Video Games Sharpen Vision
Thomas B. Thomas, an analyst and programmer at
the Center for Visual Science, hones his vision at the
screen of an action video game.
Action video games can improve your
vision.
Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain
and cognitive sciences, and graduate
student Shawn Green, have shown that
people who played action video games
for a few hours a day over the course of a
month improved by about 20 percent in
their ability to identify letters presented
in clutter-a visual acuity test similar
to ones used in regular ophthalmology
clinics.
"Action video game play changes the
way our brains process visual information,"
says Bavelier.
The research, which was funded by
grants from the National Institutes of
Health, suggests that people with visual
deficits may be able to gain an increase in
their visual acuity with special rehabilitation
software that reproduces an action
game's need to identify objects very
quickly.