Recent studies done by researchers of the University of California, Berkeley, have found that playing just 40 hours of video games improves a condition that currently has no treatments or cures for adults called amblyopia (or lazy eye). In the first experiment, researchers had study volunteers with the condition play twenty different two-hour sessions of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, which is a first person shooter game. In a second experiment, a different set of study volunteers played the same amount of time in the game SimCity Societies.
Eye performance was measured every ten hours, and while some of the volunteers noticed improvement in vision before 40 hours, the volunteers had improved their vision in 3-D depth perception by a total of 50% after the experiment was over. The video gaming also improved visual acuity by 30% in the volunteers. The results were so satisfying that the researchers even reported being surprised.
Amblyopia is a condition that can be treated in children but has no treatment or cure for adults at the present time. In children, the condition is cured by wearing an eye patch over the good eye, forcing the body to use the affected eye. In comparison to the results of the video game study, it takes an average of 120 hours to cure the condition with the eye patch, and this method still cannot be used for adults.
In the studies, volunteers did wear an eye patch over their good eye while playing the video games. To check for bias, however, researchers also had them wear the eye patch and do twenty hours of regular daily activities (reading books, watching TV, surfing the internet, etc.). None of the volunteers showed any improvement after these sessions, and only showed improvement after playing video games using the same method.
The researchers of the study are now looking forward to using video game therapy in upcoming clinical studies with adults with the condition, so hopefully we'll hear more of the continuing research as it is done.
Society is pretty well aware of the obvious benefits of video gaming, such as significantly improved hand-to-eye coordination, decision making skills, etc., but now we have another condition to add to the list of studied benefits. For all of you gamers out there, here's a question for you: are there any conditions you wish to be researched when it comes to video games helping to improve or cure different ailments? Are there any conditions that video games have helped you with in the past?
Original article found at this link.
