Study: Action Video Games Help Improve Eyesight

News outlets are buzzing about a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience indicating that playing action video games was found to help improve eyesight.

The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) is routinely assessed in clinical evaluation of vision and is the primary limiting factor in how well one sees. CSF improvements are typically brought about by correction of the optics of the eye with eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery. We found that the very act of action video game playing also enhanced contrast sensitivity, providing a complementary route to eyesight improvement.

Therefore, action videogames help to improve eyesight, complimenting glasses, contacts, or surgery. The paper offers further elaboration here:

Expert action video game players (VGPs) were compared to gender- and age-matched non–action game players (NVGPs) in a CSF procedure… Because we were interested in the effect of gaming on everyday eyesight, participants were tested binocularly with their current eye prescription. We were interested in whether vision, which should not be far from optimal under such conditions in young adults, may be further heightened by action video game practice. The VGP group showed enhanced contrast sensitivity as compared with the NVGP group, and this population difference interacted with spatial frequency, indicating a greater group difference at intermediate and higher spatial frequencies than at the lowest spatial frequency… We propose that the changes that we observed after action game playing also reflect cortical plasticity, but for the better in this case.

So, using appropriate video screen activities can apparently “exercise the eyes” as well as reflexes. This has caught the media’s imagination as Google News indicates over 230 articles have reported the study since its online release.

Not surprisingly, Daphne Bavelier over at U. Rochester had a hand in this research. Previous work by Dr. Bavelier in this field is blogged about here.

References:
Li, R., Polat, U., Makous, W., and Bavelier, D. (2009, March 29). Enhancing the contrast sensitivity function through action video game training. Nature Neuroscience. [Online.] Retrieved April 1, 2009 from http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2296.html