Shooter Games Make Players See Better

Playing video games may seem like a waste of time to parents, who always seem to be encouraging their children to put down their virtual weapons and go outside to play with their friends. But a new research, published in the journal nature Neuroscience, reveals some unexpected finds that experts have made when analyzing the effects of very fast action titles on kids' brains and eyes.

Concerned that over-exposure to the game may cause adverse effects to the brain, University of Rochester experts have analyzed the exact influence that high levels of action have on the eyes and the cortex.

Much to her amazement, brain and cognitive sciences professor Daphne Bavelier has noticed that those who play a lot of these titles, and especially of the shoot'em-up variety, are 58 percent better at noticing even the slightest differences in contrast, as opposed to others who play other games, or not at all.

The find is also very important in arguing a very old medical belief, which states that each individual's perception of the color gray cannot be improved through exercise, and that it remains the same throughout their life. The UR team seems to have demonstrated otherwise, as the gamers that have been tested have exhibited an ability to distinguish between shifting shades of gray with relative ease.

“Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery – somehow changing the optics of the eye. But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped,” she says, adding that contrast sensitivity is the true factor that determines exactly how well a person can see the things around them.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that contrast sensitivity can be improved by simple training. 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, and we've seen the positive effect remains even two years after the training was over,” Bavelier concludes.