Association between recreational video gaming and auditory spatial performance in young adults: A comparative study using virtual acoustic space identification

Purpose Video gaming is increasingly popular, especially among younger populations. Beyond entertainment, it has been demonstrated to offer therapeutic, medical, cognitive, educational, and health-related benefits. Modern digital-video games are incorporating advanced spatial audio features, which are crucial for locating sounds and navigating complex environments within the gaming interface. Repeated exposure to such immersive auditory environments may influence spatial hearing abilities, although the extent to which these effects extend beyond the gaming context remains unclear. Method A cross-sectional between-group comparative design was employed with normal-hearing young adults: twenty-five gamers (≥6 hours/day of gaming for at least 6 months) and twenty-five non-gamers (< 1 hour/week). Spatial hearing was assessed using the Virtual Acoustic Spatial Identification test, in which participants identified virtual sound sources from eight azimuths using a visual interface. Outcome measures included overall and azimuth-specific accuracy, sensitivity (d′), reaction time, and spatial error patterns derived from an 8 × 8 confusion matrix. Data were analyzed using linear and general linear mixed-effect models while accounting for repeated observations within participants. Results Across the models, residual diagnostics indicated acceptable overall model fit. Models revealed significantly higher localization accuracy and sensitivity, as well as faster reaction times, in gamers than non-gamers ( p < .05). Significant Group × Azimuth interactions for accuracy and sensitivity indicated location-specific advantages, with gamers outperforming non-gamers at the left posterior (L135°) and left lateral (L45°) azimuths. Reaction time advantages were observed across all azimuths, whereas error analysis showed significantly fewer left-hemifield localization errors among gamers. Conclusion The findings demonstrate an association between recreational video gaming and superior auditory spatial performance, particularly in the left hemifield. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. These findings may reflect experience-related differences in auditory spatial processing and warrant further investigation using neurophysiological and intervention-based approaches.