By Michael G. Williams
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Science, once again, may have turned “truth” to myth. A recent study out of the University of Rochester determined that video games actually improve visual acuity, possibly closing the door on the long-held belief that such activities weaken eyesight.

Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and graduate student Shawn Green found that people who played action video games for several hours each day over the course of a month showed a 20%  improvement in their vision. The study participants were better able to identify certain letters presented in clutter.

“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 says.

Cut through the clutter
The increase in visual acuity occurred not only in players’ center vision, but also in their peripheral focus. This evidence suggests that action video game play may alter properties of the visual system and the way the brain processes visual stimuli, according to the study’s results, which appeared this February in the journal Psychological Science.

“[Action video games] push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it,” says Bavelier. “That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life.”

The brain adapts
Bavelier and Green point out that the implications of their research extend well beyond mere visual improvement. The development of rehabilitation software that produces the same need as action video games to quickly identify objects could provide a new avenue of treatment for certain visual impairments, the study concludes.

Patients recovering from cataract surgery and even stroke victims are a few of those who may benefit from such developments.

Not just for kids