DOES playing computer games boost your brainpower? Not necessarily, seems to be the answer.

Walter Boot and colleagues at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, found that non-gamers showed no improvement in memory skills or the ability to multitask after spending more than 20 hours on one of three video games. This appears to contradict previous studies which detected superior mental aptitudes among habitual gamers.

The researchers suggest that, while a few hours playing an action game could improve your concentration, that’s not enough for other cognitive skills. “Perhaps individuals with superior abilities are more likely to choose video gaming as …