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Study shows a link between improved eyesight and action games

By Derek Boiko-Weyrauch Feb 7, 2007, 0:13 GMT

Next time your parent or significant other bugs you to step away from the computer or console, tell them you're just improving your eyesight. A recent study by the University of Rochester - published this week in the journal Psychological Science - shows that games with high levels of action can be beneficial to the visual cortex, the part of your brain responsible for sight. University of Rochester study shows that playing first-person shooters can be good exercise for your eyes.

University of Rochester study shows that playing first-person shooters can be good exercise for your eyes.The study - overseen by Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the university - examined the eyesight of non-video gamer students at the university (a tall order to find in this day and age) and tracked changes that took place after they played either Unreal Tournament or Tetris several hours a day over the course of a month. Unreal Tournament players fared better than Tetris players in post-tests, and even showed improvement in their peripheral vision. The study hypothesized that changes in visual attention brought about by action-oriented games such as Unreal Tournament contributed to the enhanced visual skills.There's still much to learn about the effects that video game playing can have on vision, however, and like any good piece of research the study noted areas in which further investigation could be done. Determining which aspects of the subject's visual attention were modified by playing games, as well as figuring out other effects that video games have on vision were both cited as areas for future research. More information on the study, including web-based demos of the subjects' post-tests, can be found here.

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HectorFeb 7th, 2007 - 07:03:32

Very interesting read.

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Mr WFeb 7th, 2007 - 15:58:24

Interesting indeed, but unfortunately the 'research' didn't state how long the players played the game per session e.g. x hours per day, and excessive playing can always lead to short-sightedness no matter what game(s) you're playing. The study should have included this and suggest a limit in the length of playing in which could be beneficial/harmful to the eye.

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GURPRAKASHFeb 7th, 2007 - 16:22:25

I wonder who paid for the study... the video game company?

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PhoenixFeb 7th, 2007 - 17:39:34

Mr W said:
'Interesting indeed, but unfortunately the 'research' didn't state how long the players played the game per session e.g. x hours per day, and excessive playing can always...'

Actually if you re-read the article, it clearly states the following:

'...they played either Unreal Tournament or Tetris several hours a day over the course of a month.'

So no they didn't give an exact amount, but you can safely assume that it is more than 2 and less than 12. I would say it is even safe to narrow that figure to between 4 and 8 hours per day.

I do find this quite interesting though, as I have always stated to anyone that I am not playing a game, but improving my hand-eye coordination...=P
I guess now I can say that I don't need to eat my carrots either...=P

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Joshua CallesFeb 7th, 2007 - 18:09:51

Still no cure for n00bs.

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Ma7rix13`Feb 14th, 2007 - 15:40:00

Would also like to see if there is a correlation between hand-eye (mouse-eye) coordination and video games.

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Sandra-rrAug 25th, 2007 - 22:22:24

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counterstrMar 15th, 2008 - 08:26:09

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mimaxa_oeMay 11th, 2008 - 08:30:02