A New Study Says Video Games Can Improve Adult Vision

By Digital Trends Staff Published October 25, 2009

A New Study Says Video Games Can Improve Adult Vision

A study in Nature Neuroscience has discovered that playing video games can improve the ability in adults to identify different shades of grey against a uniform background. Previously it was believed there was no way to fix this.

Contrast sensitivity, as it’s known, tends to deteriorate with age, and is important for situations such as night driving. Improving it usually requires glasses, contact lenses, or even surgery.

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Researchers from the University of Rochester studied expert gamers and discovered that those playing action games had better contrast sensitivity than those playing other games, and this improvement lasted for months and even years.

Leader researcher Dr. Daphne Bavelier has postulated that the need to react quickly to visual information has made these games successful in improving contrast sensitivity. She hopes the results can be used to help treat amblyopia, according to the BBC.

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