Game industry shoots down brain claims (CNET) is an article that describes the reaction of the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (not to be confused with an impartial party in this case) to the recent study linking computer games to brain damage (story). Saying the study, performed by Japan's Tohoku University, is of "very limited focus," the group continues in refuting the study in the following excerpt (which also includes some of the article):

"The result of this study is actually not that computer games damage the brain, but that half an hour of playing this one particular title was less effective at developing the brain than doing half an hour of repetitive arithmetic," the group said.

"There are many games that involve a variety of skills, reasoning and coordination, while others can be purely educational."

The association is also attempting to dispel the traditional image of the lonely, anti-social game player. It claims that recent British research has discovered that computer games can actually assist physical, mental and social development.

Academics at the University of Central Lancashire and at Manchester University recently found that gamers experience the same high levels of concentration and involvement as athletes do.