Fast, Action-Packed Video Games May Be Beneficial for Eyesight

A new study claims that playing fast-moving video games improves a person's ability to perceive contrast, a skill needed in poor lighting conditions.

Researchers from the University of Rochester (NY, USA) randomly assigned 22 students into two groups. One group played the action games "Call of Duty 2" by Activision Blizzard and "Unreal Tournament 2004" by Epic Games. A second group played "The Sims 2" by Electronic Arts, a game that does not require as much hand-eye coordination. The two groups played the games for 50 hours over nine weeks.

Tests that measured the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) in the students both before and after the gaming period showed that the contrast perception of both groups improved. However, the action-game group showed a 43% improvement on average, compared with just 11% in the other group. The effect persisted for months, even when the participants did not continue to play games at all. The researchers additionally found (in a separate study) that practiced action gamers became 58% better at perceiving fine differences in contrast. The finding raises the prospect that people with amblyopia, which affects contrast perception, could be treated with video games. The study was published in the March 29, 2009, issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"When people play action games, they're changing the brain's pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," said lead author Daphne Bavelier, Ph.D., of the brain and cognitive sciences department and center for visual science. "Action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."

Amblyopia, sometimes known as "lazy eye," is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by poor or indistinct vision in an eye that is otherwise physically normal; it has been estimated to affect 1-5% of the population. The problem is caused by either no transmission or poor transmission of the visual image to the brain for a sustained period of dysfunction, or during early childhood. Amblyopia normally only affects one eye; detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment, but amblyopia often goes undetected until adulthood, when there is no established remedy.

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