Action packed computer games improve vision

New York, March 30: According to a new study, scientists have found that an important aspect of eye sight, ‘contrast sensitivity’, was better in people who played video games that contain high levels of action.

The breakthrough is significant because it was previously thought that ‘contrast sensitivity’, the ability to notice subtle differences in shades of grey against a uniform background, could not be improved. In the study, the researchers tried to establish that volunteers who used a video-game training program experienced a marked improvement in their vision.

Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester in New York, and one of the researchers, stated that "Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information. After just 30 hours, players showed a substantial increase in the spatial resolution of their vision, meaning they could see figures like those on an eye chart more clearly, even when other symbols crowded in.”

Bavelier and her colleagues conducted experiments for 50 hours during a nine-week course. Participants were divided into two groups, the first played action games such as Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2. They were then assessed with another group who played The Sims 2 which was a comparatively sedate game.

The results revealed that the volunteers who played the action games had enhanced contrast sensitivity, as opposed to players of violent video games. Those playing action games showed an improvement in their ability to discern contrast by 43 to 58 per cent.

Bavelier stated that “Unfortunately, contrast sensitivity is one of the aspects of vision that is most easily compromised. People who played action video games have better vision in the sort of conditions where there is not much contrast. It can make all the difference when driving at dusk, or in fog, in being able, for instance, to see a dog crossing the road.”

This could help people with amblyopia, known as lazy eye, as well as those with impaired vision while driving at night.

Researchers have found that training on a video game can be very effective. Earlier, to bring an improvement in ‘contrast sensitivity’, one had to resort to contact lens, spectacles or surgery.

The researchers wrote in the journal Nature Neuroscience: "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to identify a training regimen that improves performance over nearly the entire CSF (contrast sensitivity function) in adults."

The research was a team effort of Daphne Bavelier, Walt Makous, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, and Uri Polat, professor at the Eye Institute at Tel Aviv University.