Neowin.net - Playing video games improves eyesight

Playing video games improves eyesight

Posted by Emil Protalinski on 17 March 2007 - 15:07 · 9 comments & 3395 views

New research claims that not all games, but action games, mainly shooters, can improve your eyesight. People who started out as non-gamers and then received 30 hours of training on first-person action video games showed a substantial increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, compared to non-gamers given the same test, according to Daphne Bevelier of the University of Rochester. First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters, she said. Game-playing actually changes the way our brains process visual information.

"These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it. That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life." she said, in a prepared statement. The finding suggests that playing first-person action video games could be a useful rehabilitation therapy for people with certain vision problems, she said, such as amblyopia (or lazy eye) and the simple effects of aging. Most aspects of vision have to do with the size of one's eye and the thickness and shape of the cornea and lens. But some visual defects are neural in nature, said Bevelier, author of the new study on vision and video games published in the journal Psychological Science.

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News source: MSNBC

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(1 reply) #1 Posted by Phil1208 on 17 Mar 2007 - 15:18: to be honest, it had the reverse effect on me, i played video games for ages. and my eyes went crap. i stopped playing. they got better

(1 reply) #2 Posted by Harreh on 17 Mar 2007 - 15:29: I'm pretty sure that being in front of the PC for so long has made me "forget" how to look at distance too well.

I remember that an old online mate said he was prescribed playing 3D video games from his eye doctor.

(1 reply) #3 Posted by leesmithg on 17 Mar 2007 - 15:35: My son who is autistic gets a lot of pleasure from playing video games.

It's helped in his learning and problem solving.

His eyesight is normal, so that doesn't show if it improves or makes it worse.

#4 Posted by Spartan_X on 17 Mar 2007 - 21:05: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=546735

#5 Posted by riku0116 on 18 Mar 2007 - 06:25: Ha! hilarious!!

Tell that to my friend's optometrist... he's sooooo near sighted from playing fps that he's practically blind

#6 Posted by altermind on 18 Mar 2007 - 11:41: just get a better screen.... but it does give u better responce time

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