Study shows sharp shooter video games improve vision

The results of a new ground-breaking study appear to have bust the widely held belief that playing video games deteriorate kids’ vision.

The study found that video games can actually improve eye vision, that “action games provide excellent training for what eye doctors call contrast sensitivity. Contrast sensitivity is the ability to notice tiny changes in shades of grey against a uniform background, and is critical to everyday activities such as night driving and reading. It often degrades with age.” The study published in Nature Neuroscience, revealed that the brain had a never before suspected adaptability, and that this adaptability provide for future new therapies.

Two sets of experiments were conducted by the researchers that showed that fast-paced sharp shooter video games improved vision.

In the first set, the contrast sensitivity of hard-core action game players was compared with that of game players of the same age who preferred less rapid-fire fare. The players typically targeted and shot figures that popped up suddenly on a computer screen. The experiment found that the rapid-fire sharp-shooters were 50 percent more efficient at detecting contrast.

The second experiment addressed whether those game players had their vision been improved by playing, or whether they happened to gravitate towards action game players because they had better than average contrast sensitivity to begin with? 
In the experiment, groups of non-action video game players to underwent 50 hours of training. One played a popular point-and-shoot game called Call of Duty, while the other group a visually rich video game that lacked action. The findings were that the people in the first group improved by 43 percent, and the other group not at all.

A second finding was that the positive gains in visual prowess “remained months, even years after training, indicating long-lasting gains”.

Assuming the benefits for your kids’ vision, will you still let your kids attack their sharp shooter game consoles, given the remaining raging controversy over the effects of socially detrimental effects of violent video games?  

Read the article at its source: Shooter video games ‘sharpen vision’ by Agence France-Presse