DOCTORS may start prescribing a dose of violent conflict, if a trial confirms evidence that computer gaming improves eyesight.
Six years ago at the University of Rochester, New York, exploded the myth that gaming is bad for your eyes by showing that expert gamers outperform non-gamers at a variety of visual tasks (快猫短视频, 31 May 2003, p 11). Now she has demonstrated that playing action-packed video games improves a person鈥檚 ability to perceive contrast, a skill we rely on in dark conditions.
The finding raises the prospect that people with amblyopia, which affects contrast perception, could be treated with games. A trial has begun to test that theory.
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Amblyopia, sometimes known as 鈥渓azy eye鈥�, affects around 3 per cent of people in western populations and happens when the brain fails to correctly register signals from one eye. It can be treated in children but often goes undetected until adulthood, when there is no established fix.
Bavelier鈥檚 team randomly assigned 13 healthy young adults, who did not previously play video games, to play either action games like the first-person shooter Unreal Tournament or more sedate titles such as The Sims, for 50 hours over nine weeks ().
Tests before and after showed that the contrast perception of both groups improved. But the action-game group showed 43 per cent improvement on average, compared with just 11 per cent in the other group. The effect persisted for months, even when people didn鈥檛 play games at all.
The study is the first indication that contrast sensitivity can be altered without corrective lenses or surgery, says Bavelier. Her work has inspired Dennis Levi and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, to begin a trial to see whether gaming can help people with amblyopia.
鈥淭he study is the first indication that contrast perception can be altered without corrective lenses鈥�
Bavelier鈥檚 results show gaming鈥檚 potential for clinical treatment, says a neuroscientist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who uses games for visual rehabilitation. He predicts gaming will become a common clinical tool.