Play Video Games to Improve Your Eyesight, A New Study Suggests

Results of a study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, show that people who were taking part in a video-game training program were found with better ability to note differences in gray shades as well as they had improved contrast sensitivity. According to researchers, this sort of video-game training program can be very effective to people who are suffering from amblyopia that is also called lazy eye. Similarly, it can be quite beneficial for those who have to face problem when they have to drive at night.

Daphne Bavelier, who is one of the authors of the study, says about their findings: “Usually, eye surgery or getting glasses is considered an option to improve contrast sensitivity in these patients”

“However, it has been found that action video-game training programs also prove quite effective to make brain process the visual information in an effective manner, and these improvements seemed to last even after months of stopping the game play.”

In their study, the two groups of players were examined by the researchers who played those games for 50hrs during a course of nine-weeks. One group was assigned to play action games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2 while the other group was given non-action games like Sims2 to play. The non-action game didn’t require any correct visually guided aiming actions. The researchers found that those people who were assigned to action games had better contrast sensitivity than those who play non-action games. According to results this improvement varied from 43% to 58%.

“The study is first of its kind that indicates simple video-game training can be very effective to improve contrast sensitivity.”

“While playing these games, people were found with changes in their brain pathways that are considered quite important to response for visual processes. The great thing we notice was that its positive effects seem to last even after two years of training.”

Another study, which was conducted two years back, showed the similar results by indicating that people used to play action video games had nearly 20% improved spatial resolution.

Researchers said that the effect of such video game training might last for years and they may be a useful complement for some other eye-correction techniques like contact lenses, eyeglasses and surgery.

Written by “Aftab Bashir”

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Tags: eyeglasses, lazy eye, play video games, stopping, video-game training program