First published through The Paris News on Sept. 3, 2018. The article can be found on their website at http://theparisnews.com/opinion/article_f364e54c-ae5a-11e8-8b3b-6390eef9e160.html

When your child is in their bedroom nonstop playing Xbox, PlayStation or Wii, just remember they are listening to some classical music — surprisingly.

As an avid video gamer, I hear not only the sound effects of the action-packed fights but the music composing the scenes in the game that are generated by classical musicians.

“James Williams, managing director at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, said that computer games are an important ‘access point’ for youngsters to experience classical music for the first time,” Telegraph Education Editor Camilla Turner said. “‘I think exposure to orchestral music in all its forms is a fantastic thing,’ he said. ‘It is encouraging to hear that there are platforms and opportunities for young people to engage with orchestral music, albeit in different mediums. It is about sparking their interest.’”

Turner said Royal Philharmonic Orchestra did a survey and found one in six children listen to classical music “when it’s part of a computer game I’m playing.” However, only about 11 percent said they listen to classical music only when they go to a concert.

According to a report by Stanford Medicine, music makes the brain pay attention.

“Music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory,” according to Stanford Medicine. “Peak brain activity occurred during a short period of silence between musical movements — when seemingly nothing was happening.”

Listening to classical music gets us amped and ready to focus — it increases our focus.

I guess video games have put two and two together. If they put into their games focus-boosting music, they could possibly make a game more addicting than it would have been without the music.

Stanford Medicine said its team studied how the brain reacted to the music when trying to work with “continual flow of information the real world generates.”

“The brain partitions information into meaningful chunks by extracting information about beginnings, endings and the boundaries between events,” the report stated.

Maybe that’s why you tense up when you hear the music in a game change to something more intense. Typically, it means a boss fight is quickly approaching.

Plus, video game music’s classically-pleasing tune is great to listen to when studying.

Since video game music is composed around beating the game, you have this sense of urgency and determination to finish your homework or studying time.

Back in college, when I would study in the library or work on homework, I would listen to a Spotify playlist of video game music. Some music you find in 8-bit games probably aren’t the best to listen to when studying, because it is more of singular tones, or chiptunes. I like 8-bit as a cellphone ringtone but not something I would use to pull an all-nighter before a real important test.

However, search in Spotify for Skyrim, Dark Souls or Zelda, and you will come across composed music that helps get the job done. With its soothing compositions, music makes work goes smoother.