Research findings published by McMaster University in Canada suggest that playing video games may be good for your eyes.
The study took 6 patients, all of whom have struggled with lifelong cataract disorders, and got them to play Medal of Honor for 40 hours over the course of a month. Patients were instructed to play the game 5 days per week for a maximum of 2 hours per day.
Research head Daphne Maurer set the 2 hours per day limit because she was concerned that some patients might become addicted to the game.
Maurer obviously hasn’t played Medal of Honour much.
After a month of continuous gaming, 5 of the 6 patients showed signs of improved vision. Key indicators were that patients were able to recognise faces more easily, read small print and judge the direction of moving dots better than they were before their month of regular gaming.
“About two-thirds of the things we measured improved simply from playing an action video game,” said Maurer, speaking at a science convention in Vancouver.
According to Maurer, the results showed that “the visual nervous system is still plastic enough to either form or reveal connections in adulthood…and we suspect that might be true for any kind of visual defect.”
One possible explanation for the improvement is that playing first-person shooters increases levels of dopamine and adrenaline, making the brain more active, which in turn helps to improve visual acuity.
The results have compelled Maurer and her team to develop their own non-violent video game designed specifically to improve people’s eyesight.
With the game, the team aims to take the most effective parts of Medal of Honor, and combine them with other elements which give patients the best possible chance of improving their eyesight.
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Been a life-long gamer myself. Vision is good.
In addition, hand-eye coordination is intuitive. I went for two ab-initio helicopter flights with separate schools and was told emphatically on both occasions that I can fly, if saying it wasn’t enough the look alone on one guy’s face was. Total surprise at how the cyclic was adjusted after being ‘gusted’.