Video Games Boosts Visual Skills
<div class="IPBDescription">article from nature.com</div> <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Playing video games could be good for your vision. A new study suggests that action games might help to rehabilitate visually impaired patients or train military personnel.
Male undergraduates who played driving or shoot-em-up games such as Grand Theft Auto and Medal of Honor several times a week for at least six months beat non-gamers in lab vision tests, found Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York state.
Game-players react to fast-moving objects more efficiently, explains Bavelier, and can track up to five objects at a time - 30% more than non-players. "They can process more information more quickly over time," she says.
These skills might help people to drive more safely, Bavelier speculates. They may also enable pilots and air traffic controllers to monitor their video display units more effectively.
"Computer games can help you train up your visual attention in several ways," agrees vision researcher Jeremy Wolfe of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. They may not "turn you into a slack-jawed zombie" after all, he says.
<b>Never too late</b>
Green and Bavelier's initial studies focused solely on men, as the duo failed to find keen female gamers on campus. But subsequent tests on novices showed that just ten hours of shooting baddies can improve visual attention.
"The brain changes as a result of training," explains neurobiologist Manfred Fahle of the University of Bremen, Germany. The ends of nerve cells may shift shape, helping them to communicate with each other more effectively, he says. Such swift alterations hint that visually impaired stroke patients or people recovering from cataract surgery might benefit from playing similar games.
Training programmes would need to be designed with care, however. Ten hours of the block-rotating game Tetris failed to improve test scores.
Improvements came with "the least socially desirable games", Wolfe points out - those in which shooting and killing is commonplace. The fact that you are defending your own life in these games may be what makes their lessons stick, Wolfe speculates.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.nature.com/nsu/030527/030527-5.html' target='_blank'>Click here</a> for the actual article, although the only difference between the article and this post is a picture and 'related links'.
Male undergraduates who played driving or shoot-em-up games such as Grand Theft Auto and Medal of Honor several times a week for at least six months beat non-gamers in lab vision tests, found Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York state.
Game-players react to fast-moving objects more efficiently, explains Bavelier, and can track up to five objects at a time - 30% more than non-players. "They can process more information more quickly over time," she says.
These skills might help people to drive more safely, Bavelier speculates. They may also enable pilots and air traffic controllers to monitor their video display units more effectively.
"Computer games can help you train up your visual attention in several ways," agrees vision researcher Jeremy Wolfe of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. They may not "turn you into a slack-jawed zombie" after all, he says.
<b>Never too late</b>
Green and Bavelier's initial studies focused solely on men, as the duo failed to find keen female gamers on campus. But subsequent tests on novices showed that just ten hours of shooting baddies can improve visual attention.
"The brain changes as a result of training," explains neurobiologist Manfred Fahle of the University of Bremen, Germany. The ends of nerve cells may shift shape, helping them to communicate with each other more effectively, he says. Such swift alterations hint that visually impaired stroke patients or people recovering from cataract surgery might benefit from playing similar games.
Training programmes would need to be designed with care, however. Ten hours of the block-rotating game Tetris failed to improve test scores.
Improvements came with "the least socially desirable games", Wolfe points out - those in which shooting and killing is commonplace. The fact that you are defending your own life in these games may be what makes their lessons stick, Wolfe speculates.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.nature.com/nsu/030527/030527-5.html' target='_blank'>Click here</a> for the actual article, although the only difference between the article and this post is a picture and 'related links'.
Comments
I get 60hz too man <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->