Isn’t that the opposite of what your mother always said? A study published in Nature Neuroscience found that playing action video games improved contrast sensitivity. Players were able to better discern very small changes in shades of grey as a result of playing games “where they had to be constantly ready to react to unpredictable events, and where visual information had to be responded to instantly in very precise physical ways.
Reacting and targeting seem to be important and the groups compared played either Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty 2 or The Sims. The changes to vision were long lasting, and this type of game may also help both eyes work better together.
I love this. Violent video games are good for you.
Links:
BBC article
NHS Choices article
Nature Neuroscience abstract. (Subscription required for full article).
