Video games can improve adult vision
Playing action video games can boost an aspect of adult vision previously thought to be fixed, a US study shows.
The vision concerned is called contrast vision, which is important for things like night driving or low visibility conditions.
Researchers found playing the games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background. The study was published in Nature Neuroscience. Researchers say that this raises the possibility of using video game training to improve vision.
Contrast sensitivity is often one of the first aspects of vision to be affected by ageing.
It can also be affected by conditions such as amblyopia, known as "lazy eye". Improving contrast sensitivity usually requires physical changes in eye optics, through eye surgery, glasses or contact lenses.
A team from the University of Rochester studied expert video game players playing games involving aiming and shooting at virtual targets.
They found that they had better contrast sensitivity when compared with players who played non-action video games.
These results were not because people with better contrast sensitivity were more likely to be action video game players - giving non-video game players intensive daily practice in video game playing improved this group's performance on tests of contrast sensitivity.
Crucially, the improvements in this study were sustained for months or even years in some cases, suggesting that time spent in front of a computer screen is not necessarily harmful for vision, as has sometimes been suggested.
