing that they have an added benefit beyond entertainment and enjoyment, is another reason to keep tuning in.
How Watching Game Shows Boosts Brain Health
These days, we’re always looking for ways to keep our brains healthy. Or at least we should be. Doomscrolling is taking it’s toll on our mental health, so anything we can to to boost our brain health is much needed.
Experts say that game shows can boost your problem-solving skills, improve memory and strengthen your mind. That’s great news for fans of shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
“Game shows have a number of cognitively stimulating features that could provide cognitive benefits,” said Glen R. Finney, M.D./Director of the Memory and Cognition Program with Geisinger Health in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (From NY Post) Finney goes on to say that “game shows often require contestants and those playing along at home to pay close attention, to quickly process information provided for the game, and to either problem-solve or recall knowledge, or both, to answer the game show task.”
Another expert, Ashley Curtis, PhD (assistant professor and director of the Cognition, Aging, Sleep and Health Lab at the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida), says that as we age, we start to lose the ability to access information quickly. And that game shows like Jeopardy! train and improve your ability to access stored memory information more quickly.
Watching Game Shows Boosts Brain Health And Mood
Not only are we finding that watching game shows boosts brain health, but it helps with mood as well. Curtis mentions that there’s some evidence that shows that playing along with games can improve cognitive and social engagement, known to help with better overall mental health. It can also help with mood as shared social interactions while watching, whether in-person or virtually, have been associated with better psychological well-being.
So the next time someone says something about you rotting your brain watching TV, let them know that you’re actually boosting your brain health.
